Chapter 102
Toni paced around the compound anxiously. It was hard not to when she'd been waiting for nearly an hour at the location for everyone to gather. Erik had sent a message saying the Wakandians were on their way to the Compound, and Steve had informed her that they'd picked up Wanda and Vision and were heading back as well. Strange had grumbled at her urgent request that he come to the Tower, especially when she'd given him little reasons as to why his presence was needed.
It was decided before they went back that they wouldn't tell any person until they were all gathered. It was a heavy subject matter, and she knew the other Avengers would be bothered by what had happened; what would happen. And while the Guardians and Captain Marvel were still several hours out, she knew it was only a matter of time before they arrived, and that they'd better get started instead of waiting for them to arrive.
"How much longer are you going to make us wait before you tell us why you have us gathered here?" Sam asked them, as he rapped his fingers on the table. "Steve was pretty cryptic and you're not acting any better."
"Yeah, I'd like to know why I was dragged out of the lab," Ava said, as she piqued up.
"We'll tell you soon," Steve said, as he held Morgan close to him. She didn't blame him, and the only time she'd let go of her daughter since returning was to pass her to Steve so her husband could keep her close. He'd been just as affected by their children's death and just having Morgan back made them both feel a lot more at ease.
There was a bright rainbow light from outside the compound, and she saw all heads turn at the arrival of the Asgardians.
"I'm assuming their arrival has something to do with it?" Harry asked, and she could only nod, as the others began throwing questions at them.
Only to be cut off when Thor, Loki, and Bruce entered the room.
Now all that was missing, aside from the Guardians and Danvers, was her son.
"Bruce?" Ava whispered, as her past self saw the man for the first time. "Don't tell me you were in Asgard for all this time."
"Not for the entire time," Bruce said, looking relieved to see her cousin, "But for bit, yes. I promise, I'll tell you all about it after. Just not now."
"What is happening that is such a big deal that we can't know about it until we're all here?" Shuri questioned, but she wasn't able to respond, since at that exact moment, her son walked into the room.
"Is there some sort of major Avengers meeting?" Peter asked, then eyes widened as he saw Thor, Loki, and Bruce. "Oh wow, you guys are back!"
She swallowed, unable to say a word as she moved quickly across the room. She could see Steve do the same, as they tightly enveloped their son in a hug, while Morgan giggled through it all.
She smiled in gratitude towards Happy, her long-time friend whom she'd also lost in the Snap, and she closed her eyes, as she swore she'd never let her son or daughter come to harm again. She'd asked him and Pepper to stay in on their meeting as well. They may not have been Avengers, but they deserved to know the truth, nonetheless.
"Peter," she said, unable to stop herself from crying, "I'm so glad you're okay. I promise, I won't ever let anything happen to you or Morgan again, okay? I won't lose you again."
He looked at her in confusion, "I just saw you this morning before school."
Because for him it hadn't been five months. It had barely been eight hours. When she'd seen him to kiss him good bye before he'd left and gone back to sleep for a nap before she'd planned to head down to the lab.
"Perhaps, now that we all are here, you should start from the beginning," T'Challa said, and she pulled away from her son, as she wiped her tears away.
Steve gave her a nod, and she began to speak.
"I know what we're about to say may sound insane, but please just listen to us first," she started, "Two days from now, an alien Titan named Thanos is going to attack. He wants to gather all the Infinity Stones. Stones that almost all of us have come into contact at one point or another. And currently, there are three right here."
She looked at Strange, "The Time Stone," she said, as she glanced over at Vision, "The Mind Stone," then towards Loki, "And the Space Stone."
The room looked around as the three Stones were displayed.
"There are a total of six Infinity Stones, and currently, he should have his hands on the Power Stone. The Reality Stone is hopefully in the possession of a group named The Guardians of the Galaxy, and they should be headed towards Earth shortly. The last stone, the Soul Stone, should be the only stone not in his possession when he'll arrive, as long as the Guardians get here before he does."
"How do you know all of this?" Ava asked her.
"I know this, because in two days, he will acquire all the Stones," she said. "He sends his minions after the Mind and Time Stone. Strange is taken into space since he is unwilling to part with the Stone, and myself and Peter follow him up there. Against my knowledge," she said, looking over at her son, who despite having not done it yet, blushed anyways. "The group of you who were in Europe temporarily thwarted his attack on Vision and Wanda, and kept the stone safe, before heading to Wakanda to try and remove the Stone from Vision so it could be destroyed, and he could live."
