Out of Time
The rest of the plan was simple. They'd retrieve the Reality Stone from the Collector's Museum on Knowhere, where Thor and his friends had left it for safe keeping, and then the Power Stone from Morag and the Soul Stone from Vormir, both of which Nebula knew how to locate.
The only wild card left was the Gauntlet. Without a device like that, none of them would even be able to hold more than one Stone at a time, much less use them.
"Well, it is just a glove," Shuri had said in one of their earlier team meetings. "Can't we just build another one?"
Loki had barked a laugh. "That 'glove' was a device more advanced than all the technology on your planet combined, forged by a dwarven king in the heart of a dying star. Unless you just happen to have a forge lying around that's hundreds of times hotter than your own sun, I suggest we either find a way for Eitri to make a duplicate...or we'll have to steal the real thing."
But that was a problem for later. For now, while they were still in the past—and had an abundance of Pym Particles, thanks to Hank—Loki wanted to take Dr. Strange on a detour to a certain wind-swept cliff.
They materialized on the grassy plain, and Loki made them both invisible with a spell. From a distance, they silently watched the three small figures: himself, in a dark suit; Thor, in a grungy jacket and faded jeans; and, stepping out of a dark, rippling portal, Hela.
"That's the one?" Dr. Strange asked quietly.
"Yes," answered Loki, and he hoped it sounded emotionless.
The tiny figures exchanged a few words. It escalated to threats. Thor threw Mjolnir; and Hela caught it, the hammer trembling in her claws, before it exploded and clattered to pieces into the grass. Thor looked distraught.
Dr. Strange sounded disturbed. "I didn't know anyone could do that. I thought it was 'whosoever, be he worthy', and all that."
Loki grit his teeth. "I don't know that it was a matter of worthiness." Darkly, he added, "Some enchantments are greater even than my father's."
For instance, the necromancy of his mother.
Hela disappeared into the rainbow lights of the Bifrost. The distant Thor and Loki followed her. Now, nothing moved on that solitary cliff, save for the waving grass and the stormy clouds drifting overhead.
Loki lifted the invisibility spell, and both he and Dr. Strange rushed to the place where the hammer had fallen. There, in the grass, lay jagged pieces of chiseled stone and the broken handle.
"Can you repair it?" asked Loki as he knelt in the grass.
Dr. Strange bent down, clutching the Eye on his chest. He seemed to be fighting with himself. "I was warned against using this in the past," he said slowly. "But just to repair an object...let me see."
His twisted hands formed an angular sigil, and he slowly uncrossed his arms. The Eye opened, slowly, ponderously, like a large and heavy thing, and a gleaming green pupil shone out.
Lines of green sorcery circled the Sorcerer's arms. When he opened his eyes, they too shone green. He peered at the runes for some time, as if reading what they had to tell him, until he finally sighed. "So far as the timeline is concerned, these pieces become nothing but another pile of rocks in this field. I think I'm safe to reverse this."
So he did. A green disk appeared under his fingers, and he waved his arm in a wide arc over the hammer. One by one, the pieces snapped back into place.
Loki felt something tremble, like a great pulse of magic rippling through the air. He braced himself, and Dr. Strange grimaced at his side; but after a long moment, nothing happened.
When Loki looked again, Mjolnir sat in the grass, its handle pointed at the cloudy sky.
He leaped to his feet and gave a holler of triumph. "It's back! I never thought I'd be so happy to see it back. Oh, Thor will be very pleased."
Dr. Strange exhaled heavily, like the process had been straining on him. "Good. I've never had to repair an enchanted object before. I'm not quite used to anything besides sorcery."
"Well, you've done it, and we ought to be on our way now," said Loki, and he reached down and gave the handle a tug.
It didn't budge.
Loki slowly shut his eyes. He was currently fighting a very strong urge to kick himself.
"Oh."
"Wait, let me try," said Dr. Strange, and nudged Loki out of the way so he could loop his hand in the wrist strap and pull.
Nothing.
He straightened up. Both men stood there in silence, staring dumbly at the hammer in the grass. After a long moment, the corner of Dr. Strange's red cloak wrapped around the handle all of its own accord and seemed to pull.
