I apologize that it's been so long since my last update, I had a family emergency over the weekend which left me no chance to write, but the situation is handled, so I will try to finish this up within the next few days.
Jinero: I think it's an undisputed fact that Darth Vader had a terrible life, maybe more than any other fictional character but that's an entirely different argument. Oh don't worry, he will.
Dragon Knight: If you're saying that Peggy was Steve's soulmate, well, that depends on how much you were invested in the relationship. I personally wasn't and it doesn't help that a lot of their relationship was developed off screen and Steve was shown to have moved on from his past.
Drift: I personally don't care. As much as I like both Bucky and Sam, the premise doesn't exactly interest me.
Reader: it's not possible for Steve to have always been Peggy's husband, by their own logic. Changing the past does not change the future, according to Endgame. This is confirmed when Tony wiping out Thanos and his army has no effect on the timeline. Steve can be her husband in one timeline, but not in the one he left to go back to Peggy. You can't slap on a set of new rules just to make your ending work, its lazy writing, at best.
Thewatcher: Well, to each their own.
Agent N: No kidding. If Steve was going to make a new timeline, it's so much more likely he would bring Tony and Ant back rather than go live with Peggy. I don't put much stock in rumors TBH.
Jason Hunter: I originally had it in but it just didn't work for the tone of the chapter, so I ended up cutting it.
Darth Vader: I bow to no Dark Lord!
Green Hal37: Exactly, it's not a very healthy way of dealing with things. True on Sam. Bruce probably noticed him but, knowing Bruce, he just didn't want to make a scene at Tony's funeral.
Loki Doki: Thank you. My favorite of the original is Steve followed closely by Thor and my favorite new Avenger is Wanda followed very closely by Scott and Sam. No, it's not going to be Tony centric. I have little desire to write a Tony centric story, given the state of the tony Stark fan base over the last four years.
ur boi: We clearly disagree on a lot of things, so I'm just going to say thank you for your review and compliments.
Guest2.0: He went to the seventies to return the Tesseract, and then he went back to the forties to be with Peggy. Not possible, because it breaks the rules of time travel as established by Endgame. I didn't add that scene because it didn't add anything to the story. I only added scenes I thought added something.
Guest 1: Well, let's just agree to disagree.
Guest 2: There's actually a story called Homebound that shows exactly that.
Guest 3: Thank you.
Guest 4: Sorry, no. In this universe, Far from Home did not happen.
Guest 5: Maybe, still doesn't make Bruce being the one to do it any less stupid.
The next morning, the past Avengers woke up after a long night of uneasy sleep, dreams of loved ones dying and failures haunting them. Their minds heavy and their bodies tired, they made their way into the kitchen once more.
As they entered, they saw Barton, Strange, Fitz, Scarlet, Parker and Lila waiting for them. Upon seeing Strange, Thor was filled with a rage that consumed him. Almost before he knew what had happened, Thor strode over and, to the shock of everyone else, grabbed Strange roughly by his neck and lifted him into the air.
"Thor, stop!" Steve ordered but Thor ignored him.
"You set Stark and Natasha up to die," Thor growled in a mix of rage and grief.
"Yes, I did," Strange said as he vanished, appearing a few feet from Thor as the Asgardian blinked. "I took no joy in it, but it was them or all life in the universe. I looked into millions of possible outcomes and this was the only one in which we emerged victorious, and only just."
"So there really was no other way?" Rhodey asked hesitantly, almost dreading the answer.
"No. I looked for another way but all other alternatives led to our defeat. Even when I told Tony what happened, he hesitated for a fraction of a second and Maw was able to stop him," Strange explained and the room was silent for a few moments. "I'm sorry, but there was no other way. And even then, it was only by pure luck it happened, as I had to believe that Scott would be released from the Quantum Realm in order for everything to happen as I saw."
"So basically…we won because of a rat," Tony said after a moment and it was silent once more.
"That is just disturbing," Clint muttered.
"You're telling us," Lila said dryly.
"So, are we good?" Strange asked as Thor took a deep breath.
"Yes, we're good," Thor said wearily.
"Good, because we have some more things to tell you," Barton said and there were several groans.
"Please tell me there's no more bad news," Peter begged.
"At this point, only another alien invasion could make things worse," Tony said half joking before he saw the looks on the future Avengers faces. "…there was another alien invasion, wasn't there?"
"How'd you guess?" Scarlet asked dryly ad the past Avengers groaned.
"Great, who do we have to fight next?" Sam asked sarcastically.
"The Skrulls," Parker said and Thor stiffened.
"The Skrulls?" Thor demanded and the future Avengers nodded. "Those vile creatures came to earth?"