She took a deep breath, "But we failed. I fought him on Titan along Strange, Peter, and the Guardians, but he took the Stone from us. And then he came to Earth to acquire the last stone, and he took it by force."
Wanda paled at that, as Vision looked tense.
"He snapped his fingers and he achieved his goal," Toni continued, "His sick, sick, goal. He wanted to wipe out half of all life in the universe to try and preserve resources for those who remained. And he took out almost all of you. We lost."
"How do you know this?" Shuri asked, repeating Ava's question.
"Because I'm one of the few who remained," she said, voice breaking, "Me, Steve, Thor, Bruce, Natasha, Clint, Rhodey, Scott, and Erik. Out of those in this room who's name I just mentioned, the rest of you were gone."
"I died?" Peter whispered, paling as he realized the implications of what she'd just said.
"We came back to stop it," she said strongly. "Five months passed for us, but we came back to this moment to stop any of it from happening. To stop Thanos from getting his hands on any more stones. We won't let it happen this time."
She placed a hand strongly on his shoulder, but he didn't look all that relieved.
"You expect us to believe that you invented time travel?" Harry asked, a bit sceptically.
"Have you met me?" she commented in return, and he raised his hands in surrender. "Look, I know it's hard to believe. But trust me. It happened. And the pain was so unbearable for all of us. All of us that remained lost people we loved, and we refuse to let it happen again. We have a real chance of stopping it from happening. And we must take it."
"Okay, so in two days we all die," Shuri said, earning an exasperated look from her brother and cousin, "What? The woman literally just said that. If we're going to be expected to stop this then there's no time to beat around the heart shaped herb plant. We only have a short time to put a plan into place to stop this."
"She's right," Hope nodded, glancing at Scott, "We need a plan and we need one fast. I'm assuming you didn't just travel back here without one, so what's it going to be?"
"We fight," Steve said, looking around the room, "Prepare for the worst and say any goodbyes in the chance that we fail, but come that morning, we'll stand together against Thanos and put an end to this, once and for all."
"I can take Peter and Morgan to the lake house cabin," Pepper said, referring to the place she and Rhodey had bought to get away from the city every now and then, "They'll be safe there."
"No," Peter said, crossing his arms. "I'm not running away from this fight."
"You won't be safe if you stay," she told him gently. "This is your best chance at making it out alive."
"At what cost?" he asked his parents, "I'm assuming Morgan was safe last time around, and look how well that turned out. I was safe with you on that planet, and I still disappeared. If Thanos snaps his fingers again, I'm gone either way. If I stay, at least I can help try and stop it from happening."
She felt her heart break as she looked at her son, knowing his mind wasn't going to change. It was her own stubborn look staring back at her.
"Look, I love you both so much," Peter told her and Steve. "You gave me a home and you cared for me. But you agreed to let me be a reserve Avenger in case of worth threatening emergencies. And this? This is as big as it gets. This is the biggest stakes we've ever faced. So let me fight by your side."
Steve wrapped an arm around her, and she closed her eyes knowing he was right.
"Okay," Steve said, exhaling. "You can fight with us. But if things look like they're not going according to plan, and we tell you to leave, you leave. You hear me?"
"I do," Peter nodded.
"So what's the plan?" Strange asked, interrupting them.
"We will have four stones against his one when he comes for them," Thor said, "We must make sure he does not get it at any cost. And we need to get his away from him. Then if we stand together, we'll have a fighting chance."
"We did not use the Stones we had to our advantage last time," she said, "This time, perhaps we should change that. He had no problems using his against us, and it became difficult to fight that kind of power. If we were to level the stones against him, then we could have a fighting chance. Throw everything we have at him. Except the Time Stone."
She looked over at Strange.
"He brought back Vision last time to get his hands on the Mind Stone after Wanda destroyed it," Steve said grimly, "If he gets his hand on the Time Stone then none of the other stones are safe."
"Hide it," she told Strange. "If you still refuse to destroy it this time around, then hide it, and hide it well. You sacrificed the Stone last time around to save my life after seeing a vision of the future, and perhaps this was why. You cannot let him get his hands on it this time around."