Nothing happened. The red collar of the cloak slumped like the ears of an unhappy dog.
Loki groaned. "We could have moved it if it were still in pieces!"
Dr. Strange called up the green rings again and frowned. "I can't push it back forward in time now. I'd be fighting the enchantment and my own sorcery. It might break everything."
Loki knelt down beside the hammer. "Please," he said, as if the hammer had ears, "you have to come with us. Thor isn't here, but we're going to get him back. He'd want to see you again, more than anything. Won't you come?"
The hammer, of course, didn't answer. Loki tried one more pull. No response.
Dr. Strange sighed. "It's no use. Come on, we have to meet the others."
Loki stared balefully at the hammer, then calibrated the device on his wrist.
There was a great WOOOSH, and then nothing was left on that cliff save the grass and sky.
To travel any distances in space—and also for storage of the Stones until they were needed—the retrieval team had taken one of Thanos' small spaceships from the field in Wakanda, refurbished and re-outfitted for their purposes. It was in that ship, with the backdrop of the stars outside, that they planned their next move.
"Thanos found the Soul Stone on Vormir," said Nebula.
"Is it dangerous?" asked Bucky.
"'Dangerous' is too gentle," she rasped. "It's a dominion of death, at the very center of celestial existence." Her tinny voice got dark. "It's where Thanos killed my sister."
All three men in the ship looked away or at the floor in grim sympathy. Bucky put his hand on Nebula's shoulder.
"He never told how exactly he acquired it," she went on. "Morag I know, and you know the Collector," she said with a nod at Loki, "but the Soul Stone..."
She paused, then looked up again. "We may have to follow him. See how he found it, and plan from there."
"So that's it." Bucky leaned back with a sigh and crossed his arms. "We gotta choose. The easy Stones first, or the hard one?"
The four of them were quiet. All eyes were turned on Dr. Strange.
"Why are you looking at me?" he asked irritably.
Bucky shrugged. "You're the time guy."
"I say we pursue the more difficult Stone," said Loki. "If this one thing will determine whether or not our purpose succeeds, we ought to address it first. No good to get so close to triumph only for it to be false hope."
Bucky shrugged again. "Sounds good to me."
Nebula nodded.
"All right then." Dr. Strange began to push buttons on his wrist. "Calibrate the ship. We're going to Vormir."
Vormir was a dark and barren planet, swathed in purple gasses that emanated into space around it like rising steam. Its sun was in permanent eclipse behind a sister planet, visible only in the orange rim light, capped with a bright spot like the diamond on a wedding band. Its clouds were dark, its sky purple and dark orange, like it was eternally locked in the dying light between sunset and nighttime. The spaceship landed on a precipice overlooking a wide, still lake, with a mountain wreathed in cloud rising on the other side.
As the bay door lowered and they all began to step out onto the jagged rocks, a quiet clanking noise and motion in his peripheral caught Bucky's attention. Loki had taken the Scepter off the wall of the ship and was turning it around in his hand.
"Hey," said Bucky—not unkindly, but firmly. "Put that thing back. We're not gonna need it."
Loki looked up. "Of course not," he said calmly. "I'm just making sure."
With that, he put the Scepter back on its hooks and walked ahead of Bucky and down the ramp. After a long pause, and checking over his shoulder to make sure it was still there, Bucky followed.
Something had felt weird about that. He couldn't quite put his finger on it.
It wasn't until later that he realized, when Loki put the Scepter back, it had made no noise.
Loki cast an illusion to keep the four of them invisible to unwanted eyes. They stalked Thanos and Gamora across the lake and up to the top of the mountain. It took every ounce of self-control in Bucky's body to not just snipe Thanos in the back of the skull while he was a few yards ahead of them. Judging by the look on Nebula's face, she felt about the same.
Near the peak, the path wound around into a jagged tunnel through the rock. And there, they saw the first other living person on this godforsaken planet.
"Welcome, Thanos, son of A'lars," said a voice, echoing on the stone.
The four travelers hid themselves behind a rock.
