Acathla's dimension
Angel and T'Challa, still wearing the cloaks, made their way down a long corridor, T'Challa tracking the signal of the stone.
"It is a few feet away, in that room," T'Challa muttered, gesturing to a room at the end of the hall and Angel swore.
"That's gonna be a problem," Angel muttered as they eyed the two Orc like demons standing guard. "That's where Acathla keeps his treasures. Those two guards? We get passed them, there are a dozen more inside. And these aren't easy demons. Acathla used to make me fight them after a day of torture; they're some of the strongest demons I've ever fought."
"We knew this would not be easy," T'Challa noted and Angel nodded after a moment.
"You're right. Let's go to work," Angel said, his eyes blazing with determination.
The pair began walking up to the demons, who eyed them curiously. Angel swung his axe, striking the demon on the left in the head. It wailed in pain before it punched Angel, sending him flying back. The second demon tried to punch T'Challa but he dodges, summoning his suit in the process. T'Challa summoned his claws, stabbing them into the demon's arm and using it as a swing to deliver a spinning kick to the demon's head.
"You should have stayed away Angel," the other demon said as they advanced on Angel as he pulled himself to his feet.
"Sorry, your boss has something I need," Angel said as he picked up his axe.
"It was a mercy that you escaped once. You shall not do so again," the demon snarled.
Angel then rushed the demon, swinging his axe as the demon rushed him as well.
Glory's dimension
Wanda had been right; there were far worst things in this world.
She, Nebula and Groot came upon the sight of the stone. The radiation detector had led them to a kind of plateau, the bodies of dead demons all around it. The Mind Stone was on a sort of display, as though it was a kind of trophy. And, sitting in a throne made entirely of stone, was a red skinned demon, at least as tall as Thanos had been. He was very muscular, with yellow demonic eyes. And all around him were other demons, black with cold red eyes.
"We have been expecting you," the red demon said.
"You knew we were coming?" Nebula asked before Wanda could, a rare hint of surprise on the blue cyborg's face.
"There is nothing that I don't know about what goes on in my world," the red demon said as he got to his feet. "I am Morzon, one of the rulers of this world. And you are trespassing."
"I am Groot," Groot said darkly.
"He's right. You have something we want," Wanda said as she looked towards the stone.
"And you intend to take it?" Morzon said, more amused than anything else. "I am a god. And even so, I doubt you could even get passed my men."
Wanda took a moment to eye all the demons. Angel and Willow had explained enough that she knew they'd be strong and she knew that Morzon would be in a league of his own. She took a moment to assess this before coming up with a plan.
"On my signal, you two head for the stone. I'll clear a path for you," Wanda said lowly.
"What signal?" Nebula asked.
"You know it when you see it," Wanda said with a tight smile.
"And Morzon?" Nebula inquired.
"Leave him to me," Wanda said a hit of red in her eyes.
Without another word, Wanda sent two powerful blasts of energy at Morzon's men, blasting them all back. Nebula and Groot quickly headed towards the stone. Morzon moved to intercept when Wanda suddenly jumped in his way, her hands glowing with energy.
"You think you can stop me girl? I am a god! You are no match for me!" He snarled.
"We'll see," Wanda said calmly, her eyes glowing red.
Wanda then shot a blast of energy at Morzon, who lunged at her with a snarl, meeting the energy with a fist, creating a shockwave that caused the entire world to tremble.
Acathla's dimension
Angel dodged a strike from the guard before following up with a strike from his axe to the guard's shoulder. The guard grunted in pain before Angel punched the guard in the chest, sending him stumbling back.
The other guard yanked T'Challa's claws from his arm before slamming him roughly down into the floor. T'Challa quickly rose back, delivering a kick to the guard's feet. Angrily, the guard punched him, sending him flying back. But this was what T'Challa had been hoping for.
"Angel, lead him over here!" T'Challa called out.
Nodding, Angel began running towards T'Challa and the other guard, the guard he had been fighting quickly following after him. Angel sent a kick towards the guard, sending him stumbling towards the other guard before he jumped back.
