"Keep the Sacred Timeline clean," Miss Minutes grumbled to herself in her little corner of the altered TVA.
She was an AI, created by He Who Remains. He Who Remains had built her a little too well, though. She was tired of watching this perfect, boring timeline. She was tired of seeing promising branches snipped off.
She understood why He Who Remains had created the TVA—variants meeting each other and trying to take over the world was a bad idea, one they were probably going to experience now that Sylvie and Loki had created a multiverse—but she was so bored.
An orange tabby cat, pruned from a timeline branch back in the late 1990's, leapt onto the desk Miss Minutes was pacing. Purring, she walked right through Miss Minutes' holographic clock-body. Then she turned and did it again.
And again.
And again.
"Goose!" Miss Minutes snapped. "You stop that now, I'm trying to think."
Goose stopped. She sat in front of Miss Minutes, her tail curling lazily behind her. Goose watched as Miss Minutes continued her pacing. If the TVA had any sort of time-flow, the clock-shaped AI would have been pacing for hours. Goose yawned and slid to her belly. She yawned again, rolling to her back, tail lashing impatiently as she waited for Miss Minutes to get the hint.
Goose yawned one more time, displaying the cavern that was her insides. Miss Minutes stopped. A little light bulb flicked to life above her 12 o'clock mark. "That's it Goose! That's it! I am a genius!"
Goose rolled her eyes—she was the real Genius here, but whatever Miss Minutes wanted to think.
"Here, you're going to take these Infinity Stones—the Avengers need, what six of them? One of each color." It was common knowledge that the workers used them as paperweights. Some collected certain colors and the stones were traded like playing cards in a game of Go Fish. She flickered over to another desk where a pile of purple stones collected, "Goose! Goose, over here, get one of these."
Goose rolled off the desk and sauntered to the pile of stones. She opened her mouth and one tentacle wrapped around a stone. She swallowed it and Miss Minutes found her the next four stones three desks over. One to go.
The Space Stone.
The next five desks she picked all lacked the yellow gem. Sixth desk, sixth stone.
Goose swallowed the final stone and Miss Minutes moved to an unattended TemPad.
"Let's see now… before the Avengers go off on their time traveling gambit, but after the snap… How would you like to see your old friend Carol again? That's a good place." Miss Minutes ran her gloved hand through the TemPad, setting the date and time to just after Captain Marvel, AKA Carol Danvers, responded to the pager in Avengers' headquarters.
The Time Door opened, glowing yellow across the desk. Goose yowled and loped through the doorway into the future.
"Where's Fury?" Carol asked.
"Who are you?" Natasha demanded as the remaining Avengers reacted to their surprise guest by falling into defensive positions.
"Carol Danvers. Fury paged me, where is he?" Carol asked again as she picked up on the tension in the room.
"He's dead. Along with half the population," Steve snapped.
A note of fear crept into Carol's eyes, "It's happening here, too."
"It originated here," Steve corrected. "Thanos snapped half the living world away."
Carol looked to each of them, opening her mouth to say something, only for a yellow door to suddenly appear in her peripheral vision. The Avengers shifted their stances to face the door and Carol lifted her own, glowing, fists.
Instead of a threat coming through the door, they were greeted by a cat; orange tail held high as she meowed imperiously. The door closed behind her and Carol couldn't help her smile. "Hey, Goose! Been a long time!"
"Where did the cat come from?" Bruce asked warily.
Carol picked up her feline-shaped friend, "She's not a cat; she's a Flerken. Stay away from her claws, she's the reason Fury lost his eye."
Silence fell over the Avengers, the only sound Goose's purring. Suddenly, Steve broke into a laugh. Hysterical, breath-stealing guffaws echoed around the room as everyone turned to stare at him.
"Steve… you have something you'd like to share with the class?" Natasha asked, a blonde eyebrow cocked in curiousity.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, crap timing. I know. I had a fight with Fury a while back about how 'trust is what makes an army', he said the last time he trusted someone, he lost an eye. I never imagined it was a cat."
"Flerken. She also swallowed the Tesseract; though I imagine she's spat it back out by now." Carol handed Goose off to Natasha who pressed a small kiss to the Flerken's cheek. She liked cats—or cat-shaped Flerkens. "If you'll excuse me, I need to go see if my best friend and my god-daughter are still alive."
Before anyone could object, Carol was gone.
Carol flew to the old farmhouse in New Orleans, begging the universe that her only family was still alive. She'd been gone too long this time. She'd come home periodically over the last twenty-odd years, tried to make it back for birthdays, but she couldn't always. Sometimes the places she helped were just too far.
