The Uncut Branch- A What If Story

by Cash1122

Captain America went back to cut all the branches after the time heist. However, he wasn't able to set one timeline straight. This is the story of what changed, and how it led to Thanos finding his way back to the main timeline twenty years after the Avengers defeated him. This takes place in the Erskine to Ellis universe, however, it can be read as a standalone story. Rated M.

24. Part 3 Prologue

"If Doctor Strange won't disclose what he knows, I'll find it out myself."

James groaned loudly as his sister paced in front of him in the kitchen of Avengers compound. Morgan stood next to him, leaning against the counter and eating a chocolate covered strawberry, "How do you plan to do that? I didn't realize dimension hopping was part of your power set."

"It's not, but I know somebody who can do it." Sarah answered, whipping around and leaning herself against the refrigerator. "Thanos is breaking through the very fabric of space and time, and he's coming to wipe out half of all life here, just like he did before. Unless we plan to stop him in our reality, we need to defeat him in his."

"But time traveling can't change the future, it'll just create another branch reality. We can't fix what happened before, we can only affect what's coming to pass." Morgan argued as she rubbed James's back while he glared at his sister. She noticed his frustrated expression and asked, "What's wrong, Baby?"

"Sarah's hiding something."

"No, Doctor Strange is hiding something. I can sense it." Sarah argued as she crossed her arms. "Different realities pace themselves differently than ours, so, theoretically, depending on when we pop in, we wouldn't be creating a branch reality, we'd just be changing the main one. Of the branch reality Dad created." Sarah explained and James lifted his head a little at her explanation.

"So we wouldn't be going back in time so much as we'd be hopping over to the alternate reality in a different time?"

"Exactly."

Morgan cleared her throat and leaned on her elbow, placing her jaw in her palm as she turned to her boyfriend, "And who exactly is going dimension hopping? You two? You think that's such a good idea?"

"How else are we supposed to stop Thanos?" Sarah asked, but before Morgan could answer, James leaned forward and silenced her worries with a kiss.

"We'll be careful. We won't be Avengers, we'll just be people checking out what's happening, and then we'll come back and formulate a real plan. We won't change anything, so no branch realities, no changes in timelines. Just a little interdimensional reconnaissance so we can stop the world from ending."

"Oh, is that all?" Morgan hissed, pushing away from the counter. "You're right about one thing, Doctor Strange knows more than he's letting on. Whatever is going on in the alternate reality is a far cry from what actually happened."