7/31/22
An arrow was being nocked into a bow. The archer behind firmly gripped it tight as it was aiming towards the target and Clint was holding up a few arrows while mentoring his daughter, Lila on shooting one.
"Okay, hold on. Don't shoot. You see where you're going?" Clint said.
"Mhm." Lila said.
"Okay, now let's worry about how you get there." he said and corrected her foot to the proper position, and adjusted her shooting stance. "Here. Can you see?"
"Yeah."
"You sure?"
"Mhm." she said and he pushed her hair in front of her face while covering her left eye.
"How about now?" he said and they giggled. "Alright. Ready your fingers."
The rest of the family was having a picnic in the field.
"Nice." Cooper said.
"Nice throw, kiddo." Laura said.
"You go."
"Hey, you guys want mayo or mustard, or both?" she asked and Lila looked at Clint.
"Who wants mayo on a hotdog?" Lila asked.
"Probably your brothers." Clint said and looked at Laura. "Uh, two mustard, please! Thanks, mama." he said while Laura looked a Nathaniel.
"Mayo or mustard?" Laura asked.
"How about ketchup?" Nathaniel asked.
"Ketchup?" she asked and looked Clint and Lila. "I can do ketchup."
"Mind your elbow." Clint said and Lila released the arrow and it hit the target directly in the bullseye. "Hahaha! Good job, Hawkeye. Go get your arrow."
"Hey guys! Enough practice, soup's on!" Laura said.
"Alright, we're coming; we're hungry." Clint said and looked behind him but nothing but dust was being blown away by the wind. "Lila, let's go." he said and started looking around. "Lila?" he said and started moving and looked around, and picked up the bow she had. "Honey?" he said and looked around to see Laura and the boys, only they are gone now. He looked seriously panicked and confused as he hurriedly dropped the arrows and jogged over to where they were. "Hey, babe! Babe? Babe? Boys? Boys? Laura?" he said and lightning crackled.
Somewhere in space Nebula and Tony were on the ship playing paper football.
"Wrra!" Nebula said frustrated and put her hands in a fighting stance while looking at Tony.
"You don't need to do that. Because uh... you're just holding position." Peter said and flicked a paper football towards him. "Oh yeah, that was close." he said and she flicked a paper football towards him. "That's a goal. We're now one a piece."
"I would like to try again." she said and flicked a paper football towards him.
"We're tied up. Feel the tension? It's fun." he said and flicked a paper football towards her. "That was terrible. Now you have a chance to win." he said and she flicked the paper football towards him. "And... you've won. Congratulations." he said and reached his hand out to shake her hand. "Fair game. Good sport." he said and she shook his hand. "Have fun?"
"It was fun."
Later Tony's hand was on his busted Iron Man helmet and his hand reached forward to turn on the helmet. He was sitting on the floor of a gloomy Benatar. Then he tapped the helmet with a sigh.
"This thing on?" he said and the helmet scanned him so he leaned against the wall while taking deep breaths and looked skinnier and weak with malnutrition. "Hey, Miss Potts... Pep. If you find this recording, don't post it on social media. It's gonna be a real tear-jerker. I don't know if you're ever going to see these. I don't even know if you're... if you're still... Oh god, I hope so. Today is day 21, uh 22." he said and stood at a window to stare out in space, waiting for his impending doom to arrive. "You know, if it wasn't for the existential terror of staring into a void of space, I'd say I'm feeling better today. The infection's run its course, Thanks to the blue meanie back there." he said and saw Nebula sitting in the back of the Benatar. "You'd love her. Very practical. Only a tiny bit sadistic. Some fuel cells were cracked during battle, but we figured out a way to reverse the ion charge to buy ourselves about 48 hours of time." he said and they were working on the fuel cells of the Benatar. "But it's now dead in the water. We're 1000 light years from the nearest 7-11. Oxygen will run out tomorrow. And that'll be it. And Pep, I ... I know I said no more surprises, but I was really hoping to pull off one last one. But it looks like... well you know what it looks like. Don't feel bad about this. I mean, if you grovel for a couple of weeks, and then move on with enormous guilt. I should probably lie down. Please know that... when I drift off, I will think about you. Because it's always you." her said and turned the helmet off.
Later Tony rubbed his thumb over his left eye, and then leaned down, to what would be his last sleep. Nebula walked over to him, and carried him to Drax's seat, and lied him there and walked away dejected.
Then there was a light on Tony's face, which grew brighter and brighter until he was forced to open his eyes. It was Carol.
Meanwhile Steve was in a bathroom in the Avengers compound holding a blade, having just shaved off his beard. He sighed and looked into a side mirror and started shaking, slowly at first, and then severely. A few minutes later Steve, Natasha, Bruce and Rhodey were at the yard walking out looking at something, the Benatar carried by Carol as she landed the spacecraft. The landing gears deploy as they touch down. Then the entry hatch opened and Tony and Nebula walked out, Tony being supported by Nebula. Steve ran to Tony to help him stand up and Tony gripped his arm as he joins him.
"Couldn't stop him." Tony said.
"Neither could I." Steve said.
"I lost the kid."
"Tony, we lost."
"Is, uh...?" Tony said and struggled to ask about Pepper.
"Oh, my God! Oh, my God!" Pepper said and they hugged.
"It's okay."
Rocket sat down with Nebula and took her hand, both silently mourning their losses.
Later in the Compound they were sitting in a living room area. Tony was sitting at a table, getting blood for speeding up the healing. A holographic casualty report listed the names and faces of those lost to the Decimation.
"It's been 23 days since Thanos came to Earth." Rhodey said.
"World governments are in pieces. The parts that are still working are trying to take a census. And it looks like he did... he did exactly what he said he was gonna do. Thanos wiped out fifty percent, of all living creatures." Natasha said.
"Where is he now? Where?" Peter asked.
"We don't know. He just opened a portal and walked through." Steve said.
Meanwhile a sullen-looking Thor was sitting on a bench, seemingly deep in thought.
"What's wrong with him?" Tony asked.
"Oh, he's pissed. He thinks he failed. Which of course he did, but you know there's a lot of that's going around, ain't there?" Rocket said.
"Honestly, until this exact second, I literally thought you were a Build-A-Bear."
"Maybe I am."
"We've been hunting Thanos for three weeks now. Deep Space scans, and satellites, and we got nothing. Tony, you fought him." Steve said.
"Who told you that?" Tony asked surprised. "I didn't fight him. No, he wiped my face with a planet while the Bleecker Street Magician gave away the store. That's what happened. There was no fight."
"Okay."
"He's unbeatable."
"Did he give you any clues, any coordinates, anything?"
"Pfft! I saw this coming a few years back. I had a vision. I didn't wanna believe it. Thought I was dreaming."
"Tony, I'm gonna need you to focus."
Then Tony started to seethe.
"And I needed you. As in past tense. That trumps what you need. It's too late Capitan. Sorry." he said and stood up pushing things off the table with a clatter getting everyone to wince at the noise. "And I believe I remember telling all youse -" he said and went for Steve.
Then Rhodey quickly came in front of him, trying to stop him.
"Tony, Tony, Tony!" Rhodey said.
"Alive and otherwise what you needed was a suit of armor around the world! Remember that? Whether it impacted our precious freedoms or not- that's what we needed!"
"Well, that didn't work out, did it?" Steve said.
"I said, "we'd lose". You said, "We'll do that together too." And guess what, Rogers? We lost. And you weren't there. But that's what you do, right? Our best work after the fact? We're the Avengers, we're the Avengers. Not the Prevengers."
"Okay." Rhodey said.
"Right?"
"You made your point. Just sit down."
"Okay..."
"Okay?"
"You know what?"
"Tony, you're sick."
"She's great, by the way." Peter said referring to Carol.
"Sit down. Sit."
"We need you. You're new blood. Bunch of tired old mules!" Tony said and walked right up to Steve's face, his voice hushing down to a venomous whisper. "I got nothing for you! I got no coordinates, no clues, no strategies, no options. No trust. Liar."
Steve looked affected by Peter's words. The old friends just gaze at each other. After a moment, Tony ripped his Arc Reactor from his chest and shoved it into Steve's hand.
"Here, take this. You find him, and you put that on. You hide." Tony said.
Then Steve was by his side and everyone was starting to gather.
"Tony!" Steve said.
"I'm fine. I..." Tony said and fell unconscious.
While he did he saw when Tony told him he was done with the war between them.
Later Tony was on a bed, with Pepper at his side.
"Bruce gave him a sedative. He's gonna probably be out for the rest of the day." Rhodey said.
"You guys take care of him. And I'll bring him a Xorrian Elixir when I come back." Carol said and walked away."
"Where are you going?" Natasha asked.
"To kill Thanos."
Steve and Natasha shared a look before walking after her.
"Hey, you know, we usually work as a team here, and between you and I, morale's a little fragile." Natasha said.
"We realize up there is more your territory, but this is our fight too." Steve said.
"You even know where he is?" Rhodey asked.
"I know people who might." Carol said.
"Don't bother. I can tell you where Thanos is. Thanos spent a long time trying to perfect me. And when he worked, he talked about his great plan. Even disassembled, I wanted to please him. I'd ask "where would we go once his plan was complete?". His answer was always the same: "To the Garden."" Nebula said standing behind Carol.
"That's cute, Thanos has a retirement plan." Rhodey said.
"So where is he?" Steve asked.
"When Thanos snapped his fingers, Earth became ground zero for a power surge of ridiculously cosmic proportions. No one's ever seen anything like it... Until two days ago." Rocket said and a hologram of a planet popped up, with a shockwave visibly traversing the surface. "On this planet."
"Thanos is there." Nebula said.
"He used the stones again." Natasha said.
"Hey, hey, hey. We'd be going in short-handed, you know." Bruce said.
"Look, he's still got the stones, so..." Rhodey said.
"So let's get him... Use them to bring everyone back." Carol said.
"Just like that?"
"Yeah, just like that." Steve said and he and Carol shared a knowing look.
"Even if there's a small chance that we can undo this... I mean we owe it to everyone who's not in this room to try." Natasha said.
"If we do this, how do we know it's gonna end any differently than it did before?" Bruce asked.
"Because before, you didn't have me." Carol said.
"Hey, new girl, everyone here is about that superhero life. And if you don't mind my asking, where the hell have you been all this time?" Rhodey said.
"There are a lot of other planets in the universe. And unfortunately, they didn't have you guys."Thor, who had been eating a snack behind all this time, stood up and walked over to Carol. She looked behind at him and he held his hand up, and caught Stormbreaker as it flew over to him, missing Carol by inches. But Carol didn't even flinch, instead smiling at the God of Thunder.
"I like this one." he said and smiled.
"Let's go get this son of a bitch." Steve said.
Later everyone but Tony was aboard the Benatar.
"Okay, who here hasn't been to space?" Rocket asked and Natasha, Steve and Rhodey raised their hands.
"Why?" Rhodey asked.
"You better not throw up on my ship."
"Approaching jump in 3... 2... 1!" Nebula said and the ship jumped forward into a wormhole.
Steve was holding onto his seat for dear life and his eyes widening slightly at the exhilaration of this new experience.
Then the ship slowed down, and hovered in orbit of the planet. Carol hovered in front of the Benatar.
"I'll head down for recon." Carol said.
The passengers inside the Benatar were preparing for the impending confrontation.
"This is gonna work, Steve." Nebula said.
"I know it will." Steve said holding a compass with an image of Peggy Carter. "Cause I don't know what I'm going to do if it doesn't."
Then Carol approached the Benatar.
"No satellites, no ships, no armies, no ground defenses of any kind. It's just him." she said.
"And that's enough." Nebula said.
Meanwhile a scenic lush tropical fauna surrounded a shed on a farm. Thanos was walking among his crops, harvesting fruit, and putting them in a sack. Then he walked over to the shed, with a dragging quality to his legs, like it pains him to walk, presumably his living quarters, and tried to sit down. His whole left side was burnt black with blisters.
Suddenly, Carol flew through the roof, knocking him down, and grabbing his neck. Bruce in the Hulkbuster armor burst from the ground, and grabbed his' Infinity Gauntlet arm. Thor flew in and sliced off the Infinity Gauntlet. Rhodey flew down with Rocket and aimed guns on his head.
Then Steve walked in his Winter Soldier Outfit, with Natasha right behind him, staring murderously at Thanos. Then Rocket went over to the sliced off Infinity Gauntlet, and kicked it over, as everyone realized there were no stones in it.
"Oh no." Rocket said.
"Where are they?" Steve asked.
"Answer the question!" Carol said.
"The universe required correction. After that, the stones served no purpose, beyond temptation." Thanos said.
"You murdered trillions!" Bruce said and pushed him to the ground wearing Hulk Buster armor.
"You should be grateful." Thanos said punched by Hulk Buster.
"Where are the Stones?" Natasha asked.
"Gone. Reduced to atoms."
"You used them two days ago!" Bruce said.
"I used the stones to destroy the stones. It nearly killed me. But the work is done. It always will be." Thanos said and sat himself a little straighter. "I am... inevitable."
"We have to tear this place apart, he-he-he has to be lying." Rhodey said.
"My father is many things. A liar is not one of them." Nebula said.
"Ah, thank you, daughter." Thanos said and she looked down, a little uncomfortable. "Perhaps I treated you too harshly."
Thor's face was filled with rage as he raised to summon Stormbreaker, and before anyone could stop him, sliced Thanos' head off. Thanos' limp body fell to the floor. Nebula wiped off some of the blood spatter.
"What... What did you do?" Rocket asked.
Thor looked broken, realizing what he'd done.
"I went for the head." he said and slowly walked out of the shed, no real purpose in his steps.
FIVE YEARS LATER
New York City was abandoned. There were boats gathered around a dock, all abandoned. A baseball stadium with no life present at all. The aftermath of the Decimation was evident, and Earth hadn't coped well.
An abandoned cafe has a poster on the wall labeled "WHERE DO WE GO, NOW THAT THEY'RE GONE?". A therapy session was taking place with Steve and seven other people.
"So I, uh... Went on a date the other day. It's the first time in five years, you know? I'm sitting there at dinner... I didn't even know what to talk about." Joe said.
"What did you talk about?" Steve asked.
"Same old crap, you know? How things have changed, and... my job, his job... How much we miss the Mets. And then things get quiet... He cried as they were serving the salads."
"What about you?" Jim asked.
"I cried... just before dessert. But I'm seeing him again tomorrow, so..."
"That's great. You did the hardest part. You took the jump, you didn't know where you were gonna come down. And that's it. That's those little brave baby steps we gotta take. To try and become whole again, try and find purpose. I went in the ice in '45 right after I met the love of my life. Woke up 70 years later. You gotta move on. Gotta to move on. The world is in our hands. It's left to us guys, and we got to do something with it. Otherwise... Thanos should have killed all of us." Steve said.
At San Francisco Bridge, all the way to a self-storage facility with a sign saying "U-STORE It, SELF STORAGE", with its interior filled with stored until it spotted Luis' van behind a metallic fence with a label named LANG. A rat crawled over the van's rear windshield and accidentally activated the controls for opening the Quantum Realm, haphazardly activating the Quantum Tunnel. The rear door bust open, flinging Scott outside the van.