She touched down on the lawn and ran to the door, "Maria? Monica? Are you here? MARIA?!" she called, scrambling through the hallway and up the stairs. "MONICA?! MARIA!"
"Carol?" Maria's voice rasped at the end of the hall.
Carol turned towards the sound, boots thudding as she ran towards it. "Maria?"
"Carol!" Maria had gotten out of bed and caught her best friend as the blonde barreled into her arms.
"I just got back. I just heard. I'm so glad you're ok!" Carol said into Maria's shoulder. "Where's Monica?"
Maria's embrace tightened as she sobbed. "Gone. Dusted."
Carol held tighter as she absorbed the news of her adopted niece's death. She didn't say anything, what was there to say? Silent tears rolled down her own face as Maria grieved anew. She'd fix this. Somehow, someway, she'd fix this.
When the tears stopped, they sat down to a pot of tea, Carol eyeing the pill bottles stacked on the counter.
Maria gave a tiny smile, "I know what you're thinking, Carol. It's ok. Yes, I am sick. Cancer. Diagnosed a few weeks ago, Monica was with me in the hospital when half the world turned to ash."
"I'm so sorry, Maria," Carol reached across the table to grip Maria's fingers.
Maria nodded, "I know."
Carol told of her adventures, of getting the Skrull resituated and then going back for the Intelligence and burning it to the ground. "I'll find a way to bring her back, Maria. I'll find a way."
Maria held out her fist, "Higher, further, faster?" Over the years, the phrase had come to mean a promise.
Carol stacked her own fist on top, "Higher, further, faster."
Carol returned to the compound to find Goose curled up in Natasha's lap, napping.
"Hey," she said, nodding to Nat.
"Hey, Carol, right? Or is it Captain Marvel?"
"It's Mar-Vell, two words," she enunciated, rolling her eyes at Fury's old joke. "But I'm just Carol. How'd you hear that name, anyway?"
Nat nodded to a stack of files, "Found Fury's old notes. Turns out you inspired 'The Avengers Initiative.' Us. People call Steve 'the first Avenger', but it was really you."
"Avenger was my call sign with the Airforce. …It's funny; my brother's name was Steve. So, tell me what happened." Steve Danvers had died in the last year of the Vietnam War.
"Before we get to that, Glowstick," Bruce said as he came around the corner.
"Glowstick?" Carol snorted.
"The files say you can withstand space. We need you to go get a friend of ours. He's stuck up there and running out of air."
"You sure he's still alive? Not dust?" Carol inquired.
"To be perfectly honest, no. Not sure."
"Got co-ordinates? If he's running out of oxygen, I don't have time for an Easter egg hunt." Bruce rattled off the numbers. "Got it. If he's up there, I'll bring him back."
As promised, Tony's ship was drifting right where Bruce said it would be and as promised, Carol brought him down.
Once Tony was safe and sound by Pepper's side, the team filled Carol in on the events of the last twenty-three days. They hatched a half-baked plan and Thor beheaded the Mad Titan in a pique of anger. They gathered up the empty gauntlet and, defeated, returned to earth.
They hooked the Gauntlet up to Bruce's machines and together he and Tony mapped it out, but without the stones it was useless.
Meanwhile, in one office Beyond Time, Miss Minutes was watching her machinations unfold with glee. No one was coming to prune this branch; they were all too busy watching the multiverse expand in horror.
A week after Tony and Carol's return, Goose stood on the conference table, hacking. Most everyone expected the traditional cat hairball, though no one expected the six infinity stones to come tumbling out. The Avengers looked at each other and at Goose who sat primly under the attention.
"…Your cat has tentacles," Tony pointed out. "I'm sorry, I just thought someone should say it."
"Those are Infinity Stones," Steve managed as everyone was torn between staring at the Flerken and the slime covered stones. "The most powerful substances in the universe and the Flerken ate them."
"She ate a whole squad of Kree twenty years ago," Carol mentioned off handedly. "Now that we have the stones, can we reverse the snap?"
Everyone turned to Bruce, who took off his glasses to rub them clean on the hem of his shirt as he thought. "It's possible. We'll have to rebuild the gauntlet and someone will have to wield it."
It took weeks to make the Nano Gauntlet; weeks spent planning, until finally everything was ready. Tony looked at the stones, sitting like forbidden jolly ranchers in front of the metal glove.
"This thing is going to kill whoever wears it," Tony said bluntly.