Angel had a feeling he knew what T'Challa was planning. And he was proven right when T'Challa jumped down, unleashing all the kinetic energy in his suit. It struck the two guards, slamming them into the wall and knocking them out.
"Nice job," Angel said as he walked over to T'Challa.
"It is not over yet," T'Challa said as he stared at the door.
Angel and T'Challa glanced at each other, nodding before they headed over to the door. Angel kicked it open and the two heroes walked into the room.
True to Angel predictions, they saw twelve more Orc like demon guards in the room, snarling at them. And just behind them, on a shelf, the Time Stone sat among various other treasures.
"You ready to do this?" Angel asked T'Challa.
"I have been ready since the day Wakanda was invaded," T'Challa said darkly.
Angel nodded before the two rushed the twelve guards, who snarled before meeting the two halfway, attacking in turn.
Glory's dimension
"You think you can defeat me child?!" Morzon shouted as he advanced on Wanda. "I am a god! You cannot hold a candle to me!"
"I wouldn't be too sure about that," Wanda said eerily calm.
Wanda raised one hand and, with her powers, pulled Morzon's throne out of the ground. She made a gesture with her hands and Morzon's throne slammed into him so hard it shattered into rubble, dazing him momentarily. With a cry, Wanda then made a throwing motion with both her hands, sending a powerful blast of energy at Morzon, the Hellgod crying out in pain as it struck him.
Groot extended his hands, wrapped them around the necks of two demons before snapping their necks. Groot then tossed them into two more demons, letting them go and punching one each as, behind him, Nebula used her blaster to take out another demon.
Wanda sent three powerful blasts of energy in quick succession, each hitting Morzon. He stumbled back before, enraged, he punched the ground. The power of his punch sent a shockwave towards Wanda that knocked her off her feet and onto the ground.
"I admit, I am impressed child," Morzon said as he began making his way towards her. "It has been many years since someone as powerful as you has given me such a challenge. For that, I shall grant you a kick death."
He moved to strike Wanda in the face but she held up both hands. To Morzon's shock, red energy appeared around his fist, preventing him from making contact. With a sneer, Wanda pushed back and Morzon found himself flying into the air.
Groot turned his hands into hard wooden boxes, striking the demons and covering Nebula as she headed for the stone.
Raising her hands, Wanda made Morzon rise up into the air. The Hellgod grimaces as he felt her powers cutting into him like knives. Having had enough, Morzon let out a roar. His shout seemed coated with power and energy burst from his body, breaking the red energy around him and sending Wanda flying back several feet. She landed on her back, in pain, managing to pull herself up slightly as Morzon approached her.
"You are indeed powerful witch. But I am a god, as I said. You cannot defeat me," Morzon said.
"Was never trying to," Wanda said, taking him back. "I was trying to stall you."
Startled, Morzon looked over his shoulder, seeing most of his men defeated and Nebula taking the Mind Stone from the display. With him districted, Wanda sent a powerful blast of energy at his leg, knocking him back and wounding his leg enough he couldn't get up for a moment. She knew it wouldn't keep his down long, so Wanda got to her feet, her Quantum Suit appearing around her, pleased to see Groot and Nebula had already summoned theirs.
"Even gods aren't invincible," Wanda told him.
Her helmet came upon around her head and the three heroes vanished. Enraged, Morzon let out a roar that caused the entire world to shake.
Acathla's dimension
Angel pushed back, slashing his axe across the chest of one of the demons. It stumbled back, snarling before Angel brought the axe down on its neck, causing it to wait before Angel kicked it, inching it deeper into the axe and taking off its head. As he beheaded their brother, the other demons snarled in rage. As they rush towards him, T'Challa rushed towards the wall. Picking up a spear from the wall, T'Challa threw it, piercing the armor of one of the demons, the spear running through his heart. The demon fell to the floor, dead as the others realized what T'Challa was after.
They threw their weapons at him but T'Challa managed to dodge for the most part, save a few barely grazing him, charging up his kinetic energy. T'Challa grabbed the stone off the shelf before running over to the demons. He jumped in the center of them, his kinetic energy unleashing a blast that sent them all flying back.