Scott grunted as he pushes away a cushion out of his body, and deactivated the helmet, but still grunting in pain, as he swept away sparks from an electrical failure out of his suit, then tried to stand up.
"What the hell?" he said and managed to stand up, as another electrical failure sparks out of his gauntlets, and now looked around in a confused look. "Hope?"
Inside a security office, a security guard was reading a book as he looked upon his security screen, seeing something going on in one of the storage facilities. In the cameras, it showed Scott in his casual clothing, shouting, waving a sign with the word "HELP" written on it.
Outside the facility, he pulled out a pushcart and looked back seeing the guard giving a stern look from far. He walked around until reaching his hometown, finding a post filled with MISSING posters, abandoned houses, a wrecked car, nothing but desolation. Then he saw a kid in a bike pass by.
"Kid! Hey kid!" he yelled and the kid stopped his bike as he stared back in a serious look. "What the hell happened here?"
The kid still stared at him and was almost about to tear up, but immediately turned away from him and moved on. Scott still gave the same confused look, as he arrived in somewhat a memorial called "THE VANISHED", with all the names of the people who became victims of the Decimation. As he arrived on one of the engraved stones, he immediately dropped the handle in shock.
"No. Please. Please, please." he said and moved on to check the other side of the engraved stone. "No, no, no. No." he said and excused aside a young couple as he kept checking another engraved stone if his daughter's name is on one.
"Excuse me, sorry. No, Cassie, no."
He kept checking the rest of engraved stones if her daughter's name was in one.
"Please, please, please, please... No, Cassie." he said in a mantra-like voice and looked at the engraved stone in shock, revealing his name in it. "What?"
Later he was running across the memorial, then to his hometown, only to ring a doorbell at his house, bang on the door, and try opening the door, but was found locked. Then, he saw a feminine figure appear out of a hallway inside. She got closer, in a purple sweater, with her hand pushing towards the glass door's window, and her face filled with amazement, as she unlocked the door.
Cassie, who hadn't seen him for five years, held up his face in an emotional sight and started to smile tearfully and he did the same.
"Cassie?" he said.
"Dad?" Cassie said and they emotionally hugged each other.
Then he shoved her back, realizing that she's a full-grown teenager.
"You're so big!" he said the hugged again.
The camera cuts to a sunset in San Francisco, showing a metal face with a sign saying in its headings, "RESTRICTED AREA, DO NOT ENTER" with the subtext, "AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY BEYOND THIS POINT, SECURITY ID OR ESCORT REQUIRED", then cuts to a scene inside the New Avengers facility, someone cutting the two bread with peanut butter filling into a couple of triangles, as someone else was speaking. The camera pans up to Romanoff, now having red, long hair, over-colouring her blonde streaks, hearing Rocket Raccoon out about his status so far.
"Yeah, we boarded that highly suspect warship Danvers pinged." Rocket said.
A few Avengers were in holographic calls from the left to right, respectively: Nebula and Rocket, Okoye and Carol were with a tomboyish haircut, and Rhodey.
"It was an infectious garbage scowl." Nebula said.
"So, thanks for the hot tip." Rocket said and turned to Carol and replied back with a smirk.
"Well, you were closer." Carol said.
"Yeah. And now we smell like garbage."
Then Natasha turned to Okoye.
"You get a reading on those tremors?" she asked.
"It was a mild subduction under the African plate." Okoye said.
"Do we have a visual? How are we handling it?"
"Nat, it's an earthquake under the ocean. We handle it by not handling it."
Then Natasha turned to Carol.
"Carol, are we seeing you here next month?" she asked.
"Not likely." Carol said.
"What, you gonna get another haircut?" Rocket asked.
"Listen fur-face, I'm covering a lot of territory. The things that are happening on Earth, are happening everywhere, on thousands of planets." she said irritated.
"All right, all right, that's a good point. That's a good point." he muttered to himself.
"So you might not see me for a long time."
"Alright. Uh, well. This channel is always active. So, if anything goes sideways... anyone's making trouble where they shouldn't... comes through me." Natasha said and Okoye agrees in her language.
"Okay." Rocket said.
"Alright." she said and they cut off their calls one by one.
"Good luck." Carol said to Rhodey and they cut off the call except for Rhodey.
Natasha sighed exhausted, and sat down, as she noticed Rhodey still online in the call.
"Where are you?"
"Mexico. The Federales found a room full of bodies. Looks like a bunch of cartel guys. Never even had the chance to get their guns off." Rhodey said.
"It's probably a rival gang."
"Except it isn't." he said and she realized something. "It's definitely Barton. What he's done here, what he's been doing for the last few years... I mean, the scene that he left..." he said and she started showing signs of sadness as she gradually teared up. "I gotta tell you, there's a part of me that doesn't even want to find him."
In an abrupt moment of silence, she tried to chew her tears and emotional feelings as she ate a sandwich.
"Will you find out where he's going next?"
"Nat..."
"Please."
"Okay." he said reluctantly and cut off his.
Then Natasha started crying as she tried to hold back her tears miserably.
"You know I'd offer to cook you dinner but you seem pretty miserable already." Steve said.
Out of nowhere, Steve slumped over a bookshelf, in the same mood as he was in the therapy session, as she wiped off the tears off her face.
"You here to do your laundry?"
"And to see a friend."
"Clearly, your friend is fine."
"You know I saw a pod of whales when I was coming up the bridge."
"In the Hudson?"
"There's fewer ships, cleaner water."
"You know, if you're about to tell me to look on the bright side. Um... I'm about you to hit you in the head with a peanut butter sandwich." she said and jokingly smiled, as he did the same.
"Sorry. Force of habit." he said and threw his jacket, then sat down on another chair, opposite her. "You know, I keep telling everybody they should move on and... grow. Some do. But not us."
"If I move on, who does this?"
"Maybe it doesn't need to be done."
"I used to have nothing. And then I got this. This job... this family. And I was... I was better because of it. And even though... they're gone... I'm still trying to be better." she said deep in thoughts.
"I think we both need to get a life."
"You first." she said smiling.
Then they saw Scott with his Quantum Realm Van behind him.
"Oh! Hi. Hi! Is anyone home? This is Scott Lang. We met a few years ago, at the airport? In Germany? I got really big, and I had my mask on. You wouldn't recognize me." Scott said.
"Is this an old message?" Steve asked standing up.
"It's the front gate." Natasha said also standing up.
"Ant-Man? Ant-Man, I know you know that. I need to talk to you guys." Scott said.
Later Scott was inside the Avengers Compound, pacing worriedly in front of Steve and Natasha.
"Scott. Are you okay?" Steve asked.
"Yeah. I'm fine." Scott said and struggled to ask about something. He finally blurts it out. "Have you ever studied Quantum Physics?" he finally blurted out.
"Only to make conversation." Natasha said.
"Alright. So... five years ago, right before Thanos, I was in a place called the Quantum Realm. The Quantum Realm is like its own microscopic universe. To get in there, you have to be incredibly small. Hope, she's my... She was my..." he said struggling not to tell the entire truth about their relationship. "She was supposed to pull me out. And then Thanos happened, and I got stuck in there."
"I'm sorry. That must've been a very long five years."
"Yeah, but that's just it. It wasn't. For me, it was five hours." he said and Steve and Natasha shared a quick bewildered glance. "See, the rules of the Quantum Realm aren't like they are up here. Everything is unpredictable. Is that anybody's sandwich? I'm starving." he said and strode over to pick up Natasha's sandwich, and bit into it.
"Scott, what are you talking about?" Steve asked.
"What I'm saying is, time works differently in the Quantum Realm. The only problem is right now, we don't have a way to navigate it. But what if we did? I can't stop thinking about it. What if, we could somehow control the chaos, and we could navigate it? What if there was a way to enter the Quantum Realm at a certain point in time but then exit at another point in time? Like... Like before Thanos."
"Wait, are you talking about a time machine?"
"No. No, of course not. No, not a time machine. It's more like a... Yeah, a time machine. I know it's crazy. But I can't stop thinking about it. There's gotta be some way... There's gotta be...some w... it's crazy."
"Scott, I get e-mails from a raccoon, so nothing sounds crazy anymore." Natasha said.
"So who do we talk to about this?"
At a cabin in the woods, at the bank of a lake Tony was sitting outside what looks like a tiny shed.
"Chow time!" he said clapping his hands. "Maguna? Morgan H. Stark. You want some lunch?"
"Define lunch or be disintegrated." May said and put on a silver and blue helmet.
"Okay, You should not be wearing that, okay? That is part of a special anniversary gift I'm making for Mom." he said and took the helmet off her head and she emerged out smiling mischievously.
"Okay."
"There you go. Are you thinking about lunch? I can give you a handful of crickets on a bed of lettuce."
"No."
"That's what you want. How did you find this?"
"Garage."
"Really? Were you looking for it?"
"No. I found it, though."
"You like going to the garage, huh? So does daddy. It's fine, actually. Your mom never wears anything I buy her." he said and they started walking towards the house, but he saw a black Audi pulling coming to a stop a few meters away.
Steve, Natasha and Scott got out of the car and Tony sighed not looking forward to the discussion about to take place.
"Now, we know what it sounds like..." Scott said after explaining his plan.
"Tony, after everything you've seen, is anything really impossible?" Steve asked.
"Quantum fluctuation messes with the Planck Scale, which then triggers the Deutsch Proposition. Can we agree on that?" Tony said.
Scott, Steve and Nat looked puzzled.
"Thank you." Steve said with Tony giving him a drink.
"In Layman's terms, it means you're not coming home."
"I did." Scott said.
"No, you accidentally survived. It's a billion to one cosmic fluke. And now you wanna pull off a... What do you call it?"
"A time heist?" Scott said trying to hide his pride.
"Yeah, a time heist. Of course, why didn't we think of this before? Oh, because it's laughable? Because it's a pipedream?"
"The Stones are in the past. We can go back and get them."
"We can snap our own fingers. We can bring everyone back." Natasha said.
"Or screw it up worse than he already has, right?" Tony said.
"I don't believe we would." Steve said.
"Gotta say, sometimes I miss that giddy optimism. However, high hopes won't help if there's no logical, tangible way for me to safely execute said time heist. I believe the most likely outcome would be our collective demise."
"Not if we strictly follow the rules of time travel. That means no talking to our past selves, no betting on sporting events -" Scott said.
"I'm gonna stop you right there, Scott. Are you seriously telling me that your plan to save the universe is based on Back To The Future?"
"No." Scott said embarrassed.
"Good. You had me worried there. 'Cause that'd be horse shit. That's not how quantum physics works."
"Tony... We have to take a stand." Natasha said.
"We did stand. And yet, here we are."
"I know you got a lot on the line. You got a wife, a daughter. But I lost someone very important to me. A lot of people did." Scott said. "And now, now we have a chance to bring her back. To bring everyone back. And you're telling me that won't even..." he said with his voice louder trying to sell his desperation to Tony.
"That's right, Scott, I won't even. I got a kid."
Then Morgan ran to him and he picked her up.
"Mommy told me to come and save you." Morgan said.
"Good job. I'm saved." he said. "I wish you'd come here to ask me something else. Anything else. Honestly, I... I missed you guys, it was... Oh, and table's set for six." he said turning to Steve, Natasha and Scott.
"Tony, I get it. And I'm happy for you, I really am. But this is a second chance." Steve said.
"I got my second chance right here, Cap. I can't roll the dice again. If you don't talk shop, you can stay for lunch."
Later Steve, Natasha and Scott were walking back to their car outside Peter's house.
"He's scared." Natasha said.
"He's not wrong." Steve said.
"Yeah, but I mean, what are we gonna do? We need him. What, are we gonna stop?" Scott asked.
"No, I wanna do it right. We're gonna need a really big brain."
"Bigger than his?" Scott said pointing to Peter's house.
Later at a cafe somewhere, Bruce, but not the same one that we remember. He looks more... Professor Smart Hulk.
"Come on, I feel like I'm the only one eating." Bruce said. "Try some of that. Have some eggs." he said pushing a plate forward.
"I'm so confused." Scott said.
"These are confusing times." Bruce said seriously.
"Right. No, no, that's not what I meant."
"No, I get it. I'm kidding! I know. It's crazy. I'm wearing shirts now." Bruce said dropping the act.
"Yeah! Wh...How? Why?"
"Five years ago, we got our asses beaten. Except it was worse for me. Because I lost twice. First, Hulk lost, then Banner lost. Then, we all lost."
"No one blamed you, Bruce." Natasha said.
"I did. For years, I've been treating the Hulk like he's some kind of disease, something to get rid of. But then I started looking at him as the cure. Eighteen months in a gamma lab. I put the brains and the brawn together. And now look at me. Best of both worlds..." he said when three kids behind him walked up to him tentatively.
"Excuse me, Mr. Hulk?" the girl said.
"Yes?"
"Can we get a photo?"
"100%, little person. Come on, step up." he said. "You mind?" he asked holding out Scott the phone.
"Oh, yeah." Scott said.
"Thanks," Bruce said. "Say "green"!" he said to the kids and they said green as Scott snapped the photo. "Did you get that?"
"Don't you wanna grab one with me? I'm Ant-Man." Scott said leaning forward to hand back the phone. "They're Hulk fans, they don't know Ant-Man. Nobody does."
"Wait, no, no, he feels bad. No, he wants you to...he wants to..." Bruce said. "You want to take a picture with him, right?" he said to one of the boys who shook his head vigorously.
"Stranger Danger." the boy said.
"He's even saying no he doesn't. I get it. I don't want it either." Scott said.
"But, come on, the kid! But he...but you..." Bruce said.
"I don't want a picture with them."
"He's gonna feel bad." Bruce said to the kids. "Sorry. They said they'd do it." he said to Scott.
"I don't want it anymore."
"No, no...you feel bad."
"Just take the goddamn phone."
"Thank you, Mr. Hulk." the girl said.
"No, it's great kids. Thank you very much." Bruce said. "Hulk out!" he said at the same time as the kids.
"Bruce." Steve said.
"Dab!" Bruce said awkwardly.
"Bruce."
"Listen to your Mom. She knows better."
"About we were saying..."
"Right. The whole time travel do-over? Guys, it's outside my area of expertise."
"Well, you pulled this off. I remember a time when that seemed pretty impossible time, too." Natasha said.
Later Tony was in the kitchen washing dishes after dinner. As he finished the last of them he stumbled upon a photo of both Tony and Peter, with Peter holding his Stark Internship certificate. Then he finally knew what he's fighting for.
A few minutes later he was talking to his computer, generating a holographic model of something he's working on.
"Look at a mod inspiration, let me see what check out. So, recommend one last sim before we pack it in for the night. This time, in the shape of a mobius strip, inverted, please." he said.
"Processing..." F.R.I.D.A.Y. said.
"Give me that eigenvalue. That, particle factoring, and a spectral decomp. That will take a second."
"Just a moment."
"And don't worry if it doesn't pan out. I'm just kinda -"
"Model rendered."
In a complete shock of amazement, the render came back as 99.987% successful. Tony fell back, bewildered by this discovery.
"Shit!" he said.
"Shit." Morgan said hiding behind him and, giggled.
"What are you doing up, little mess?" he whispered.
"Shit."