"Very probably, yes," Bruce replied, taking of his glasses so he didn't have to see the weary age on his friends face with quite such clarity.
"Tony," Steve said as he came up behind them.
Tony bristled, "Cap." He still hadn't forgiven Steve for letting him down. He'd promised that if they failed together, it would be together, but it hadn't been.
"I'll leave you two alone," Bruce said as the air grew thick with tension and unspoken words.
"I'll wear the gauntlet, Cap. You don't have to convince me."
"I didn't come here to convince you. I came here to apologize. I behaved badly. I'm sorry I wasn't there when you needed me. And I'm sorry about your parents; I shouldn't have hidden the truth about Bucky's involvement from you. If anyone deserved to know what happened, it was you. I'm sorry I left you to deal with Thanos alone and didn't find a way to get you home sooner."
"Too little, too late, Cap," Tony sighed before walking off. If he was going to die tomorrow, he was going to spend one last night holding Pepper.
Steve looked at the Nano Gauntlet and resigned himself to his fate, he was going to use the gauntlet himself and spare Tony. Steve had lived long enough; it was time to hang up his shield.
The next morning, before anyone else could step in, Bruce unhooked the gauntlet from the monitors and slipped it on over his hand. He sat at the conference table and waited for the others to join him. He stroked Goose between her ears and waited for the yelling to stop.
"If any of you wear this thing, it will kill you." He glanced at Carol, "You might survive. You took a direct hit from the space stone and came back as a talking Glowstick, but this is all six. This is—mostly—Gama radiation. My body…" he huffed a dry laugh, "The Hulk was made for this. I have the best shot at surviving, and if I don't," he shrugged, "the only people I'm leaving behind are you guys." He smiled shyly at Natasha and turned green without further explanation.
Tony ordered FRIDAY to lock down the building in case this went sideways. Everyone left the room, moving behind the radiation proof glass wall.
The Hulk snapped and the energy from the stones burned its way up his arm, leaving him screaming in agony.
Nat pounded on the glass, "HEY! BIG GUY! Hey! Look at me!" She shouted. "Just look at me." Hulk opened his eyes and looked at Natasha, at all of them. They gave him strength.
Hulk restored every single person he could, dropping them back into place where they'd been dusted or nearby if they were in immediate danger.
Bruce had promised Thor that it might be possible to revive those killed by means other than the snap, so the Hulk focused, trying to keep his eyes on Natasha's lovely face. Short hair was cute on her, though he liked it better red.
When the stones stopped glowing and the radiation stopped, well, radiating, the Hulk passed out, shrinking back into Banner's skin.
The Blip had worked, every single dusted person, revived. The Asgardians Bruce had thought might be saved were also restored and while Bruce recovered in the med bay, Loki returned to Thor's side with a cheeky smile.
"I told you the sun would shine on us again, Brother."
Thor wept as he gathered Loki in a back popping hug.
Carol returned to New Orleans to find her god-daughter and her best friend crying in the kitchen. Monica had woken in the hospital room and immediately freaked. The doctor had called her a cab to take her home. Eventually, she'd return to work for SWORD and be called in to investigate Wanda's fairytale ending. Eventually, she'd take on the moniker Photon, but that was still a ways away.
Bruce would recover and Tony would build him an exoskeleton for his damaged arm, one that would grow or shrink, depending on whether or not he was green.
Pepper would announce that she was pregnant, about three months along. Tony would retire as Iron Man to raise their daughter Morgan.
Steve would also retire, handing off his shield to Sam. The Falcon would become a winged Captain America, teaming up with Bucky to continue the good work. He'd planned to wield the Nano Gauntlet, to make up for the things he'd done wrong, to make the sacrifice, but Bruce had beaten him to it.
In five years, Yelena would visit a head stone. Laying down flowers, she'd brush away any debris that had collected over the years. She'd run her hand over the cool stone and whistle the same notes she'd been whistling since she was four and her big sister Natasha had taught her how during an Ohio summer.
The answering whistle came and Natasha stepped out from behind the tree, coming to meet her sister at the grave.
"We found her," Yelena said, draping an arm over her big sister's shoulders.
"Yeah," Nat said, brushing away tears. "We did."
The two sisters—in bond if not in blood—looked down at the stone under the pink flowering tree. The woman who had searched high and low for the daughter her husband sold. The woman who searched so hard that Dreykov had had her killed to stop her from finding and exposing the Red Room. Natasha's mother.
Radha Petrovna Romanov.
1962-1988