"Time to go," Angel said and T'Challa nodded.
T'Challa retracted his helmet before they both summoned their Quantum Suits. The demons could stare in disbelief as the helmet came upon Angel and T'Challa's face before they vanished, returning to the Quantum Realm.
Avengers Compound
It had been an hour since the others had left, half an hour since Bruce's conversation with Fred and Lorne. Currently, Bruce was in the hanger, sitting by the Quantum Tunnel as he meditated. It was something he'd done often once arriving back on earth, trying to contact Hulk. He'd had no success before but, with his conversation with Lorne fresh in mind, he hoped to have a different result.
Bruce opened his eyes, seeing he was, of all places, in his former home when he was living at Harvard. He was sitting on a couch. And, sitting across from him, taking up a whole couch, was the Hulk.
"Hulk don't want to talk," Hulk said with a sneer.
"Then, can you listen? Just let me talk and if you don't want to see me again, I won't try to contact you again," Bruce offered.
Hulk gave a huff but didn't say no. Bruce took that as a yes.
"Ever since the day you came into my life, I've treated you like the enemy. All I could see you as was the thing that robbed me of a normal life. And look where that's got us? I for one am I tired of fighting you all the time," Bruce said and Hulk finally looked at him, something other than anger in his eyes. "Look, like it or not, we're stuck with each other. Our friends, they need both Banner and Hulk, together. We don't have to like each other; we may never like each other. But Thor, Cap, Tony, Nat, Clint, they need us. Can we just…put aside whatever issues we have to help them? You may hate me, but I know you don't hate them. So, can we just stop hating each other long enough to bring them back?"
For a long moment, Hulk just stared at Bruce. Then-
"Hulk miss friends. Hulk help Banner for friends," Hulk said and Bruce nodded.
"Okay, great. Then I guess we're in business," Bruce said in relief.
Bruce opened his eyes, feeling a great weight lifted off his shoulders. Before he could even fully process it, he heard the Quantum Tunnel begin to whirl. He looked up sharply as everyone appeared on the Quantum Tunnel, their suits fading away.
"How long have we been gone Bruce?" Sam asked as he saw him.
"About an hour. Did it work? Did you get 'em all?" Bruce asked eagerly and everyone looked around, seeing all the stones.
"You mean this actually worked?" Connor asked in relief.
"Looks like it," Hope said before noticing something. "Hey, where's Lindsey?"
At the question, Spike refused to look at anyone and Sam looked at Angel, a dark look on his face.
"Lindsey got what he deserved," Angel said in a voice that left no room for any doubts about what had happened to Lindsey.
Unspecified location
Not long after
Senator Brucker was staring at something on an observation room when Hamilton walked up behind her.
"What is the progress on Secretary Ross's…transition?" Hamilton asked and she laughed.
"Well, I don't think we call him Secretary anymore. In fact, I doubt there's anything left of Ross at all," she laughed, looking over her shoulder. "More orders from the Senior Partners?"
"It appears they were right about Spike. The plane landed in New York earlier in the day, the bodies of all the human members of the team were discovered an hour after. Spike is nowhere to be found. And I just received word that the stones were taken," Hamilton said and she smirked.
"Well, I guess it's time for Spike and Angel to learn that just because you're a champion, it doesn't mean you can poke a sleeping dragon," she said gleefully.
Avengers Compound
Same time
Connor was in the kitchen, mindlessly picking at an apple when Angel walked into the room.
"Hey, you alright?" Angel asked and Connor seemed to come out of whatever trance he was in.
"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine Dad," Connor said, looking over at Angel and seeing the look in his eyes. "Willow told you about Bah, didn't she?"
"Yeah, yeah se did," Angel said, walking over and sitting down next to him. "I can't imagine what you're going through right now."
"Can't you? You killed my mom when you had a soul," Connor noted and Angel nodded.
"I did. But she wasn't your mother; she was just an evil thing. The woman who sacrificed herself for you, that was your mother," Angel said firmly and a beat passed. "Listen, I can't really understand what you're going through. But I'm here."
"I know. Thanks Dad," Connor said with a weak smile.