"No, we don't say that. Only Mommy says that word. She coined it, it belongs to her."
"Why you up?"
"'Cause I got some important shit going on here." he said and she gave him a taste of the incredulous. "What do you think? No, I got something on my mind. I got something on my mind."
"Was it Juice Pops?"
"Sure was. That's extortion. Great minds think alike. Juice Pops, exactly was on..." he said and looked back to the model and turned back. "my mind."
A few minutes later they were in Morgan's room.
"You done? Yeah, now you are." Tony said and wiped Morgan's lips and pushed her head onto her pillow. "That face goes there."
"Tell me a story." Morgan said.
"A story... Once upon a time, Maguna went to bed. The end."
"That's a horrible story." she said giggling.
"Come on, that's your favorite story. I love you tons." he said and kissed her on the forehead.
"I love you 3000."
"Wow." he said silently. "3000. That's crazy." he said and turned off the lamp. "Go to bed. Night, night." he said and closed the door.
A few minutes later he was in the living room where Pepper was reading a book sitting on the couch. Then he paced in front of the fireplace.
"Not that it's a competition, but she loves me 3000. You were somewhere on the low 6 to 900 range." he said and Pepper scoffed. "What are you reading?" absentmindedly.
"It's just a book on composting." Pepper said.
"What's new with composting?" he asked still absentmindedly.
"Just -"
"I figured it out, by the way."
"Huh?"
"Time travel."
"What? Wow... That's amazing, and... terrifying." she said amazed
"That's right."
"We got really lucky."
"Yeah, I know."
"A lot of people didn't."
"No, I can't help everybody."
"It sort a seems like you can."
"Not if I stop. I can put a pin in it right now, and stop."
"Tony, trying to get you to stop has been one of the hardest things of my life." she said and he smiled.
"I sometimes feel I should put it in a locked box and drop it at the bottom of a lake... go to bed."
"But would you be able to rest?"
The next day Bruce, Steve, Scott and Natasha are in a lab in the Avengers Compound. Bruce fiddling with buttons on a panel, Scott was in his Ant-Man costume in front of his van, with the back open to show the Quantum Tunnel and Nat and Steve were beside Bruce.
"Okay, here we go. Time travel test number one. Scott, fire up the uhhh... the van thing." Bruce said and Scott opened the portal.
"Breakers are set, emergency generators are on standby." Steve said.
"Good. 'Cause if we blow the grid, I don't wanna lose Tiny here in the 1950's." Bruce said and Scott, Natasha and Steve gave him a panicked look.
"Excuse me?" Scott said.
"He's kidding." Natasha said. "You can't say things like that!" she said to Bruce in a hushed voice.
"Just... It was a bad joke." Bruce said.
"You were kidding, right?"
"I have no idea. We're talking about time travel here. Either it's all a joke, or none of it is." he whispered to her. "We're good! Get your helmet on, Scott. I'm gonna send you back a week, let you walk around for an hour, then bring you back in 10 seconds. Makes sense?" he asked loudly and gave Scott a thumbs up.
"Perfectly not confusing." Scott said.
"Good luck, Scott. You got this." Steve said.
"You're right. I do, Captain America."
Then Bruce pressed a button, and Scott disappeared into the Quantum Tunnel.
"On the count of three. 3... 2... 1!" Bruce said and pressed a button, and someone in the Ant-Man suit came back.
A teenager in appeared out of it.
"Uh, guys? This...this doesn't feel right." Teen Scott said.
"What is this?" Steve asked.
"What's going on?" Bruce asked.
"That...who is that?" Natasha asked.
Then Bruce pushed another couple of buttons, trying to fix the problem.
"Hold on." he said panicking.
"Is that Scott?" Natasha asked.
"Yes, it's Scott!" Teen Scott said and got sucked in back into the quantum tunnel, and it appeared to be an old man in the Ant-Man suit. "Ow! My back!"
"What is this?" Steve asked.
"Can I get a little space here." Bruce said.
"Yeah yeah. Can you bring him back?"
"I'm working on it!" Bruce said tapping the side of the button pad, trying to pull back Scott.
After a moment, another person appears in front of them. This time, it's a baby in the Ant-Man suit.
"It's a baby." Steve said.
"It's Scott." Bruce said.
"As a baby!"
"He'll grow."
"Bring Scott back!"
"When I say kill the power, kill the power." Bruce said motioning Natasha.
"Oh my god." Natasha said and rapidly walked near to the generator.
"And... Kill it!"
Then Natasha pulled down a lever, and everything shut down. Scott, the normal Scott, got spewed back out again.
"Somebody peed my pants." he said.
"Oh thank god." Natasha said.
"But I don't know if it was "baby" me or "old" me...Or just "me" me."
"Time travel!" Bruce said and held up his his hands in a dramatic way but Steve said nothing, shook his head and walked away. "What? I.. I see this as an absolute win!"
Later Steve was sitting outside the Avengers Compound, staring at the floor, deep in thought. He looked beat, the only possibility of victory now not an opportunity. Then he looked up as a deafening noise broke the silence in the distance. As he looked, he saw an Audi R8 speeding towards the entrance. Then it pulled over to him, but went a bit too far, then reversed to him and Tony rolled down the window and look at him.
"Why the long face? Let me guess: He turned into a baby." Tony said.
"Among other things, yeah. What are you doing here?" Steve said and Tony got out of the car, and walked around to the back.
"That's the EPR Paradox. Instead of pushing Lang through time, you might've wound up pushing time through Lang. It's tricky. Dangerous. Somebody should've cautioned you against it." Tony said ignoring his question.
"You did."
"Oh, did I?" Tony said. "Thank God I'm here. Regardless, I fixed it." he said acting like he didn't. "A fully functioning Time-Space GPS. I just want peace." he said and held up his hand with something on it. "Turns out, resentment is corrosive, and I hate it."
"Me too."
"We got a shot at getting these stones, but I gotta tell you my priorities: Bring back what we lost? I hope, yes. Keep what I got? I have to, at all costs. And... maybe not die trying will be nice."
"Sounds like a deal." Steve said and reached out his hand to shake in the deal, in which Tony did same way.
Then Tony reached back into his trunk to pull Steve's shield. Then he l gave it to Steve, who hesitated.
"Tony..."
"Why? He made it for you." Tony said. "Plus, honestly I have to get it out of the garage before Morgan takes it sledding."
Then Steve fit his arm into the shield.
"Thank you, Tony." he said.
"Will you keep that a little quiet? Didn't bring one for the whole team." Tony asked and hesitated. "...We are getting the whole team, yeah?"
"We're working on that right now."
Meanwhile the Benatar was landing in the yard of the Avenger's Compound and Scott was sitting having a Taco and some Nachos at a bench, and everything fell out of the taco as the Benatar landed. Nebula and Rocket walked out of the ship, and past Scott.
"Hey, humie! Where's Big Green?" Rocket asked.
"Uh, Kitchen, I think." Scott said. "That's awesome." he said to himself as he saw Nebula.
"Rhodey, careful on re-entry. There's an idiot on the landing zone." Nebula said into an earpiece and walked away.
Moments later, just as Scott was getting back to his senses, Rhodey landed right in front of him without warning. This time Scott was so surprised, he dropped the whole taco.
"Oh, God!" he said.
"What's up, regular sized man?" Rhodey asked.
As he walked away, Bruce walked out of the Compound. Seeing that Scott dropped his lunch, he handed him two tacos from his own lunch. Scott took it while giving him a puzzling look at this act of kindness.
Later Bruce was sitting at the back of a Utility car as they traverse the green countryside of Norway. They passed a sign labelled "WELCOME TO NEW ASGARD, PLEASE DRIVE SLOWLY.". They stopped at a small town on a port. Bruce and Rocket got out of the car, and looked around at the remaining Asgardians, living like normal humans at a port.
"Kind of a step down from a golden palace and magic hammers and whatnot." Rocket said.
"Hey, have a little compassion, pal. First they've lost Asgard, then half the people. They're probably just happy to have a home." Bruce said and saw Valkyrie looking over at him, and headed over to her.
"You shouldn't have come!" Valkyrie said.
"Ah, Valkyrie! Great to see you, Angry Girl."
"I think I liked you better either of the other ways." she said noticing his change of appearance.
"This is Rocket." he said motioning to Rocket.
"How you doin'?" Rocket asked.
"He won't see you." Valkyrie said eyeing him.
"That bad, huh." Bruce said.
"We only see him once a month, when he comes for..." she said. "... supplies." she said looking over to a pile of kegs of stout and other beer on the side.
"It's that bad."
"Yeah."
Later Rocket was opening a door and him and Bruce were walking through it.
"What the... Woo! Something died in here." Rocket said grimacing at the smell.
"Hello? Thor?" Bruce said.
"Are you here about the cable?" Thor asked from a different room.
Then he walked into view, and their aw dropped.
"The Cinemax ran out about two weeks ago, and the sports were all kind of fuzzy." he said and grabbed a beer.
"Thor?" Bruce said.
Then Thor noticed Bruce and Rocket standing there and cracked into joy.
"BOYS! Oh my God! Its so to see you!" he said to Rocket, trying to hug him. "Come here, you little rascal!" he said growling.
"No, I'm good. I'm good. That's not necessary." Rocket said.
"Hulk, you know my friends, Miek, Korg, right?"
Miek and Korg were sitting on a couch, PlayStation controller in hand, playing Fortnite and eating chips.
"Hey boys!" Korg said.
"Hey guys, long time no see." Bruce said.
"Beer's on the bucket. Feel free to log on to the Wi-Fi. No password, obviously." Korg said and went back to his game. "Thor, he's back. The kid on the TV that called me a dickhead again."
"NoobMaster." Thor said.
"Yeah, NoobMaster69 called me a dickhead."
Thor walked over to him, took his headphones and spoke into the mic.
"NoobMaster. Hey, it's Thor again. You know, the God of Thunder? Listen, buddy. If you don't log off this game immediately, I'm gonna fly over to your house, come down to that basement you're hiding in, rip off your arms and SHOVE THEM UP YOUR BUTT! Oh, that's right, go cry to your father, you little weasel!" he said.
"Thank you, Thor." Korg said as Thor brought his headphones back.
"Let me know if he bothers you again, okay?"
"Thank you very much. I will."
"So you guys want a drink? What are you drinking? We have beer, tequila, all sorts of things." Thor said and used Stormbreaker to open a bottle of beer and started drinking.
Then Bruce walked to him and put a hand on his shoulder.
"Buddy, you all right?" he asked.
"Yes, I'm fine! Why, don't I look all right?"
"You look like melted ice cream." Rocket said concerned and Thor laughed.
"So, what's up?"
"We need your help. There might be a chance we could fix everything." Bruce said.
"What, like the cable?" Thor asked and burped. "Cause that's been driving me bananas for weeks."
"Like Thanos."
Thor's smile slowly disappeared and he put a shaky hand on Bruce's shoulder and pointed at him.
"Don't say that name." he said and Korg stood up and took off his headphones.
"Um, yeah. We don't actually say that name in here." he said.
"Please take your hand off me." Bruce said quietly,"Now, I know that... guy might scare you." he said and brushed away Thor's hand.
"Why would I be? Why would, why would I be scared of that guy? I'm the one who killed that guy, remember? Anyone else here killed that guy? Nope. Didn't think so. Korg, why don't you, tell everybody who chopped Thanos' big head off." Thor said and walked away.
"Umm... Stormbreaker?" Korg said.
"Now, who's swingin' Stormbreaker?"
"I get it. You're in a rough spot, okay? I've been there myself. You wanna know who helped me out of it?" Bruce asked.
"I don't know. Is it... Natasha?"
"It was you. You helped me."
Thor walked over and looked out the window and pointed, still holding his beer.
"Why don't you ask the, Asgardians down there, how much my help was worth." he said and dropped onto the sofa. "The ones that are left, anyway."
"I think we can bring them back."
"Stop. stop, okay?" Thor said and opened a packet on M&Ms. "I know you think I'm down here wallowing in my own self-pity, waiting to be rescued and and saved. But I'm fine, okay? We're fine, aren't we?" he said while Korg and Miek were eating pizza and playing once more.
"Nah, all good here, mate." Korg said.
"So, whatever it is that you're offering, we're not into it, don't care, couldn't care less. Goodbye."
"We need you, pal." Bruce said but Thor shook his head and ignored him.
"There's beer on the ship." Rocket said crossing his arms.
Thor paused but didn't look up then put the bottle down.
"What kind?" he asked.
At a nightclub in the city of Tokyo, dead bodies of yakuza members were a hooded figure threw a shuriken at another yakuza member firing at him. They were shouting something in Japanese, as two more men come out of nowhere and draw out their UZIs.
"It's him! He's after Akihiko!" Thug #1 said.
Both thugs fired their SMGs as they got slain by a shuriken. A yakuza member wielding a katana charged at him in the stairs, but was immediately overthrown and slain by the Ronin. Ronin then fought another sword-wielding thug, which was thrown outside the glass, killing him. Two more buildings as the fighting ensued with different screams, shouts, more havoc inside, and gunfire. A man in a dark raincoat jumped through the glass window, with the Ronin doing the same, as both of them landed in a dark alleyway. The man in the raincoat turned to the Ronin, who just landed after him. It was Akihiko, the leader of a yakuza gang, whose head being hunted by the Ronin himself.
"Why are you doing this? We never did anything to you!" Akihiko said.
"You survived... Half of the planet didn't. They got Thanos... you get me." Ronin said and they both side engaged in combat as Ronin pierced his stomach, but doing only minor damage to him. "You're done hurting people."
"WE hurt people? You're crazy!" Akihiko said and charged, which Ronin immediately blocked.
Both clang swords for two seconds, seeming that the yakuza leader has the upper hand, but Ronin punched him in the face, and sword-pointed him to his throat, in which Akihiko was temporarily petrified.
Then he lowered down his sword as if he was about to surrender, but charged again at Ronin. Both swords clashed as Ronin sliced his stomach, losing stamina, but gaining more strength from his rage.
"DIE!" Akihiko said and they draw their katanas and the sword-fight continued.
Ronin was clearly a better fighter, but Akihiko was also quite experienced. They clang swords, and for a second, it looked like Akihiko had the upper hand swinging at Ronin's neck. Ronin, however, ducked and slid under the katana, and sliced Akihiko in the stomach as he slid past. Akihiko, now fatally injured, dropped his katana.
"Wait! Help me! I'll give you anything! What do you want?" Akihiko said.
"What I want... You can't give me."" Ronin said raising his katana.
Then he thrust the blade downwards into Akihiko's stomach. The body of the Japanese fell to the ground. Ronin grabbed the sword, and wiped it on his gauntlet, ridding it of the blood of Akihiko. He noticed someone behind him, and grabbed his mask, and slid it off his head, revealing himself as Clint Barton, who had gone on a rampage since the decimation. He turned around and looked at Natasha, standing behind him, holding an umbrella, and in casual clothes.
"You shouldn't be here." he said.
"Neither should you." Natasha said.
"I've got a job to do."
"Is that what you're calling this? Killing all these people isn't gonna bring your family back." she said and he started looking emotional, on the verge of crying. "We found something. A chance, maybe..."
"Don't..." he said openly crying.