"They didn't just come, they had been there for years," Fitz revealed, to Thor's horror. "Carol was tricked."
"What do you mean tricked?" Thor asked lowly.
"First, promise that you won't go track Carol down and try and beat the crap out of her," Barton said and Thor took a deep breath.
"You have my word as Prince of Asgard I will not seek her out. Now tell me," Thor almost growled.
"When Carol came to earth in the nineties, she and Fury were shown a prison ship where the Kree were keeping Skrull civilians prisoners. Carol decided that because of that, the Skrulls weren't evil," Scarlet explained.
"Hold on. So, because the Kree kept prisoners, the Skrulls weren't the bad guys?" Tony asked incredulously as nearly everyone had a matching expression.
"Yeah, I know, weak logic," Barton said with a nod. "Fury was kicking himself for months after he realized how stupid he'd been."
"Anyway, after Carol went off into space to fight the Kree, the Skrulls stayed, slowly replacing important figures in government over the next twenty years," Strange sad before looking over at Rhodey. "Colonel Rhodes, did you not find it unusual how you were acting in the first and last recording?"
"Wait, you mean…" Rhodey trailed off as the others looked stunned by this revelation.
"Steve thought you and Vision would stand out too much in Lagos, so he ordered you two to stay behind. While we were gone, the Skrulls grabbed you and replaced you," Scarlet said as Rhodey looked horrified.
"I need to sit down," Rhodey muttered, looking like he was about to pass out as he slumped into the nearest chair.
"How did none of us notice something was wrong?" Sam wondered.
"Because we were distracted by The Accords situation and then by Thanos and the Decimation. By the time we put it all together, the invasion was ready to begin," Scarlet said with a sigh.
"What happened to the real Rhodey?" Tony demanded as he eyed his best friend worriedly, who looked like he ready to pass out.
"He was kept on a prison ship for two years until Thanos napped his fingers. Rhodey was a victim of the Decimation along with half the Skrulls. With half their army and spies gone, the Skrulls called off the invasion until Bruce brought everyone back," Parker explained.
"A week before the Invasion, Rhodey managed to overpower some of the guards and take their weapons. He made it to an escape pod and jettisoned, arriving on Earth, in Wakanda, as luck would have it," Barton explained as T'Challa let out a chuckle.
"Bast has a wicked sense of humor," T'Challa said dryly.
"So it would seem," Thor noted.
"Once he was brought to the palace, T'Challa was able to confirm his story and make contact with Sam. Of course by that time, we figured out that 'Rhodey' wasn't Rhodey when he tried to kill Wanda with a high tech gun," Barton said as Clint looked at Wanda, pale and Rhodey groaned.
"I was the obvious threat with Thor gone, the Skrulls thought it was best to take me out…only someone pushed me out of the way," Scarlet said as she looked over at Barton.
"And I'd do it again. It would cost you a lot more than it cost me," Barton said as he pulled back his sleeve on his left arm, revealing a robotic arm underneath. "My arm had to be amputated, there was no saving it."
Clint looked down at his arm; as if afraid it would suddenly disappear. He was an archer, it was who he was, who he had always been. To loss an arm was a lot like losing a part of who he was.
"Obviously, I had to retire from active duty after that, T'Challa hooked me up with a Vibranium arm. But I have no regrets," Barton said as he looked his younger self in the eyes, breaking Clint out of his thoughts. "I'd still make the same choice, knowing what I know now. Better to lose an arm than someone you care about."
"Wise words," T'Challa said and Barton nodded.
"There are still a few things we need to go over before we send you back, but we just dumped a whole lot on you before you even had a chance to eat breakfast. So, let's eat, and then we'll tell you the rest," Barton suggested.
Either because they were hungry or because they were still processing what they had heard, no one argued as they sat down to eat, noticing for the first time all the assorted foods on the table. Everyone sat down as they started to fill their plates with whatever was closest to them. As they noticed the past Avengers picking disinterestedly at their food, the future Avengers exchanged uncertain looks, knowing they were unlikely to take the rest of the news well. They just hoped their past selves could handle it on top of everything else.
This was meant to be the last chapter, but the ending just felt like I was putting too much in there, so I decided to split it up into two. I'll try and get the next chapter up within the next few days.
Honestly, the Skrulls being good was stupid for multiple reasons, but the biggest one is the way it was executed. So, because the Kree had Skrull civilians captive, the Skrulls were good? Really? I'm not denying that the Kree were horrible, because they were, but that doesn't automatically make the Skrulls the good guys. There are multiple examples in television and movies where bad guys have their families kidnaped or held for ransom, that doesn't make the bad guys good.