Angel opened his mouth to speak but paused as he heard footsteps. Looking over his shoulder, he saw Sam enter the room. Angel had known this was coming, the look Sam shot him when the others had noticed Lindsey missing not missed by him.
"Connor, can I speak to your Dad alone?" Sam asked.
"Uh, sure," Connor said awkwardly, picking up on the tension and Angel nodded at him. "I'll just go…somewhere else."
Connor got to his feet and walked out of the room, leaving Angel and Sam alone.
"You told Spike to kill Lindsey," Sam said once he's sure Connor is out of hearing range.
"I did," Angel admitted as he got to his feet. "Look-"
Angel was cut off when, to his surprise, Sam punched him. Sam glared at him as Angel felt his vampire healing begin to kick in.
"Look, Lindsey was a wild card. If it came down to it, he'd have turned on us," Angel snapped.
"I agree," Sam said, to his shock. "If half the things you've said about him are true, well, I won't be losing any sleep over him. That's not why I'm angry."
"Then what is your problem?" Angel snapped.
"Spike. Everyone can see how much whatever he did while undercover is weighing on him. And you wanna add to that by making him murder someone?" Sam asked angrily and Angel felt a little shame, knowing he couldn't deny Sam's points. "If you wanted Lindsey dead, you should have had the guts to do it yourself. You say you're a vampire with a human soul? Well, ask yourself what kind of man you want to be."
Sam then turned and walked out, leaving Angel alone as he considered Sam's words.
Out on the docks, Spike sat alone, deep in thought as he remembered killing Lindsey. He almost didn't hear someone walk up behind him. But he wasn't a master vampire for nothing.
"What are you doing out here little bit?" Spike asked without looking at her.
"Looking for you," Dawn said as she sat down next to him. "You okay?"
"No, not really. You know what I did," Spike said, not able to look at her. "If big sis could see me now, right?"
"I think she'd punch Angel for making you do it," Dawn said and Spike laughed at the image. "No one here blames you ya know."
"I do. Angel might have told me to do it…but I could've told him where to shove it. I've blame him for a long time, about who and what I am. But we're responsible for our own choices. I am who I am because of me, not him," Spike said with a sigh. "I killed Lindsey, not Angel. I killed Wood, his mum, and everyone else I've ever killed. No one else made me do it."
"So make it matter then," Dawn said and he looked at her oddly. "You feel guilty about what you did? Make sure it wasn't for nothing."
"…You know, you have turned into a hell of a woman lit – Dawn," Spike corrected himself. "Your Mum and Buffy would be proud."
"I hope so," Dawn said, placing her head on his shoulder. "So, ready to bring everyone back?"
"No. But we need to," Spike said with a forlorn look up at the moon. "Moon looks beautiful tonight, don't it?"
"Yeah. Since it's the last one we'll probably ever see, I guess we should be grateful," Dawn said as they stared up at the moon.
In the lab, Bruce, Fred and Hope were working on the stones. They stood behind a protective glass screen, Hope using bots to safely attack the six stones to the Gauntlet Bruce and Fred had assembled. After a moment, the six stones perfectly slid into their slots on the Gauntlet.
Later, everyone stood in the lab, staring down at the Gauntlet.
"It's ready. Only thing left to do is use it," Hope assured them.
"So, who wants to do it?" Scott asked after a moment.
"I'll do it," Spike said, walking forward only for Angel, Willow, Sam and Faith to push him back.
"Hey, relax for a minute Spike," Faith said firmly.
"Spike, this thing has enough radiation to power the earth for a month. Using it will kill you," Fred reasoned.
"I'm a vampire Fred, I'm already dead. At least this way, I go out doing something honorable," Spike said.
"When I said make it matter, this is not what I meant Spike!" Dawn snapped.
"Spike, I get it, I do, you feel guilty for what've done. I've been there; I've even tried to kill myself over it. But this is not the answer," Angel tried to reason with him.
"So then who's gonna do it then, you? Someone needs to it and I've got blood on my hands ya big poof!"
"And I've got even more on mine!" Angel snapped. "You don't have a trademark on guilt Spike!"