"Don't what?"
"...don't give me hope."
"I'm sorry I couldn't give it to you sooner."
Later at the Avenger's Compound, Thor was in a hoodie, drinking a beer and walking through the compound's Testing Chamber and Tony was walking in from behind him.
"Drifting left. On the side there, Lebowski." Tony said to him. "Ratchet, How's it going?" he asked Rocket working on something underneath a glass platform.
"It's Rocket. Take it easy. You're only a genius on Earth, pal." Rocket said.
Later they in a side room, Scott, Bruce, Steve and Rhodey were talking and Scott was in a white and red suit, similar to the Ant-Man suit.
"Time travel suit? Not bad." Rhodey said.
"Hey, hey, hey! Easy, easy!" Scott said and response to Hulk touching the suit and something red in a glass tube.
"I'm being very careful." Bruce said.
"No, you're being very Hulky."
"I'm being careful."
"These are Pym Particles, alright? And ever since Hank Pym got snapped out of existence, this is it. This is what we have. We're not making any more." Scott said holding up the red glass bottle.
"Scott, calm down." Rhodey said.
"Sorry. We've got enough for one round trip each. That's it. No do-overs. Plus two test runs." Scott said and accidentally pressed a button, and shrunk then grew back to his normal size. "One test run."
Later at the testing chamber, Steve, Natasha, Tony, Scott, Bruce, Rhodey and Nebula were standing at a control panel, presumably controlling the glass platform.
"I'm game. I'll do it." Clint said and walked in wearing the suit Scott was moments before, the Quantum Suit.
"Clint, now you're gonna feel a little discombobulated from the chronoshift. Don't worry about it." Bruce said while Clint was taking position on the platform.
"Wai-Wait a second, let me ask you something. If we can do this, you know, go back in time, why don't we just find baby Thanos, you know, and..." Rhodey said and made a hand gesture suggesting that they strangle baby Thanos with a rope.
"First of all, that's horrible..." Bruce said disgusted.
"It's Thanos." Rhodey said in a tone saying it's what we're thinking.
"...And secondly, time doesn't work that way. Changing the past doesn't change the future."
"Look, we go back, we get the stones before Thanos gets them... Thanos doesn't have the stones. Problem solved." Scott said.
"Bingo." Clint said.
"That's not how it works." Nebula said.
"Well, that's what I heard."
"What? By who? Who told you that?" Bruce asked.
"Star Trek, Terminator, TimeCop, Time After Time -" Rhodey said counting with his fingers.
"Quantum Leap -" Scott said.
"A Wrinkle in Time, Somewhere in Time -"
"Hot Tub Time Machine -"
"Hot Tub Time Machine. Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Basically, any movie that deals with time travel."
"Die Hard? No, it's not one..."
"This is known."
"I don't know why everyone believes that, but that isn't true. Think about it: If you travel to the past, that past becomes your future. And your former present becomes the past. Which can't now be changed by your new future..." Bruce said.
"Exactly." Nebula said.
"So... Back To The Future's a bunch of bullshit?" Scott said.
"Alright, Clint. We're going in 3... 2... 1!" Bruce said turning to Clint.
A helmet similar to Ant-Man's but white and more visible face popped on Clint's head, and he went quantum and flew through the quantum realm into an opening. Then he grew back to normal size, but at a different place, and seemingly, time.
He looked around his family home, unlike at the start of the movie, looked a lot more alive. The helmet popped off of his head, and he looked around bewildered and saw a baseball glove on the ground, presumably belonging to one of his sons, and picked it up.
"Cooper? Where are my headphones?" Lila asked.
"Lila?" Clint murmured and the device on his hand started beeping, signaling the end of this visit. "Lila!" he said and dove for the door, but only managed to open it before he shrunk back to go back to the future.
Footsteps were coming towards where Clint had just disappeared, and Lila was coming down the stairs in Avril Lavigne-like clothing, looking around, puzzled.
"Yeah, Dad?" she said and looked around. "Dad?" she said and went back upstairs, deciding that it was just nothing.
At the Avengers Compound, Clint rematerialized on the glass platform, breathing heavily and sitting on the platform.
"Hey, hey. Look at me. You okay?" Natasha asked.
"Yeah, it worked. It worked." Clint said holding the baseball glove and threw it to Tony.
Later they were in a room with some hologram displays, showcasing each of the six Infinity Stones, sitting around a table. Tony, Steve and Bruce were pacing at the front, clearly leading the planning of the mission.
"Okay, so the "how" works. Now we gotta figure out the when and the where. Almost all of us has had an encounter with at least one of the six Infinity Stones." Steve said.
"Well I'd substitute the word encounter for damn well near been killed by one of the six Infinity Stones." Tony said.
"I haven't, I don't even know what the hell you're all talking about." Scott said.
"Regardless, we only have enough Pym Particles for one round trip each, and these stones have been in a lot of different places throughout history." Bruce said.
"Our history. So, not a lot of convenient spots to just drop in." Tony said.
"Which means we have to pick our targets." Clint said.
"Correct."
"Let's start with the Aether. Thor, what do you know?" Steve said.
Thor was sitting on a chair with his sunglasses on.
"Is he asleep?" Natasha asked.
"No, I'm pretty sure he's dead." Rhodey said and Thor woke up
"Where to start? Umm... The Aether, first, is not a stone, someone called it a stone before. It's more of a... an angry sludge thing, so... someones gonna need to amend that. Here's an interesting story though, many years ago... My grandfather had to hide the stones from the Dark Elves..." Thor said and wiggled his fingers to imitate a spooky ghost. "Wooooh, scary beings. So Jane," he said. "Oh, there she is. That's Jane... She's... an old flame of mine... She... she stuck her hand inside a rock this one time... and then the Aether stuck itself inside her... And, she became very, very sick. So I had to take her to Asgard, which is where I'm from. And we had to try and fix her. We were dating at the time, you see. I got to introduce her to my Mother... who's dead," he said and started looking broken, and on the verge of tears. "and oh you know, Jane and I aren't even dating anymore, these things happen though you know, nothing last forever," he said and Peter started pushing him back to his chair. "I'm not done yet, the only thing permanent in life is impermanence."
"Awesome. Eggs? Breakfast?" Tony said.
Later the Avengers were sitting around a table, eating a meal, and Rocket was pacing on the table in front of everyone.
"Quill said he stole the Power Stone from Morag." Rocket said.
"Is that a person?" Scott asked.
"Morag's a planet. Quill was a person."
"A planet? Like in outer space?"
"Oh, look. It's like a little puppy, all happy and everything." Rocket said. "Do you wanna go to space? You wanna go to space, puppy? I'll get you to space." he said imitating a talking puppy.
Meanwhile everyone else was facing Nebula in the planning room, and Natasha was writing notes for their plan.
"Thanos found the Soul Stone on Vormir." Nebula said.
"What is Vormir?" Natasha asked in a business like tone.
"A dominion of death, at the very center of Celestial existence. It's where... Thanos murdered my sister."
Natasha looked up, and an awkward silence fell upon the room. She wrote what Nebula just said, and Scott made to break the awkward moment.
"Not it." he said.
Peter and Natasha were lying on a table surrounded by papers, and Bruce was lying down on the floor. Then the Time Stone popped up on the display.
"That Time Stone guy..." Natasha said.
"Doctor Strange." Bruce said.
"Yeah, what kind of doctor was he?"
"Ear-nose-throat meets rabbit from a hat."
"Nice place in the village, though." Bruce said.
"Yeah. Sullivan Street."
"Hmm... Bleecker."
"Wait, he lived in New York?" Natasha said.
"No. He lived in Toronto. Were you even paying attention?"
"Guys, if you pick the right year, there are three stones in New York."
"Shut the front door." Bruce said sitting up surprised.
The holograms were displaying the different location, the Soul and Power Stones in space in 2014. the Reality Stone in Asgard, 2013; and the Space, Mind, and Time Stones in New York City, 2012.
"All right. We have a plan. Six Stones, three teams. One shot." Steve said.
They walked up in a file to the Quantum Time machine, wearing the Quantum Suits, albeit with some minor differences for different people determined. Rhodey had a bulkier repaint of the War machine armor.
"Five years ago, we lost. All of us. We lost friends... We lost family... We lost a part of ourselves. Today, we have a chance to take it all back. You know your teams, you know your missions. Get the stones, get them back. One round trip each. No mistakes. No do-overs. Most of us are going somewhere we know. But it doesn't mean we should know what to expect. Be careful. Look out for each other. This is the fight of our lives. And we're gonna win." Steve said and Tony gave him a look. "Whatever it takes. Good luck."
"He's pretty good at that." Rocket said referring to Steve's speech.
"Right?" Scott said looking very excited.
"All right. You heard the man. Stroke those keys, jolly green." Tony said.
"Tractors engaged." Bruce said.
"You promise to bring that back in one piece, right?" Rocket asked addressing the shrunken Benatar in Clint's hand.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. I'll do my best." Clint said.
"As promises go, that was pretty lame."
"See you in a minute." Natasha said smiling excitedly.
They all shrunk and entered the Quantum Realm. Then they split at different intervals, going to a different place at a different time in history.
Tony, Steve, Bruce and Scott traveled to New York in 2012. A previous stock shot of the Chitauri snarling and the iconic circle take around the other six original Avengers assembling before panning over to a side street where Scott, Steve, Bruce and Tony materialized.
"All right, we all have our assignments. Two Stones uptown, one Stone, down. Stay low. Keep an eye on the clock." Steve said.
2012 Hulk passed by them, smashing everything in his way. Bruce put his hand on his face, embarrassed.
"Feel free to smash a few things along the way."
"I think it's gratuitous, but whatever." present Bruce said and pretended to smash things in a sarcastic way.
Then he tore his shirt off, and walked over to a car then lightly punched the car, making a small dent, all the while making growling noises. Then he picked up a motorbike and threw it at a wall, wincing as it hits the wall.
On the Roof of the Sanctum Sanctorum where 2012 The Ancient One protected it Bruce tried to enter through the roof before noticing her.
"I'd be careful going that way. We just had the floors waxed." 2012 the ancient one said.
"I'm looking for Doctor Strange." Bruce said.
"You're about... five years too early. Stephen Strange is currently performing surgery about twenty blocks that way. What do you want from him?"
"That, actually." he said and pointed towards the Eye of Agamotto where the Time Stone was kept and 2012 The Ancient One looked at it.
"Ah! I'm afraid not."
"Sorry, but I wasn't asking."
"You don't wanna do this."
"Ah, you're right, I don't." he said. "But I need that stone, and I don't have time to beat it-"he said and made a grab at the Eye of Agamotto.
2012 The Ancient One pushed his astral form out of his body. Bruce who's is now in astral form looked at her horrified.
"Let's start over, shall we?" she said.
At Asgard in 2013 Loki The Dark World was in the prison in Asgard sitting in his cell. Without him noticing, Rocket and Thor crept by, past the cell. They stopped at a pillar a few meters away room of where Jane Foster was.
"That's Jane." Thor said.
"All right. Here's the deal, Tubby: You're gonna charm her and I'm gonna poke her with this thing," Rocket said and held up a device. "and extract the Reality Stone and get gone, lickety-split."
"I'll be right back, okay? There's a wine cellar, that's just down there. My father used to have this huge barrel of Aakonian ale. I'll see if the scullery has a couple of to-go cups..."
"Hey! Hey! Aren't you drunk enough already?"
Then a door opened and they both tried to hide and saw ladies along with 2013 Frigga walking. Thor sees his mother.
"Who's the fancy broad?" Rocket asked.
"It's my Mother. She dies today." Thor said.
"Oh. That's today?"
"I can't do this. I can't do this. I shouldn't be here. I shouldn't have was a bad idea."
"Come here." Rocket said standing in front of him.
"No, no, no. I think I'm having...I'm having a panic attack. I shouldn't be here...this is...this is a bad-"
"Come here. Right here." Rocket said and slapped Thor in the face. "You think you're the only one who lost people? What do you think we're doing here? I lost the only family I ever had. Quill, Groot, Drax, the chick with the antenna, all gone. Now, I get you miss your Mom. But she's gone. Really gone. And there are plenty of people who are only kinda gone. But you can help them. So is it too much to ask that you brush the crumbs outta your beard, make schmoopy talk to Pretty Pants, and when she's not looking, suck out the Infinity Stone and help me get my family back?"
"Okay."
"Are you crying?"
"No...Yes!"
"Get it together! You can do this. You can do this. All right?"
"Yes, I can."
"Good."
"I can do this. I can do it, I can't do this." Thor said and runs away.
"Alright, Heartbreaker. She's alone. This is our shot." Rocket said and turned back to where Thor was moments ago. "Thor? Thor! Aaagh!"
At 2014 Morag Rhodey was getting off the Benatar as it landed.
"Alright. Bring it down low. Right on that line. That's it. Down, down." Rhodey said.
"Hey, can we hurry it up?" Clint asked.
"Guys, chop-chop. Come on. We're on a clock." Natasha said.
Then Nebula walked out of the ship, having directed it to its next destination.
"All that, is really helpful." Rhodey said. "Take care, okay?" he said hugging her.
"Yeah." Natasha said.
"Take that stone and come back. No messing around."
"Hey. You got this." Clint said to him.
"Let's get it done. Yes, sir."
"See you back." Natasha said walking with Clint back in the ship.
"You guys watch each other's six."
Clint and Nat looked back and just smiled.
"Yeah." Clint said and they walked back into the ship, and the hatch closed.
The ship took off and sped out of the atmosphere of Morag.
"The coordinates for Vormir are laid in. All they have to do is not fall out." Nebula said.
In the Benatar, Clint and Natasha were sitting at the front of the ship. The ship took a jump through space and sped up tremendously and they looked at each other.
"It's a long way from Budapest." Clint said and Natasha just laughed.
Back to Morag, Rhodey and Nebula were standing.
"Okay, so, uhh... We just wait around for this Quill guy to show up and then he leads us to the Power Stone, is that it?" Rhodey asked.
"Let's take cover. We're not the only ones in 2014 looking for the stones." Nebula said looking around.
"Wait a minute, what are you talking about right now? Who else is looking for these stones?"
"My father, my sister... and me."
"And you? Where are you right now?"
Meanwhile 2014 Gamora and Nebula were fighting some Korbinite soldiers.
"You're welcome." 2014 Gamora said helping 2014 Nebula up.
"I didn't ask for your help." 2014 Nebula said.
"And yet, you always need it." 2014 Gamora said and 2014 Nebula laughed and took Gamora's hand. "Get up. Father wants us back on the ship."
"Why?"
"He's found an Infinity Stone."
"Where?"
"On a planet called Morag."
"Father's plan is finally in motion."
"One stone isn't six, Nebula."
"It's a start."
"If he gets all of them..."
Then 2014 Thanos arrived, double-bladed sword in tow and healthy coating blood of his armor.
"Ronan's located the Power Stone. I'm dispatching you to his ship." he said.
"He won't like that." 2014 Gamora said.
"His alternative is death, then." he said and wiped his double-bladed sword. "Ronan's obsession clouds his judgement."
"We will not fail you, Father." 2014 Nebula said and 2014 Gamora rolled her eyes.
"No, you won't."