A dark figure like the grim reaper hovered in the air, blocking the mouth of the cave. His face was hidden in a black hood, and the tattered edges of his dark cloak fluttered fitfully like grasses in a harsh wind.
"Gamora, daughter of Thanos," the voice went on.
"You know us?" asked Thanos.
"It is my curse to know all who journey here."
That was alarming. "Can he see us?" Bucky mouthed to Loki.
"Not so long as my spell holds," Loki said out loud. Apparently, the spell made them inaudible too. "There is a powerful enchantment on this place, but I would know if he sensed us. We are safe for now."
"Where is the Soul Stone?" demanded Thanos.
"You should know it exacts a terrible price," was the answer.
"I am prepared."
"We all think that, at first." The figure glided until its dark feet found solid ground, and it stepped out of the shadow of the cave. Under its hood was now visible a red face, its high nose one large hole as if it had been cut off, and its eyes piercing. "We are all wrong."
Bucky nearly had a fit.
Thanos and Gamora followed the cloaked figure through the cave and out to the other side, but Bucky slammed his fist against the rock.
"What is he doing here?!" he hissed in a stage whisper.
"Who?" asked Dr. Strange.
"That's Schmidt!" Bucky raised himself up on his arms so he could see over the rock. "That's Johann Schmidt! That's the bastard who made Zola strap me to an operating table! I thought he died in '45. What the hell is he doing here?"
"You say that like we're supposed to understand what any of that means," droned Loki.
"Well, Doc here should, if he ever read a history book." Bucky jabbed a thumb at Dr. Strange. "Was HYDRA in the Space Race?" he muttered to himself as he sank against the rock. "I thought we only got as far as the moon. This is like a billion lightyears away." He paused for a second, then his chin sank deeper between his hands. "What the hell."
"I think we've got bigger problems than that right now." Dr. Strange floated out from behind the rock and motioned for them to follow him. "Come on."
The other two followed, but Bucky dragged his feet behind them, a hand still pressed to his forehead. "I'm sorry, I'm gonna be stuck on this for a while."
Were Nebula any more expressive, she would have rolled her eyes. "Try to focus."
Bucky shook his head. "No promises."
The cave let out onto the edge of a tall cliff. Twin pinnacles, hewed straight out of the stone, stood guard on either side of the precipice, jutting up into the sky like the jambs of a great unfinished doorway.
The four travelers hid themselves. Snow whirled around the precipice, and the howl of the wind echoed in the chasm below.
"The Stone demands a sacrifice," intoned one who was once called Red Skull—now the ageless Guardian. "In order to take the Stone, you must lose that which you love.
"A soul for a soul."
Beside Bucky, Nebula sucked in a breath between her teeth. "No," she whispered.
Gamora laughed at Thanos. She mocked him. She told him he'd failed. Slowly, horribly, the last piece of the puzzle slotted into place, and Bucky watched the same terrible realization cross the face of the travelers with him.
Vormir. It's where Thanos killed my sister.
"I'm sorry, little one."
He took her arm and, despite her struggles, dragged her to the precipice—
"NO!" roared Nebula. She leaped to her feet and charged at the back of Thanos' head.
Bucky leaped out of hiding, too late. "Nebs!"
A distant crunch.
A bright flash.
The sound of water lapping his ears.
When Bucky woke up, he was lying on his back in a tranquil pool, staring up at the dark clouds in the eternally twilit sky.
He sat up slightly and turned his head. His wet hair clung to his face. Beside him was Nebula; beside her, Dr. Strange; beside him, Loki; and beside him—
A jolt like lightning ran through his body.
Nebula was awake. She opened her hand, and an orange glow emanated from it.
The Soul Stone lay in her palm.
Several things happened at once. Thanos, now fully awake, roared in rage and lunged for the Stone. Nebula shut her fist and clasped it to her chest. Bucky pulled the pistol off his back and took aim.
And in a flash of light, the Scepter appeared in Loki's hand.
Nebula's chest heaved. Bucky could feel his pulse racing. Loki's hands were shaking, and he looked up slowly, in equal parts awe and terror of what he'd done.