"Both of you shut up or I will knock you both out!" Willow snapped.
"Let's keep our heads, alright?" Sam suggested calmly. "We didn't come all this way to lose someone trying to get everyone back. So, let's try to figure out a way we can do this without someone dying."
"My powers come from the Mind Stone. It might protect me from the radiation," Wanda noted.
"That's a big if Wanda," Bucky pointed out.
"It's gotta be me," everyone turned their head, looking at Bruce in shock. "You saw what those stones did to Thanos, it almost killed him. None of you could survive."
"But you could?" Lorne asked skeptically.
"Like I said yesterday, the stones mostly give off gamma radiation. It's like…it's like this is the reason I got turned into the Hulk. Like I was made for this. And I'm the one least likely to die trying," Bruce said as he walked up to the Gauntlet.
"That all depends on you being able to bring out the Hulk. Dr. Banner," T'Challa pointed out. "And you-"
T'Challa's words failed him as Bruce's skin turned green and he enlarged, his shirt ripping and his body boss growing until the Hulk stood in the room with them.
"Hulk and Banner do it," Hulk declared, looking like he was waiting for anyone to challenge him.
"I guess that settles it then," Willow muttered. "Time to bring everyone home."
Hulk picked up the Gauntlet and everyone backed away. Spike and Willow made Dawn back away from the scene as Angel stood protectively in front of Connor, Fred and Lorne. T'Challa, Scott and Hope put their helmets on as Sam pulled up his cowl. Wanda stepped in front of Bucky and Peter while Nebula backed Groot away as Sam pressed a button, their entire base seeming to into lockdown, metal shielding covering it.
"You're good to go," Sam said.
Hulk reached his hand into the Gauntlet, which expanded until it fit around his hand. Once he had it, Hulk cried out as the energy began eating away at his arm.
"Hulk, take it off!" Peter shouted immediately in concern.
"No, wait," Willow told him. "Give him a chance."
"Are you kidding, its killing him! You need to take it off!" Peter shouted at Hulk.
"NO!" Hulk roared, causing everyone to nearly jump.
Hulk fell to his knees, groaning before, with a roar, he finally managed to snap his fingers. There was a brief flash of light before Hulk fell on his side, breathing heavily, body shrinking and his skin turning peach until he was Bruce again. Everyone immediately surrounded him, Angel kicking the Gauntlet away. Everyone stared in shock at the burns covering Bruce's arm.
"Did it work?" Bruce asked weakly.
"We're not sure yet," Wanda said gently.
Suddenly, they heard a sound. Everyone looked around in confusion for the source, until, with trembling hands, Dawn pulled her cell phone out. She stared, tears starting to form in her eyes, at Buffy's picture on her phone. After a moment, Dawn answered.
"Buffy?" Dawn said with a trembling voice.
"Dawn, where are you? What happened? Did you bring us back?" Buffy asked and Dawn put a hand to her mouth, her shoulders shaking as she started to cry. "Dawn? Dawnie?"
"It worked. It really worked," Scott said as he began to smile.
Their relief was short lived. Suddenly, the entire building began to tremble. Everyone looked down as cracks began to form in the floor.
"What's happening?" Peter asked as he began to step back, looking around for a stable place to stand but not finding any.
"It's the Senior Partners. I told you they'd rain all manner of Hell down on us. Looks like we're about to find out what that is," Angel said darkly.
Suddenly, the floor split open and the entire building seemed to cave in. Dawn dropped her phone, screaming as she fell below.
"Dawn!" Spike and Willow shouted in horror.
But they could do nothing. They were all hit by debris as the Avengers Compound fell, burying it's heroes beneath the rubble.
Based on what we've seen in the show, Wanda is more powerful than Glory, so I think she'd be able to at least hold her own against the other Hellgods.
Those of you who have read my other MCU works know I am critical of Hulk being the one to do the snap. But, if done differently, it could have worked. If that had been the reason Bruce and Hulk resolved their issues instead of the stupid Professor Hulk bit, it would have been such a big payoff. But we all know how that turned out.
Well, we're in the Endgame now.