"I swear...I will make you proud." 2014 Nebula said.
Suddenly she was in pain and opened up future Nebula's memories.
"We just, wait around for this Quill guy to show up, and then he leads us to the Power Stone, is that it?" memory Rhodey said.
"Let's take cover. We're not the only ones in 2014 looking for the stones." memory Nebula said.
Then 2014 Nebula shut off the memory.
"Who was that?" 2014 Gamora asked.
"I don't know...My head is splitting...I don't know..." 2014 Nebula said.
"Her synaptic drive was probably damaged in battle."
Then 2014 Thanos walked towards Nebula and brought his blade to her throat.
"Shhh..." he said. "Bring her to my ship." he said pointing to Nebula.
Present Tony was flying around Stark Tower in the Mark 85. Then he scanned the interior of the tower, and saw the original Avengers apprehending Loki, the backside of the iconic shot of Hawkeye pointing the bow at Loki's face while the Avengers surround him.
"Got to hustle, Cap. Things look like they're just about wrapped up here." he said.
Steve was in Stark Tower, walking towards the elevator.
Meanwhile Steve was in Stark Tower, walking towards the elevator.
"Got it. I'm approaching the elevator now." he said.
"If it's all the same to you... I'll have that drink now." 2012 Loki said.
"All right, get him on his feet. We can all stand around posing up a storm later. By the way, feel free to clean up." 2012 Tony said.
"Uh, Mr. Rogers. I almost forgot that that suit" Tony said and Steve was walking around in his 2012 suit. "did nothing for your ass."
"No one asked you to look, Peter." Steve said.
"It's ridiculous." Tony whispered.
"I think you look great, Cap. As far as I'm concerned, that's America's ass." Scott said and did a patriotic salute.
"Who gets the, uh, magic wand?" 2012 Natasha said.
"STRIKE team's coming to secure it." 2012 Tony said.
Then a Hydra team including Rumlow and Sitwell entered, known at this time as a part of SHIELD.
"We can take that" 2012 Sitwell said taking Loki's Scepter from 2012 Natasha. "off your hands."
"By all means. Careful with that thing." 2012 Natasha said.
"Unless you want your mind erased. And not in a fun way." 2012 Clint said.
"We promise to be careful." 2012 Sitwell said.
"Who are these guys?" Scott asked.
"They are SHIELD...Well, actually Hydra. But, they didn't know that yet." Tony said.
"Seriously, you didn't? I mean... they look like bad guys."
"You're small, but you're talking loud."
"On my way down to coordinate search and rescue." 2012 Steve said.
"On my way down to coordinate search and rescue!" 2012 Loki said transforming into Steve for a second imitation. "I mean, honestly! How do you think you'll be..." he said transforming back.
"Shut up." 2012 Thor said slapping on a device on Loki's mouth to make him quiet.
"All right, you're up, little buddy." Tony said looking at the briefcase with the Tesseract. "There's our stone."
"Alright. Flick me." Scott said lying down on Tony's should and Tony flicked him onto 2012 Tony, right into his beard.
Then 2012 Tony scratched his beard, dropping present Scott onto 2012 Tony's reactor.
All of the 2012 Avengers got in an elevator. Hulk made to follow, but found the elevator full.
"Move." 2012 Hulk said.
"Whoa!" 2012 Thor said.
"Whoa, whoa. Hey! Buddy. What do you think? Maximum occupancy has been reached." 2012 Tony said.
"Take the stairs." 2012 Thor said.
"Yeah." 2012 Tony said and Hulk drew his fist back right as the elevator door closed. "Stop. Stop!"
Then Hulk followed through with the punch, making a dent in the wall right where the door was.
"Take the stairs! Hate the stairs!" 2012 Hulk said.
"All right, Cap. I got our scepter in the elevator just passing the 80th floor." Tony said.
"On it. Head to the lobby." Steve said.
"Alright. I'll see you there."
Meanwhile HYDRA agents were in the elevator.
"Evidence secure. We're en route to Dr. List. No. No hitches at all, Mr. Secretary." 2012 Sitwell said and the elevator opened and HYDRA agents saw Steve who walked in and hit the button to continue down. "Captain. I thought you were coordinating search and rescue?"
"Change of plans." Steve said.
"Hey, Cap." 2012 Rumlow said.
"Rumlow." Steve said and everyone started getting suspicious and put their guard up. "I just got a call from the Secretary. I'm gonna be running point on the scepter."
"Sir? I don't understand." 2012 Sitwell said.
"We got word there may be an attempt to steal it."
"Sorry, Cap. I can't give you the scepter." 2012 Rumlow said.
"I'm gonna have to call the Director." 2012 Sitwell said.
"That's okay. Trust me." Steve said and leaned over to Sitwell's ear. "Hail Hydra."
Everyone was surprised as Steve walked out of the elevator with the scepter and a smile.
On the building's stairwell The Hulk looked down at the many stairs below him.
"So many stairs!" 2012 Hulk said angrily.
In the lobby the 2012 Avengers started making their way out of the building. Tony and Scott eyed them undercover.
"Thumbelina, do you copy? I've got eyes on the prize. It's go-time." Tony said.
"Bombs away." Scott said. "I'm going inside you. Now."
"May I ask you where you're going?" 2012 Alexander said.
"To lunch and then Asgard. I'm sorry, you are?" 2012 Thor said.
"Alexander Pierce. He's the man, one of the folks behind Nick Fury." 2012 Tony said.
"My friends call me Mr. Secretary. I'm gonna have to ask you to turn that prisoner over to me." 2012 Alexander said.
"Loki will be answering to Odin himself." 2012 Thor said.
"Oh, he's gonna answer to us. Odin can have what's left. And I'm gonna need that case, that's been SHIELD property for over 70 years."
"Hand over the case, mister." HYDRA agent said.
"All right, move it, Stuart Little. Things are getting dicey up here. Let's go." Tony said through the radio to the present Scott as he inhaled sharply.
"I'm not gonna argue who's got the higher authority here, all right?" 2012 Tony said.
"You promise me you won't die?" Scott asked.
"You're only giving me a mild cardiac dysrhythmia."
"That doesn't sound mild."
"I need the case." 2012 Alexander said.
"I know you got a lotta pull. I'm just saying..." 2012 Tony said.
"Okay. Then give me the case."
"Do it, Lang!" Tony said.
"Get your hands off!" 2012 Tony said.
"Window's closing. Pull my pin!"
"Here goes!" Scott said, pulled off 2012 Tony's reactor, and 2012 Tony dropped the case.
"Stark?" 2012 Alexander said.
"Stark!" 2012 Thor said as 2012 Tony fell down to the ground.
"Look, he's convulsing. Give him air! Medic!"
"MEDIC! You guys, some help!" Tony said.
"Stark, you- your chest machine?"
Scott pushed the case, Loki looked at it and Tony grabbed it.
"Good job. Meet me in the alley. I'm gonna grab a quick slice." Tony said.
Suddenly, 2012 Hulk pushed him to the ground and the Tesseract slid to Loki.
"NO STAIRS!" 2012 Hulk said.
Everyone ran from his rampage and 2012 Loki grabbed the Tesseract and teleported it away.
"You'll be fine, Stark. Stay with us! I'll try something, okay? I have no idea if it's gonna work." 2012 Thor said and used the Mjolnir as the defibrillator on 2012 Tony. "YES!"
"That worked a treat. That was so crazy!" 2012 Tony said.
"I had no idea if that was gonna work."
"The case?" 2012
"The case. It's, uhh... Where's the case? Where's Loki? Loki!"
"That wasn't supposed to happen, was it?" Scott said.
"Oh, we blew it." Tony said.
"Loki!?" 2012 Thor said.
In a walkway several floors up Steve was having trouble on his communicator.
"Tony, what's going on? Tell me you found that cube." he said and looked up and groaned. "Oh, you gotta be shitting me."
In front of him, was his 2012 self looking back.
"I have eyes on Loki. 14th floor." 2012 Steve said.
"I'm not Loki. And I don't wanna hurt you." Steve said and put the case down.
2012 Steve engaged and they started to duel.
"I can do this all day." 2012 Steve said.
"Yeah, I know. I know." Steve said standing up.
They frisbee their shield's at one another which clang away as they brawl, inadvertently kicking away the case containing the scepter which fell down a few levels. 2012 Steve got the upper hand on Future Steve's as they fell down to the same level as the scepter. Future Steve's locket of Peggy fell out and 2012 Steve noticed it.
"Where did you get this?" he asked with future Steve in a chokehold.
"Bucky... is... alive!" Steve said. "And… has… a… son!"
"What?"
Future Steve took the chance to sucker punch his counterpart, grab the scepter and knock 2012 Steve out, got up and stared at him.
"That is America's ass." Steve said.
Bruce and 2012 The Ancient One had Hulk lying down on a beach chair looking like he's sleeping with a hat on, Bruce tried reasoning with her to let him have the Time Stone.
"Please, please!" he said.
"I'm sorry, I can't help you, Bruce. If I give up the Time Stone to help your Reality, I'm dooming my own." she said.
"With all due respect, I'm not sure the science really supports that."
Then The Ancient One created a projection with a long ray that simulates the flow of time.
"The Infinity Stones create what you experience as the flow of time. Remove one stone and that flow splits." she said and flicked the Time Stone projection away showing black stream indicating a point of divergence. "Now, this may benefit your reality, but my new one…not so much. In this new branched Reality, without our chief weapon against the forces of darkness, our world will be overrun. Millions will suffer. So, tell me, Doctor, can your science prevent all that?"
"No, but we can erase it. Because once we are done with the stones, we can return each one to its own timeline at the moment it was taken. So, chronologically," he said and held the Time Stone projection. "in that reality," he said and put it back to its spot. "it never left." he said and his astral form took the projection of the removed Time Stone, replaced it back amongst the other five, and the doomed alternate dimension faded away, illustrating his point.
"But you are leaving out the most important part. In order to return the stones, you have to survive." she said still not convinced.
"We will. I will. I promise."
"I can't risk this Reality on a promise. It is the duty of the Sorcerer Supreme to protect the Time Stone."
"Then, why the hell did Strange give it away?"
"What did you say?" she asked surprised.
"Strange, he gave it away. He gave it to Thanos."
"Willingly?"
"Yes!"
"...Why?"
"I have no idea. Maybe he made a mistake."
"Or I did." she said and returned to him control of his Hulk body and opened the Eye of Agamotto, revealing the Time Stone. "Strange is meant to be the best of us."
"So he must have done it for a reason."
"I fear you might be right." she said and gave him the Time Stone.
"Thank you."
"I'm counting on you, Bruce. We all are."
2014 Thanos, 2014 Nebula, 2014 Gamora and 2014 Ebony were on the Sanctuary II.
"Run diagnostics. Show me her memory file." 2014 Thanos said to Maw.
"Sire, the file appears entangled. It was a memory, but not hers. There's another consciousness sharing her network...another Nebula." 2014 Maw said.
"Impossible."
"This duplicate carries a time stamp... from nine years in the future."
"Where is this other Nebula?"
"In our solar system. On Morag."
"Can you access her?"
"Yes. The two are linked."
"Search the duplicate's memories for Infinity Stones."
Then a memory of the meeting with all the Avengers started playing.
"And these stones have been in a lot of different places throughout history." Bruce said.
"Our history. So, not a lot of convenient spots to just drop in." Tony said.
"Which means we have to pick our targets." Clint said.
"Correct." Tony said and the memory ended.
"Freeze image." Thanos said to Maw.
"Terrans." Gamora said.
"Avengers. Unruly wretches. What's that reflection? Amplify this, Maw."
"I don't understand. Two Nebulas." she said looking at a reflection of 2023 Nebula.
"No. The same Nebula. From two different times. Set course for Morag. Scan the duplicate's memories. I want to see everything."
Meanwhile Thor and Rocket were in 2013 Asgard.
"My ladies, I'll see you after. Go on." 2013 Frigga said.
Thor tried not to get caught behind a large post, but gets shocked when he sees his mother behind him.
"What are you doing?" she asked him.
"Aah!" Thor said.
"Aah!"
"OH, God!"
"You're better off leaving the sneaking to your brother."
"Yeah, I was simply just going for a walk, and uh..." he said trying to hide his stomach.
"What are you wearing?"
"I always wear this. This is one of my favorites."
Frigga put her hand on his face and took a good look at him.
"What's wrong with your eye?" she asked.
"Oh, my eye. That's... you remember the Battle of Haroquin? When I got hit in the face with a broadsword?"
"You're not the Thor I know at all, are you?"
"Yes, I am." he said pretending.
"The future hasn't been kind to you, has it?"
"I didn't say I'm from the future."
"I was raised by witches, boy. I see with more than eyes, and you know that."
Thor tried to hold back his tears and failed miserably.
"I am totally, totally from the future." he said breaking up.
"Yes, you are."
"I really need to talk to you."
"We can talk." she said and they hugged each other.
Meanwhile Jane Foster was waking up while Rocket snuck behind her to extract the Aether.
Back with Thor and Frigga's conversation.
"His head was over there... His body over there... What was the point? I was too late. I was just standing there. Some idiot with an axe." Thor said.
"You're no idiot. You're here aren't you? Seeking counsel from the wisest person in Asgard." 2013 Frigga said.
"I guess, yeah."
"Idiot? No. A failure? Absolutely."
"That's a little bit harsh."
"You do know what that makes you? Just like everyone else."
"I'm not supposed to be like everyone else, am I?"
"Everyone fails at who they are supposed to be, Thor. The measure of a person, of a hero, is how well they succeed at being who they are."
"I really missed you, Mum."
Meanwhile Rocket was running away from the Asgardian soldiers.
"Thor! I got it!" Rocket said.
"Get that rabbit!" a 2013 Asgardian soldier said.
"Ma, I have to tell you something." Thor said.
"No, son. You don't. You're here to repair your future, not mine." Frigga said.
"But this is about your future."
"It's none of my business."
"Hey. You must be Mom. I got the thing. Come on, we got to move." Rocket said.
"I wish we had more time." Thor said.
"No, this was a gift. And you're going to be the man you're meant to be." 2013 Frigga said.
"I love you, Mom."
"I love you. And eat a salad."
"Come on. We gotta go." Rocket said.
"Goodbye." Frigga whispered.
"Three... two..."
"No, wait!" Thor said and held out his hand.
"Wh- what am I looking at?" Rocket asked Frigga.
"Oh, sometimes it takes a second." Frigga said and Thor summoned Mjolnir.
"I'm still worthy." Thor said happy and a little surprised.
"Oh, boy." Rocket said.
"Goodbye, Mom."
"Goodbye." Frigga whispered.
Quill was on Morag dancing and Rhodey and Nebula were hiding in the background watching him dance and sing to their perspective without music.
"So he's an idiot?" Rhodey said.
"Yeah." Nebula said.
Then Rhodey knocked out Quill and Nebula rummaged around to take his tool.
"What's that?" Rhodey asked.
"The tool of a thief." Nebula said, used the tool to open the door that lead to The Power Stone and tried to walk in but was stopped by Rhodey.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa...This is the part where spikes come out with skeletons on the end and everything..."
"What are you talking about?"
"When you break into a place called the temple of the Power Stone, There's gonna be a bunch of booby traps–" he said and she just shook her head and walked in. "Okay. All right. Go ahead."