The point of the Scepter was right in the center of Thanos' chest, and his eyes shone bright fluorescent blue.
"Slaaaaave," rasped Thanos, glowering down at Loki.
"Not yours," Loki whispered, and steeled his shaking hands to push back. "Not anymore."
A faint purple flash. The Power Stone was flickering in Thanos' Gauntlet.
Bucky's spine stiffened. He's fighting the Stone with another Stone!
Almost before he knew what he was doing, he lunged to his feet and took hold of the Gauntlet, pulling with all his might. Nebula joined him. Dr. Strange floated into the air, and in a bright ring of sorcery, duplicates of him scattered into a dome around them and shot golden ropes of sorcery that held Thanos in place.
Thanos groaned and struggled. He almost pulled his arm out of Bucky's grip.
"Hold him!" roared Nebula.
Thanos had curled his hand into a fist. Bucky clamped onto the huge fingers with his metal hand and began to pull, creaking them open with a growl that wrinkled his nose.
Loki grimaced, his arms shaking. It seemed to take all his magic and force of will to hold the enchantment down.
A heartbeat. Two. Three. With one last pull, Bucky and Nebula collapsed onto their backs with a splash, the Gauntlet in their arms.
The tip of the Scepter dropped into the water like lead. Loki gasped and heaved.
Thanos blinked. The blue light in his eyes was gone. He lunged at Loki with a roar.
"Okay, time to go!" Dr. Strange waved his arms rapidly.
A portal opened under Bucky and dumped him onto the floor of the spaceship with a THUMP and a splash of water. Nebula landed beside him, then Loki, and then Dr. Strange appeared. The ship trembled and then bucked into the air like a tossed pancake.
Nebula scrambled to the controls. Thanos' ship loomed in the sky overhead, raining lasers. "They're firing on us!"
"Could use a little time, Strange!" Bucky yelled over his shoulder as he pushed himself upright.
"Not an option!" Dr. Strange yelled back.
They took off as fast as they could, dodging laser blasts that scorched the landscape below them. Thanos' mothership dropped a swarm of little cruisers like bursting open a hornet's nest.
"Give me the controls," Loki demanded. "The gun turrets, go!"
Bucky and Nebula scrambled up to the turrets. Bucky had never shot a space gun before, but it was pretty much "point and pull the trigger", and that much he could handle.
Duplicates of their ship whizzed around their enemies—no doubt Loki's doing—baiting fire and causing the cruisers to blow each other up. Golden portals opened in front of other ships, popping them out where they'd crash into one another.
"We have to get back to the present!" Dr. Strange yelled to the others.
"Easier said than done, Doc!" Bucky shouted over the rattle of the apparatus.
Nebula shot out another cruiser. "You have a window, go!"
Bucky pressed buttons and turned knobs as fast as he could. Loki and Dr. Strange did the same. In a moment, the floor dropped out from under him, and he was tumbling through the tunnels of the Quantum Realm.
Nebula stayed behind just one split second more. She shot another enemy ship down in a laser blast and calibrated the device on her wrist.
A bright flash in her peripheral.
An ear-shattering BANG.
The ship was hit. She was thrown from her seat. Her head whacked against the wall.
Her last sensation, before she lost consciousness, was that she was floating in the dark, and an orange glow emanated from her pocket.
A/N: YOOOO! A CHAPTER THAT ACTUALLY GOT PUBLISHED ON TIME! It's a Christmas miracle.
Okay so hot take: Tony Stark being able to build another Gauntlet just makes the original Gauntlet less special, and therefore Tony's duplicate less special by proxy. Also I find it hard to believe that some dude on Earth—no matter how smart he is—could make something that actually channels these all-powerful space rocks that have existed before the dawn of time. Love ya, Tony, but like...no.
I forgot to mention it last chapter, but all the time travel rules were created with the help of Tessera. It's hard to pin down which exactly were his ideas and which were mine—especially since it's been like a year since we brainstormed all of this—but he was pretty much my sounding board and partner in crime for working out how all this works.
It is ALL plot from here on out. I hope you're as excited as I am! The end is in sight! I will soon be free from my prison! YAAAAAYYYY!