Nebula forced her hand inside the force field protecting The Orb while it melt away the exterior plating on her arm. She successfully retrieved The Orb and hand edit to Rhodey all the while he watched the whole thing happened.
"I wasn't always like this." she said.
"Me either. But we work with what we got, right?" he asked and they looked at each other solemnly. "Sync up." he said and they both suit up. "Three.. two.. one..."
Rhodey was the only one who disappeared while Nebula was left behind unable to move, then she riddled with pain on her head and fell to the ground.
On the Sanctuary II 2014 Nebula was being scanned in synch with her future self. A memory was played, coming from future Nebula's head.
"You murdered trillions!" memory Bruce said.
"You should be grateful." memory Thanos said.
"Where are the stones?" memory Natasha asked.
"Gone. Reduced to atoms."
"You used them two days ago." memory Bruce said.
"I used the stones to destroy the stones. It nearly killed me. But the work is done. It always will be. I am inevitable." memory Thanos said and the memory paused.
"What did you do to them?" 2014 Gamora asked.
"Nothing. Yet. They're not trying to stop something I'm going to do in our time. They're trying to undo something I've already done in theirs." 2014 Thanos said.
"The stones..."
"I found them all. I won. Tipped the cosmic scales to balance." he said and caress her and she knelt down.
"This is your future." Ebony said.
"It's my destiny." Thanos said and Ebony resumed playing the memory.
"My father is many things. A liar is not one of them." memory Nebula said.
"Ah... Thank you, Daughter. Perhaps I treated you too harshly..." memory Thanos said.
Thanos got beheaded in the memory and 2014 Gamora was shocked and stood up.
"And that, is destiny fulfilled." 2014 Thanos said.
"Sire, your Daughter..." Ebony said in a dangerous voice and telekinetically wrapped a chain around Nebula (2014).
"No!" 2014 Nebula said.
"...is a traitor."
"That's not me. It's not. I could never... I would never betray you. Never."
Then 2014 Thanos released the chain around her neck and held her head in his palm.
"I know. And you'll have the chance to prove it." he said and made sure she can't travel back to 2023.
Then Nebula was stuck in 2014.
"No! He knows!" she said and ran back to the ship and got on the comms. "Barton? Barton, come in. Romanoff? Come in, we have a problem. Come on! Come in, we have a prob...Thanos knows. Thanos… He knows." she said and looked up in horror just to be abducted by the Sanctuary II.
Meanwhile Steve was jumping down from a building with the scepter.
"Cap–" Tony said and Steve turned around to see Tony and Scott sitting in a broken car. "We got a problem."
"Huh. Yeah, we do." Scott said.
"Well, what are we gonna do now?" Steve asked.
"You know what? Give me a break, Steve. I just got hit in the head with the Hulk." Tony said.
"You said that we had one shot. This– this was our shot. We shot it. It's shot. Six stones or nothing. Six stones or nothing–" Scott said.
"You're repeating yourself, you know that? You're repeating yourself."
"You're repeating yourself. You're repeating yourself. You know– No."
"Dude, come on."
"You never wanted a time heist, you went on board with the time heist–"
"I dropped the ball."
"You ruined the time heist."
"Is that what I did?"
"Yeah!"
"Are there any other options with the Tesseract?" Steve asked.
"No, no, no. There's no other options. There's no do-overs. We're not going anywhere else. We have one particle left. Each. That's it, alright? We use that– Bye, bye. You're not going home."
"Yeah, well if we don't try, then no one else is going home, either."
"I got it. There's another way. To retake the Tesseract and acquire new particles. We'll stroll down memory lane. Military installation, Garden State." Tony said.
"When were they both there?"
"They were there at a– I've a vaguely exact idea."
"How vague?"
"What are you talking about? Where are we going?" Scott asked.
"I know for a fact they were there–" Tony said.
"Who's they? What are we doing?"
"And I know how I know."
"Guys, what's up? What is it?"
"Well, it looks like we're improvising."
"Right. What are we improvising?"
"Scott, get this back to the compound." Tony said.
"What's in New Jersey?"
"0-4,"
"0-4– -" Steve said.
"Uhh, 0-7."
"0-7. -"
"Excuse me..." Scott said.
"1-9-7-0." Tony said.
"Are you sure?" Steve asked.
"Cap. Captain. Steve, sorry, America. Rogers. Look, if you do this, and this doesn't work, you're not coming back." Scott said.
"Thanks for the pep talk, pissant." Tony said. "Do you trust me?" he asked Steve.
I do." Steve said.
"Your call."
"Here we go."
A few seconds later Steve and Tony were in New Jersey, 1970.
"Hey, man! Make love, not war!" Stan Lee said driving past them.
"Clearly, you weren't actually born here, right?" Tony said.
"The idea of me was." Steve said.
"Right. Well, imagine you're SHIELD, running a quasi-fascistic intelligence organization. Where do you hide it?"
"In plain sight." Steve said and they were in an elevator with a lady.
"Good luck on your mission, Captain." Tony said leaving the elevator.
"Good luck on your project, doctor." Steve Rogers said waiting for another floor.
"You're new here?" the elevator lady said.
"Not exactly."
Tony was in a lab area looking for the tesseract.
"Gotcha. Back in the game." he said.
"Arnim, you in there? Arnim? Hey! Door's this way, pal." Howard said.
"Oh, yeah."
"I'm looking for Dr. Zola. Have you seen him?
"Yeah, no, Dr. Zol– No, I haven't seen a soul." Tony said and awkwardly bumped into a chair. "Pardon me."
"Do I know you?"
"No, sir. I'm a– a visitor from MIT."
"Huh. MIT. Got a name?"
"Uh– Howard."
"Well, that'll be easy to remember."
"Howard– Potts."
"Well, I'm Howard Stark." Howard said and held out a hand to shake.
"Hi." Tony Howard's finger.
"Shake it, don't pull it."
"Yeah–"
"You look a little green around the gills there, Potts."
"I'm fine. Just, long hours."
"Wanna get some air? Hello, Potts."
"Yeah. That would be swell."
"That way."
"Okay."
"Need your briefcase?" Howard asked and Tony grabbed the case. "You're not one of those beatniks, are ya, Potts?"
Meanwhile a younger Hank Pym was in his laboratory.
"Hello. Dr. Pym?" current Steve said.
"That would be the number that you called. Yes." Hank said.
"This is Captain Stevens from shipping. We have a package for you."
"Bring it up."
"Well, that's the thing, sir. We can't."
"I'm confused. I thought that was your job."
"Well, it's just– Sir, the box is glowing and, to be honest, some of our mail guys aren't feeling that great."
"They didn't open it, did they?"
"Yeah, they did. You better get down here."
A few minutes later Hank was running down a hallway.
"Excuse me! Out of the way!" he said.
Back to Howard and Tony.
"So, flowers and sauerkraut. You got a big date tonight?" Tony said.
"My wife's expecting. And, uh– Too much time in the office." Howard said.
"Congratulations."
"Thanks. Hold this, will you?"
"Yeah, sure. How far along is she?"
"I don't know– Uh– She's at the point where she can't stand the sound of my chewing. I guess I'll be eating dinner in the pantry again."
"I have a little girl."
"A girl would be nice. Less of a chance she'd turn out exactly like me."
"What'd be so awful about that?"
"Let's just say that the greater good has rarely outweighed my own self-interests."
Meanwhile the elevator lady was talking to security guards about Tony and Steve looking fishy.
"And you've never seen these two men before?" the security officer said.
"No, I've got an eye for this. The two of them looked fishy." the elevator lady said.
"Can you describe them?"
"Well, one of them had a hippie beard."
"Hippie? Like Bee Gees or Mungo Jerry?"
"Definitely Mungo Jerry."
"Yeah, this is Chesler. I need every available MPs on sub-level 6. We have a potential breach.
Then Steve walked into a room. Feeling safe, he suddenly saw a picture of himself surprised to see his love Margret Carter.
Meanwhile Tony and Howard were still talking to each other.
"So, where are you at with names?" Tony said.
"Well, if it's a boy, my wife likes Elmonzo." Howard said.
"Huh, Might wanna let that stew awhile. You got time."
"Let me ask you a question. When your kid was born– were you nervous?"
"A little."
"Did you feel qualified? Like you had any idea how to successfully operate that thing?"
"Yeah, I thought about what my uncle did, and–"
"My old man, he never met a problem he couldn't solve with a belt."
"I never really knew my dad. And now, looking back, I just remember the good stuff with my uncle, you know. He did drop the odd pearl."
"Yeah? Like what?"
"No amount of money ever bought a second of time."
"Smart guy."
"He did his best."
"Let me tell you. That kid's not even here yet, and there's nothing I wouldn't do for him. Good to meet you, Potts."
"Yeah, Howard– Everything's gonna be all right. Thank you– for everything– you've done for this country."
"Jarvis, have we ever met that guy?"
"You meet a lot of people, sir." Jarvis said.
"Seems very familiar. Weird beard."
2014 Nebula had captured 2023 Nebula and was fighting her future self.
"You're weak." 2014 Nebula said.
"I'm you." Nebula said and 2014 Nebula threw a punch straight at her and 2014 Gamora walked into the room. "You can stop this. You know you want to. Did you see what happens in the future? Thanos finds the Soul Stone. You wanna know how he does that? You wanna know what he does to you?" Nebula said.
"That's enough." 2014 Nebula said and kicked and Present Nebula to the wall and pulled out her Electric Knife. "You disgust me. But that doesn't mean you're useless." she said and stole the golden plate on the side of Present Nebula´s face and wore it herself.
Then she walked up to Thanos, gave him a Pym Particle and showed him her new look.
"How do I look?" she asked.
Soon they arrived at 2014 Vormir.
"Wow– Under different circumstances, this would be totally awesome." Clint said.
Then they started walking towards the mountain and climbed it.
"I bet the raccoon didn't have to climb a mountain." Natasha said.
"Technically, he's not a raccoon, you know."
"Whatever. He eats garbage."
"Welcome." 2013 Red Skull said and they drew their weapons. "Natasha, daughter of Ivan. Clint, son of Edith."
"Who are you?"
"Consider me a guide. To you, and to all who seek the Soul Stone."
"Oh, good. You tell us where it is. Then we'll be on our way."
"Ah, liebchen– If only it were that easy." he said said and leads them to the cliff. "What you seek lies in front of you... as does what you fear."
"The stone is down there."
"For one of you. For the other... In order to take the stone, you must lose that which you love. An everlasting exchange. A soul, for a soul."
Later Natasha was sitting on a log while Clint watched the Stonekeeper.
"How's it going? Jesus... Maybe he's making this shit up." Clint said.
"No. I don't think so." Natasha said.
"Why, 'cause he knows your Daddy's name?"
"I didn't. Thanos left here with the stone without his daughter. It's not a coincidence."
"Yeah."
"Whatever it takes."
"Whatever it takes." he said and she stood up.
"If we don't get that stone, billions of people stay dead."
"Then I guess we both know who it's gotta be."
"I guess we do." she said and he held her hand and she reciprocated and they looked at each other.
"I'm starting to think– we mean different people here, Natasha."
"For the last five years I've been trying to do one thing: Get to right here. That's all it's been about. Bringing everybody back."
"Oh, don't you get all decent on me now."
"What, you think I wanna do it? I'm trying to save your life, you idiot."
"Yeah, well, I don't want you to, because I– Natasha, you know what I've done. You know what I've become."
"I don't judge people on their worst mistakes."
"Maybe you should."
"You didn't."
"You're a pain in my ass, you know that?" he said and they leaned their heads against each other. "Okay. You win." he said, smiled and and knocked her to the ground. "Tell my family I love them."
Then Natasha returned the favor by tackling him to the ground.
"You tell them yourself." she said, electrocuted him and ran towards the cliff.
Then he got up and shot an explosive arrow knocking her down. Then he ran towards the cliff and jumped but she jumped after him and hooked him up to a grappling hook.
"Damn you!" he said.
"Let me go."
"No. Please, no."
"It's okay."
"Please–" he said but she kicked the wall, fell off the rope and plummeted to the ground. "NO!"
Her body was on the ground, dead. A boom in the sky sent Clint in a pool of water with the Soul Stone in his hand. He hit the ground out of sadness and his Quantum Suit activate and he shrunk back to the present day, soon joined by the others returning from their journeys.
At the Avengers HQ and the Quantum platform everyone looked around to see all the recovered stones.
"Did we get them all?" Bruce asked.
"You telling me this'll actually work?" Rhodey said and there was a pause as everyone started to realize someone was missing.
"Clint, where's Nat?"
The silence from Clint told them all they need to know. The mission was completed but at a dire cost. Sadness overtook everyone. Bruce fell to his knees and pounded the floor in grief.
Outside HQ Lakeside, Tony, Steve, Thor, Clint and Bruce were mourning their fallen teammate and friend.
"Do we know if she had family?" Tony asked.
"Yeah. Us." Steve said.
"What?" Thor asked confused.
"I just asked him a question–" Tony said.
"Yeah, you're acting like she's dead. Why are we acting like she's dead? We have the stones, right? As long as we have the stones, Cap, we can bring her back, isn't that right?" Thor said. "So stop this shit. We're the Avengers, get it together." he said growling.
"We can't get her back." Clint said.
"Wha– what?"
"It can't be undone. It can't." Clint said and Thor dryly laughed.
"I'm sorry. No offense, but you're a very earthly being. Okay? We're talking about space magic. And "can't" seems very definitive don't you think?"
"Yeah, look, I know that I'm way outside my paygrade here. But she still isn't here, is she?" Clint said to him.
"No, that's my point–"
"It can't– be undone. Or that's at least what the red floating guy had to say." Clint said. "Maybe you wanna go talk to him, okay? GO GRAB YOUR HAMMER, AND YOU GO FLY AND TALK TO HIM!" he shouted and his Clint's anger was quickly replaced with grief. "It was supposed to be me. She sacrificed her life for that goddamn stone. She bet her life on it."
In a burst of anger, Bruce grabbed a bench and hurled it clear across the lake. His anger spent and he turned to the others with a resigned look on his face.
"She's not coming back. We have to make it worth it. We have to." he said.
"We will." Steve said.
Inside the Avenger's Lab Tony carefully placed the stones in the gauntlet he made while Bruce and Rocket watched. With nervous precision, Peter manipulated the machine and carefully put all six stones into the gauntlet.
"Boom!" Rocket said and they jumped a bit, and quickly groaned at his joke.
Later everyone was in another room gathered around the new finished gauntlet.
"All right. The glove's ready. Question is, who's gonna snap their freaking fingers?" Rocket said.
"I'll do it." Thor said.
"Excuse me?" Scott said.
"It's okay."
"No, no, no, whoa. Stop. Stop. Wait a sec. Hey, hey–" everyone said holding up Thor.
"Wait, wait, Thor, just wait. We haven't decided who's gonna put that on yet." Steve said.
"I'm sorry. What, we're just sitting around waiting for the right opportunity?" Thor said.
"We should at least discuss it." Scott said.
"No, no, sitting here staring at that thing is not gonna bring everybody back. I'm the strongest Avenger, okay? So this responsibility falls upon me. It's my duty."
"It's not about that–" Tony said.
"It's not that– Stop it! Just let me!" Thor said and hushed everyone. "Just let me do it. Just let me do something good. Something right." he said and teared up.
"Look– It's not just the fact that that glove is channeling enough energy to light up a continent, I'm telling you, you're in no condition."
"What do you– What do you think is coursing through my veins right now?"
"Cheez Whiz?" Rhodey said.
"Lightning."
"Yeah." Tony said.
"Lightning won't help you, pal. It's gotta be me." Bruce said and Thor let go of Tony. "You saw what those stones did to Thanos. It almost killed him. None of you could survive."
"How do we know you will?" Steve asked.
"We don't. But the radiation's mostly gamma." Bruce said and took a good look at the gauntlet. "It's like... I was made for this."
Then 2014 Nebula snuck off to the Quantum portal and activated it.
"Good to go, yeah?" Tony said.
"Let's do it. Bruce said.
"You remember– everyone Thanos snapped away five years ago and just bringing them back to now, today. Don't change anything from the last five years."
"Got it." Bruce said and everyone got ready and suit up.
"F.R.I.D.A.Y., do me a favor and activate Barn Door Protocol. Will you?"
"Yes, boss." F.R.I.D.A.Y. said and Avengers facility went on lockdown.
"Everybody comes home." Bruce said and put on the gauntlet, which nanobotically expanded to fit his hand, and the power surge overwhelmed him.
He grunted in pain.
"Take it off! Take it off!" Thor said.
"No, wait. Bruce, are you okay?" Steve said.
"Talk to me, Bruce." Tony said.
"I'm okay. I'm okay." Bruce said.
Thor gave a double thumbs up.
Meanwhile 2014 Nebula was opening the Quantum Tunnel and brought the Sanctuary II to the present. Bruce screamed, fighting through the intense pain coursing through his body courtesy of the gauntlet, and managed to snap his fingers. Then he fainted and the gauntlet slid off his arm, Clint kicked it away.
"Bruce!" Steve said.
"Don't move him." Tony said.
"Did it work?" Bruce asked holding Steve's arm.
"Worth a shot. It's over. It's okay." Thor said.
Scott walked towards the outside windows and saw plants and birds. Clint heard his phone ringing and saw it's his wife calling.
"Honey. Honey." he said struggling to speak from sheer happiness.
"Guys– I think it worked!" Scott said.
Bruce opened his eyes and saw the Sanctuary II up in the sky and a single missile heading towards the base blowing away Scott away. Then a continuous array of missiles destroyed the base completely and everyone sunk below to the underground.
Bruce was holding up tons of debris from collapsing on top of the other Avengers with his one good arm. Some debris was stuck on top of Rocket.
"I can't breathe. I can't breathe! I can't breathe." Rocket said
"Canopy. Canopy. Canopy." Rhodey said and got out of his damaged suit.
"Rhodey, Rocket, get outta here!" Bruce said and Rhodey crawled over to help Rocket while taking a rebar as leverage to lift the debris off Rocket.
"Hurry up! Hurry up! Come on!" Rocket said and Rhodey got him out and they sighed in relief.
"Rhodey!" Bruce said and a flood engulfed both Rhodey and Rocket.
Scott who survived the blast by shrinking.
"Mayday, mayday! Does anybody copy? We're in the lower level, it's flooding!" Rhodey said.
"What?" Scott said.
"We're drowning! Does anybody copy? Mayday!"
"Wait! I'm here! I'm here, can you hear me?"
Meanwhile Clint was in the sewer system trying to get his bearings and flashed a light upwards to see what happened.
Cap?" he said and found the gauntlet with him but sensed he's not alone down there.
He shot an arrow with light towards the dark tunnel and found hordes of Outriders.
"Damn." he said under his breath, took the gauntlet and ran towards the opposite direction while the Outriders chase after him.
At the Sanctuary II and it beamed 2014 fully armored to the ground and Nebula walked towards him.
"Daughter." 2014 Thanos said.
"Yes, Father." 2014 Nebula said.
"So, this is the future. Well done."
She took off the orange plate on her head and threw it away.
"Thank you, Father. They suspected nothing." she said.
2014 Thanos put his double-bladed sword on the ground, took off his helmet and put on top of the sword's edge.
"The arrogant never do." he said and sat down. "Go. Find the stones. Bring them to me."
"What will you do?"
"Wait."
2014 Nebula proceeded to go find the stones and 2014 Gamora was watching. Then 2014 Gamora headed over to where Nebula was being held prisoner.
"Tell me something. In the future, what happens to you and me?" 2014 Gamora said.
"I tried to kill you. Several times." Nebula said and 2014 Gamora rolled her eyes. "But eventually, we become friends. We become sisters." she said and 2014 Gamora held out her hand.
"Come on. We can stop him." 2014 Gamora said and Nebula took it.
Meanwhile Tony was walking towards unconscious Steve on the ground.
"Come on. Wake up." he said. "You lose this again, I'm keeping it." he said holding Steve's shield.
"What happened?" Steve asked.
"You messed with time. It tends to mess back. You'll see." Tony said and helped him to his feet.
Then they walked up to join Thor, observing 2014 Thanos from a distance.
"What's he been doing?" Tony asked.
"Absolutely nothing." Thor said.
"Where are the stones?" Steve asked.
"Somewhere under all this. All I know is he doesn't have them." Tony said.
"You know it's a trap, right?" Thor asked.
"Yeah. And I don't care."
"Good. Just as long we are all in agreement." Thor said and thunder cracked as he stretched out both hands to summon both Stormbreaker and 2013 Mjolnir. Then his casual clothes transformed into his amour and cape, with his beard getting some braid treatment. "Let's kill him properly this time." he said and they walked over to confront Thanos face to face.
"You could not live with your own failure. And where did that bring you? Back to me. I thought by eliminating half of life, the other half would thrive. But you've shown me that's impossible. And as long as there are those that remember what was, there will always be those that are unable to accept what can be. They will resist." 2014 Thanos said.
"Yep. We're all kinds of stubborn." Tony said.
"I'm thankful. Because now, I know what I must do." 2014 Thanos said and stood up. "I will shred this universe down to its last atom." he said and put on his helmet. "And then– With the stones you've collected for me, create a new one. Teeming with life, but knows not what it has lost but only what it has been given." he said and Thor lit himself up. "A grateful universe."
"Born out of blood." Steve said.
"They'll never know it. Because you won't be alive to tell them."
The fighting started and Thor and Tony went straight at him.
Meanwhile, Hulk was under all of the mess trying to hold up the structure. Rhodey and Rocket were breathing for their lives.
"See you on the other side, man." Rhodey said.
"Hang on! I'm coming!" Scott said.
Meanwhile Hawkeye was running with the infinity gauntlet blowing the place, and escaped before the Outriders overwhelm him. Then he saw Nebula.
"Oh, hey– I know you." he said and gave her the gauntlet.
Then she put her hand on her earpiece.
"Father." 2014 Nebula said and Clint gasped and found out that she's from 2014. "I have the stones." 2014
"What?!" he said and tried getting up but she stepped her foot down on him and points her gun at him.
"Stop." 2014 Gamora said and came around the corner.
"You're betraying us?" 2014 Nebula said and with her hands up, joined 2014 Gamora.
Then she pointed her gun at her future self.
"You don't have to do this." Nebula said.
"I am this."
"No, you're not." 2014 Gamora said.
"You've seen what we become." Nebula said.
"Nebula, listen to her."
"You can change."
"He won't let me." 2014 Nebula said and pointed her gun at 2014 Gamora.
"NO!" 2014 Gamora said.
Then present Nebula shot 2014 Nebula and she died. Hawkeye picked up the Infinity Gauntlet.
Back with Tony, Steve and Thor.
"Okay, Thor. Hit me." Tony said and Thor banged his 2 hammers together combined with his lightning.
Tony's suit sucked up the energy and he shot it out using his hands and his body. Thanos twirled his blade really fast to divert the energy. Then he grabbed Stormbreaker and used it to bat Mjölnir to hit Thanos who used Tony as a shield resulting in damage to his system.
"Boss, wake up!" F.R.I.D.A.Y.
Steve tried to attack Thanos but was easily shielded away by the Mad Titan. Thor's attack on him was blocked by his sword. Thor was beaten and choked by Thanos, as he punched him. Mjolnir was flicked away as Thanos relentlessly beat up Thor, throwing him into a tree and socking him before throwing him over rubble and socking him again. Thor tried grabbing Stormbreaker but Thanos grabbed it and used it against Thor as he tried to defend himself. 2013 Mjolnir started floating off the ground while Thanos was digging it into Thor, when suddenly Mjolnir flew into Thanos, zoomed past, stopped and flew back, both look on in amazement as Steve picked up the hammer.
"I knew it!" Thor said.
Then 2014 Thanos' kicked him to the ground and proceed to battle Steve dual wielding both his shield and 2013 Mjolnir.
Steve proceeded to charge at Thanos swinging 2013 Mjolnir and hitting Thanos in the face knocking him down. Steve threw his shield and 2014 Thanos deflected, Steve threw 2013 Mjolnir to his shield creating a shockwave and knocking 2014 Thanos off his feet. Then Steve went on the offensive on him, throwing his shield first at him and quickly hitting it back at him again with Mjolnir. He lined his arm back up and underarmed a channel of lightning on Thanos who eventually got the upper hand as he removed his helmet, stabbed Steve on the leg and knocked 2013 Mjolnir out of his hand. Thanos proceeded to destroy Steve's shield with his double-bladed sword and threw him across the battlefield.
Then Steve staggeredly tried to get up.
"In all my years of conquest– violence– slaughter– It was never personal. But I'll tell you now– what I'm about to do to your stubborn, annoying little planet– I'm gonna enjoy it. Very, very much." 2014 Thanos said and summoned his entire army to the ground including the Children of Thanos, Chitauri, Sakaarans, Outriders and Chitauri Gorillas.
Upon seeing the army descending on Earth, Steve slowly got back to his feet. With a fierce determination, he tightened his broken shield to his arm and stood against Thanos' giant army alone. Suddenly, a crackling came in on his communicator.
"Hey, Cap, you read me?" Sam said and Steve stopped and looked around. "Cap, it's Sam. Can you hear me?" he said and a yellow portal started forming behind him. "On your left."
Steve looked behind to see the portal on his left side. Three figures step through; Okoye, Shuri, and Black Panther, fully restored and ready to fight. Steve and the revived Wakandans shared a look when Sam zoomed in from above in his Falcon armor. As he did, dozens more portals started opening all around the battlefield. Through one of these, Strange descended in joined by Drax, Mantis, Star Lord, and Spider-Verse. Everyone watched in confusion and awe as more and more heroes arrived from all corners of the universe, all backed up with forces of their own including Black Panther and his Wakandan army, Valkyrie and the Asgardians, Wong and the Masters of the Mystic Arts and several Ravager ships. Amongst the throngs of heroes we see Winter Soldier, Winter Spider, Groot, the Scarlet Witch, the Wasp, and Pepper in her own iron suit arrived. Nearly every hero had magically been transported to the battlefield to face Thanos' hordes.
"Is that everyone?" Strange asked.
"What, you wanted more?" Wong asked.
Giant-Man emerged from the rubble of the Avengers facility with Professor Hulk, War Machine and Rocket. The Avengers, Guardians, Wakandans, Asgardians and Ravagers took up battle positions standing across Thanos' forces.
"AVENGERS!" Steve said and summoned Mjolnir. "–assemble."
Thor made a battle cry, as does Black Panther and the heroes charge, the Avengers theme swelling with their stride. Thanos raised his sword towards them, commanding his army to charge as well. Then both sides collide. Drax and Korg, Pepper and Tony, all were battling against Thanos' army.
Steve and Thor were fighting and Steve took Stormbreaker but Thor flew to him and passed Mjolnir.
"No, no, give me that. You have the little one." he said.
Meanwhile Tony was fighting some of Thanos' army. But Cull Obsidian punched him to the ground, then Giant-Man stomped him flat and Spider-Verse ran to Tony.
"Hey! Holy cow! You will not believe what's been going on. Do you remember when we were in space? And I got all dusty? I must've passed out, Because I woke up, and you were gone. But Doctor Strange was there, right? He was like, "It's been five years. Come on, they need us." And then he started doing the yellow sparkly thing that he does all the time." Spider-Verse said.
"He did? Oh, God." Tony said.
"What are you doing?" Spider-Verse asked and Tony hugged him, making him shocked, but hugged Tony back. "Oh, this is nice."
Meanwhile Star-Lord was fighting a bunch of Sakaarans, killing all of them except one, making him fall over dead and he dropped on Qull. He got up and saw 2014 Gamora. Thinking its present Gamora, he was shocked.
"Gamora?" Quill said and slowly approached her. "I thought I lost you." he said and touched her hair, not knowing she isn't present Gamora.
Then she grabbed his hand firmly off her hair.
"Ow." he said.
Then she kicked him in the nuts, slightly hurting him.
"Don't– touch–" she said and kicked him again, but harder. "me!" she said and he fell from the pain, while she wiped her face.
"You missed the first time– Then you got them both the second time."
"This is the one? Seriously?" she asked Nebula.
"The choices were him, or a tree." Nebula said.
Quill was pointing to 2014 Gamora in confusion, then to Nebula in question, and then back to Gamora.
Later, Clint was running with the gauntlet.
"Cap, what do you want me to do with this damn thing?" he asked.
"Get those stones as far away as possible!" Steve said.
"No! We need to get them back where they came from." Bruce said.
"No way to get them back. Thanos destroyed the quantum tunnel." Tony said.
"Hold on!" Scott said and shrunk to normal size and pulled out a remote. "That wasn't our only time machine." he said and pressed the button, activating Luis's van's Horn and was heard from afar.
Hearing so, Steve went to higher ground.
"Anyone see an ugly, brown van up there?" he asked.
"Yes! But you're not gonna like where it's parked!" Valkyrie said.
"Scott, how long you need to get that thing working?" Tony asked.
"Maybe ten minutes." Scott said.
"Get it started. We'll get the stones to you." Steve said.
"We're on it, Cap." Hope said.
Then they shared a look and they shrunk. Scott grabbed her and they flew to the van. Strange trapped a group of Chitauri in his magic and sent them through portals as Tony joined him.
"Hey. You said one out of 14 million, we win, yeah? Tell me this is it." Tony said.
"If I tell you what happens, it won't happen." Strange said.
"You better be right."
Meanwhile Scott and Hope were entering a small hole in the van's window, getting to the drive seat, regrowing and trying to activate the Quantum Tunnel.
"It's a mess back here." Hope said.
"It's– it's dead." Scott said.
"What?"
"It's dead. I have to hotwire it."
"Where's Nebula?" Thanos asked.
"She's not responding." Corvus said.
"Sire!" Ebony said pointing and Thanos saw the gauntlet.
Clint rushed through Outriders, before finding himself surrounded and saved by Black Panther.
"Clint! Give it to me." T'Challa said and Clint gave him the Gauntlet and he ran towards the van while fighting Thanos' army.
Eventually he was stopped by the double edged sword, boomeranged by Thanos. When it got back to him, he charged T'Challa, but was stopped by Wanda, filled with anger for the loss of Vision.
"You took everything from me." Wanda said.
"I don't even know who you are." 2014 Thanos said.
"You will." she said and with her powers, she picked up some debris on the ground and tried to crush him with it.
Ebony May grabbed the Gauntlet with his telekinesis of bricks and did the same for T'Challa, trying to stop him from getting the glove.
"I got it!" Spider-Verse said and grabbed the Gauntlet with his webshooters and saw surrounded by Chitauri.
"Activate Instant Kill!" Winter Spider said and the Robotic Spider Legs came out of his back, stabbing the Chitauri.
Spider-Verse looked at him and saw him smirking.
"You still need a lot of work on that. And being an assassin for a while, I got more killing experience kid."
Spider-Verse smiled a little.
Then Winter Spider went to help Winter Soldier.
Thanos tried to kill Wanda with his double-bladed sword, but Wanda pushed it away and used her powers to try and crush him.
"Rain fire!" 2014 Thanos said.
"But sire, our troops!" Corvus said.
"Just do it!"
Then the spaceship cannons appeared and started firing at the heroes. It flung Wanda away. Wong made a shield and held it up and the others did the same.
Suddenly one of the cannons hit a dam and water started flooding into the battlefield. Pepper was the first to notice.
"Uh, is anyone else seeing this?" she asked.
Strange looked at the broken dam and used his magic to stop the water from flooding the battlefield.
Meanwhile, Spider-Verse was still battling the Chitauri.
"I got this. I got this! Okay, I don't got this. Help! Somebody, help!" Spider-Verse said.
"Hey, Queens, heads up." Steve said, threw Mjolnir, and Spider-Verse shot a web and glided along.
Then Pepper caught him.
"Hang on. I got you, kid." she said and dropped him on Valkyrie's Pegasus.
"Hey! Nice to meet you– OH, MY GOD!" Spider-Verse said and the cannons knocked him off the Pegasus, then turned to face something in the sky as the cannons start shooting at something.
"What the hell is this?" Sam asked.
"F.R.I.D.A.Y., what are they firing at?" Tony asked.
"Something just entered the upper atmosphere." F.R.I.D.A.Y. said.
Then a bright light of thundering energy came surging down as Carol flew through the ship, and it resulted in an explosion and the ship crash-landing in the lake.
"Oh, yeah!" Rocket said.
"Danvers, we need an assist here." Steve said.
Meanwhile Scott was finally activating the Quantum Tunnel.
Meanwhile Carol was landing near Spider-Verse, standing there holding the gauntlet with his body.
"Hi. I'm– Miles ?." Peter said.
"Hey, Miles ?. You got something for me?" Carol asked.
"I don't know how you're gonna get it through all that." he said, got up and handed her the gauntlet.
Then Wanda arrivedV with Valkyrie flying on her Pegasus as she arrived.
"Don't worry." Wanda said.
"She's got help." Okoye said and Pepper landed next to Okoye, followed by Mantis, Shuri, the Wasp, 2014 Gamora and Nebula.
Pepper landed next to Okoye, followed by Mantis, Shuri, the Wasp, 2014 Gamora and Nebula. Thanos' army charged while the women help Carol go through the
Outriders, Sakaarans and Chitauri. 2014 Gamora took out a gorilla, while Okoye took out Corvus Glaive. Wanda and Valkyrie destroyed two leviathans. Carol then started flying towards the van with the Gauntlet, flying past enemies and going through enemy blockades that are in her way with ease. Thanos, seeing this, started running to her, but was stopped by Pepper, Shuri and The Wasp, who blast him backwards. Thanos, after seeing Carol fly past him, threw his double sword at the van, destroying it and the quantum realm tunnel, throwing her backwards and losing her grip on the Gauntlet, which fell to the ground. Strange steadied the water after the explosion. In the final brawl for the Stark Gauntlet, Tony moved one of Thanos' enemies aside and saw the Gauntlet. He ran to get it, but saw Thanos, who he tackled. Thanos smacked Tony away, knocking him out.
Then Thor arrived with Stormbreaker and 2013 Mjolnir in an attempt to pin Thanos' arm down, with assistance from Steve. However, Thanos overpowered them and knocked them both out. After picking up the Gauntlet, Carol arrived, punching away at Thanos while he held the Gauntlet. She kept punching him, but he grabbed her by the arm and flung her away. Then he put on the gauntlet, gamma radiation from the stones eating at him as he tried to snap, but Carol raised again, and stopped his fingers from snapping, opening up his hand similar to what Steve did. Thanos headbutted her, but it did nothing. Just as Carol was gaining the upper hand by rising up and forcing Thanos onto his knees, he pulled the Power Stone out of the Gauntlet and used it in his free hand to hit her away. Tony looked in question at Strange, who simply raised one finger, telling him that the one win over Thanos he foresaw was at risk and Tony nodded. Thanos put the Power Stone back into the Gauntlet, yelling from the gamma radiation coursing through him, until Tony made one last attack on him, pulling on the Gauntlet before Thanos punched him away.
"I am– inevitable." Thanos said and snapped his fingers, but nothing happened except a metallic "clink."
He saw the Infinity Stones were missing. Tony had the stones on his own gauntlet, the gamma radiation coursing through him, to Thanos' shock.
"And I– am– Iron Man." Tony said and snapped his fingers with a loud "CLANG" and a blinding flash of white.
Rocket fired at a Leviathan and before it devours him, it crumbles into ash. The Black Order started crumbling to ash. T'Challa and Quill looked around in surprise; Steve looked on in exhaustion, knowing that they have won. Thanos, in horror, looked around and saw his entire army disintegrate. He looked at Steve, who just stared at him. Thanos sat down and mourned before slowly being erased from existence himself.
Meanwhile the power of the gauntlet raw energy had left Tony's entire right side fatally injured. He stumbled for a bit before his body collapsed besides a pile of debris. Rhodey soon flew in and went up to him to see him fading away. He bowed his head, knowing the damage was done. Then Spider-Verse flew in and saw Tony collapsed on the ground.
"Mr. Stark?" Spider-Verse said and ran up to him with tears forming in his eyes. "Hey– Mr. Stark? Can you hear me? It's Spider-Verse. Hey. We won, Mr. Stark– We won, Mr. Stark. We won. You did it, sir. You did it." he said and knelt but Tony was unresponsive and Spider-Verse broke down and hugged him. "I'm sorry– Tony–"
Then he gently put Tony aside to grieve and Pepper sat in front of the fading Tony.
"Hey." she said.
Tony was barely able to move his head, but managed to look Pepper in the eyes.
"Hey, Pep." Tony said he said quietly.
Pepper put her hand on his Arc Reactor and he rest his hand on hers. She took a good look at his fatal injuries and knelt.
"F.R.I.D.A.Y.?" she said and Tony smiled with tears in his eyes.
"Life functions critical." F.R.I.D.A.Y. said and Tony smiled with tears in his eyes.
"Tony. Look at me." Pepper said and made sure he got a long look at his smiling face. "We're gonna be okay. You can rest now."
With that acknowledgement, Tony's arc reactor flickered off for good. Pepper couldn't contain her grief anymore and started crying on his shoulder. Tony Stark, Iron Man, Earth's Best Defender, died. All the heroes gather and knelt in honor of Tony.
Later Clint was at his farm, joyfully reuniting with his family. Peter met up with Ned in the hallways and shared a handshake before giving each other a heartfelt hug.
In San Francisco, Scott watched fireworks with Cassie and Hope. In Wakanda, T'Challa, Shuri, and Ramonda oversaw the celebrations from their balcony.
"Everybody wants a happy ending, right? But it doesn't always roll that way. Maybe this time. I'm hoping if you play this back, it's in celebration. I hope families are reunited, I hope we get it back, and something like a normal version of the planet has been restored. If there ever was such a thing. God, what a world. Universe, now. If you told me ten years ago that we weren't alone, let alone, you know, to this extent, I mean, I wouldn't have been surprised. But come on, you know? The epic forces of darkness and light that have come into play. And, for better or worse, that's the reality Morgan's gonna have to find a way to grow up in." Tony said on voicemail over all this.
At the house Pepper, Morgan, Happy and Rhodey were watching his holographic message being projected from his Iron Man helmet. He was sitting down recording the message.
"So I thought I'd probably better record a little greeting... In the case of an untimely death on my part. I mean, not that, death at any time isn't untimely. This time travel thing that we're gonna try and pull off tomorrow, it's– it's got me scratching my head about the survivability of it all. That's the thing. Then again, that's the hero gig. Part of the journey is the end." Tony said and suddenly got up walking towards his camera. "What am I even trippin' for? Everything's gonna work out exactly the way it's supposed to." he said, leaned down and smiled then looked straight at Morgan. "I love you 3,000." he said and the message ended and the hologram cut out.
Outside the cottage Pepper carried a wreath out of the house to an audience waiting outside for the intimate funeral. She laid the wreath on the lake. On top of the wreath was Tony's first arc reactor which Pepper had framed with the words "Proof That Tony Stark Has a Heart". Pepper, Morgan, Happy and Rhodey, all being joined by Steve, Miles, his mom, Thor, Bruce, Strange, Wong, Scott, Hope, Janet, Hank, Quill, Nebula, Rocket, Groot, Drax, Mantis, T'Challa, Okoye, Shuri, Clint and his family, Wanda, Bucky, Peter, Sam, Harley, Ross, Hill, Carol and Fury silently watching the wreath float away.
Later Clint and Wanda were standing by the riverside.
"You know, I wish there was a way– that I could let her know. That we won." Clint said and looked over to Wanda. "We did it.
"She knows– They both do." Wanda said.
Then Clint gave her a side hug and she reciprocated.
Meanwhile Happy and Morgan were at the cabin.
"How you doing, Squirt?" Happy asked.
"Good." Morgan said.
"You good? Okay. You hungry?"
"Mm. Hm."
"What do you want?"
"Cheeseburgers."
"You know your dad liked cheeseburgers? I'm gonna get you all the cheeseburgers you want."
"Okay."
After the funeral, Thor and Valkyrie were in New Asgard.
"So, when can we expect you back?" Valkyrie asked.
"Um– about that–" Thor said.
"Thor. Your people need a king."
"No, they already have one."
"That's funny. You're being serious?" she said and he nodded his head.
"It's time for me to be who I am rather than who I'm supposed to be. But you, you're a leader. That's who you are."
"You know I'd make a lot of changes around here."
"I'm counting on it. Your Majesty." he said and offered her a farewell handshake.
"What will you do?"
"I'm not sure. For the first time in a thousand years, I– I have no path. I do have a ride, though."
Meanwhile the Benatar was parked on the cliff.
"Move it or lose it, hairbag." Rocket said.
Quill was searching for Gamora on the screen as Thor walked in he closed it.
"Well, here we are. Tree! Good to see you. Well–" Thor said, removed his shades and tapped Quill on the shoulder. "The Asgardians of the Galaxy, back together again. Where to first?" he said and touched the screens map to pick their destination.
"Hey, just so you know, this is my ship still. I'm in charge." Quill said.
"I know. I know. Of course, you are. Of course."
"See, you say of course, but then you touch the map. It makes you think that maybe you didn't realize I was in charge."
"Quail– you– that– that's your own–"
"Quail?"
"–insecurities in there. Okay? I'm merely trying to be of service and assisting."
"It's Quill."
"That's what I said."
"You should fight one another for the honor of leadership." Drax said.
"Sounds fair." Nebula said.
Quill looked around.
"It's not necessary." he said.
"It's not." Thor said.
"Okay?"
"I got some blasters, unless you guys wanna use knives." Rocket said.
"Oooh, yes. Please, use knives." Mantis said enthusiastically.
"Yeah, knives." Drax said.
"I am Groot." Groot said and Thor and Quill laughed but Quill tried to laugh harder.
"Not necessary..." Quill said.
"There shall be no knifing one another. Everybody knows who's in charge." Thor said and Quill glanced at him.
"Me, right?"
"Yes, you. Of course. Of course. Of course."
Meanwhile Bruce, Steve, Sam, Peter and Bucky were at the funeral.
"Now, remember– You have to return the stones to the exact moment you got them. Or you're gonna open up a bunch of nasty alternative realities." Bruce said.
"Don't worry, Bruce. Clip all the branches." Steve said.
"You know, I tried. When I had the gauntlet, the stones, I really tried to bring her back." Bruce said and looked at him. "I miss her, man."
"Me, too."
"You know, if you want, I can come with you." Sam said.
"You're a good man, Sam. This one's on me, though." Steve said and went over to Bucky. "Don't do anything stupid 'till I get back."
"How can I? You're taking all the stupid with you." Bucky said and they hugged each other. "Gonna miss you, buddy."
"It's gonna be okay, Bucky." Steve said and looked at Peter. "Make sure he really doesn't get into any trouble."
"Hey!" Bucky said and Peter snickered.
"Will do, uncle Steve." Peter said and Steve smiled.
Bucky smiled to happy he just heard that.
Then Steve went over to the Quantum portal and don the Quantum suit.
"How long is this gonna take?" Sam asked.
"For him? As long as he needs. For us? Five seconds." Bruce said and Steve picked up 2013 Mjolnir. "Ready, Cap? Alright. We'll meet you back here, okay?"
"You bet." Steve said.
"Going quantum. Three, two, one–" Bruce said and Steve disappeared into the Quantum portal. "And returning in, five, four, three, two, one–" he said but Steve didn't appear on the pad so Bruce looked around the equipment.
Peter looked at Bucky.
"He went back to your time to get what he's wanted, didn't he?" he said and Bucky nodded.
"Yeah, he did." Bucky said and wrapped his arm around him.
"Where is he?" Sam asked.
"I don't know. He blew right by his time stamp. He should be here." Bruce said and Bucky and Peter turned around from the pad.
"Well, get him back."
"I'm trying."
"Get him the hell back!"
"Hey, I said, I'm trying!"
"Sam..." Bucky said and Sam walked toward him.
Sam, Bucky, Peter and Bruce saw old looking Steve sitting on a log.
Sam, Bucky and Peter went near him.
"Go ahead." Bucky said with a smile forming and looked over to Sam.
Then he wrapped his arm around Peter again and held him close.
"I'm gonna miss him." Peter said and Bucky nodded.
"Me to bud, me to." he said and watched Sam walk towards him and instantly recognized the now-old Steve Rogers.
"Cap?" Sam said.
"Hi, Sam." Steve said and looked over to him.
"So did something go wrong, or did something go right?"
"Well, after I put the stones back, I thought, maybe I'll try some of that life Tony was telling me to get."
"How'd that work out for you?"
"It was beautiful."
"I'm happy for you. Truly."
"Thank you."
"Only thing bumming me out is the fact I have to live in a world without Captain America."
"Oh, That reminds me." Steve said and brought out his shield. "Try it on." he said and Sam looked over to Bucky, who nodded and Sam held Steve's shield. "How does it feel?"
"Like it's someone else's."
"It's not."
Sam tried to hold back tears.
"Thank you. I'll do my best." he said.
"That's why it's yours." Steve said and shook Sam's hand.
"You wanna tell me about her?" Sam asked seeing the ring.
"No. No, I don't think I will." Steve said smiling.