"Okay," Strange said in agreement, "If you're right, and I looked at the future possibilities with the Stone, then I must have done so for a reason. Whatever it was, it led us to this point. Thanos will not get his hands on the Time Stone if I or the other Masters of the Mystic Arts have any say in it."
He held her gaze, and she knew she could trust him not to give up the Stone.
"Here's what we're going to do," Steve said as he pulled up a hologram of the compound and began talking about their strategy. They had a lot to go over and not a long time to prepare, so the faster they got through it the better.
She just hoped it would be enough.
Ava didn't know how to feel about any of this. One moment, she was working on a new build for the latest software update for the next SI phone, and the next, Toni had asked her to come to the Avengers compound, where she'd learned that she would die in the next seventy two hours if they didn't save the world.
And she'd come face to face with not one but two of her ex boyfriends. Both of which had left her to keep her safe and had come back in an attempt to help save the world.
So to say she was overwhelmed in the least would be an understatement. Because she was. Extremely overwhelmed, that is.
And on top of that, Bruce had apparently been in space for the last few years, as the Hulk for most of it. He didn't remember what had happened in that time. And he hadn't meant to run that far away.
It didn't change the fact that he'd left. He'd still meant to leave and he did, taking her heart with him. Just because he was back now didn't make any of that better. It didn't make it go away. He had still left her and broken her heart.
And Bucky. The man who needed time away from her. Who still needed time away from her. Would he even have come back if it weren't for the fact that Thanos was coming? Or would he still be off in his own world, finding himself?
She sighed, as she placed her StarkPad onto the table to take the strain off her eyes. She, Shuri, Toni, and Bruce had been working nonstop since their meeting six hours ago to come up with a way to remove the Mind Stone from Vision's head. Bruce had said the young princess had a method the first time around, but they hadn't enough time. And with the four of them on it, they should be able to program the new synaptic connections faster than before.
The members of the Guardians team showed up a few hours ago, and Toni had graciously showed them to their rooms. She didn't really have an opinion on them, and it seemed like they were more obnoxious than anything. But they seemed to also be taking the fight against Thanos seriously, and honestly the more hands on deck the better. A woman named Captain Marvel had also showed up, and well honestly Ava was way more in awe of her.
"Ava?" she heard a voice call out, interrupting her from her thought. She had moved to the Common Room, needing a change of scenery from the lab. Toni was in full coding mode, and well, Ava needed a bit more silence than the heavy rock music playing.
"Bucky?" she asked in surprise, as he came and sat beside her, "I'd have thought you guys were still going over fight tactics and strategy."
"We were," he said, "We have been. But Steve said we should take a break and regroup in half an hour. I wanted to come by and talk to you."
"Oh," she said, looking up to meet his eyes.
"I wanted to talk about us," he clarified, as if it weren't already clear to her what he wanted to talk about. Why else would he be here, after all?
"You made it clear that there was no us," she said, without much of a bite in her tone. She was tired from all of it. From all the men who thought she needed to be protected.
"I was trying to do the right thing," he said, without a waver in his tone. "I know you don't need a man to protect you, Ava. I'd never try to insult you that way. But regardless of that, I'm dangerous. Winter Soldier or not, I still can do those things. I'm still the one who did those things. And I have a long way to go before I think I can trust myself to be with a person I care about."
"I get it," she told him, "You don't need to explain yourself to me, James. I understand why you left. But at the same time, would you want to be with me if it weren't for any of this?"
"I don't know," he exhaled. "I don't know what I want. It's been so long since I had a choice in anything. And I did care for you, Ava. You're one of the best things in my life."
"But the two of us aren't meant for each other," she finished, knowing what he meant. "I did love you, you know that, right?"
"I know you did, Darling, but you're right. We were never meant for the long run. So I'm letting you go. I want you to be happy," he told her, "We're not Toni and Steve. Genius and Super Soldier. We're Bucky and Ava. And our story isn't meant for that. Besides, despite any anger you may still feel for a certain green fella, it's clear you still have feelings for him. And I know he'll make you happy if you let him back in."
"He left me," she said simply. "He made it clear he didn't want me. I know how to take a hint and move on. No point dwelling in the past, is there?"
"I wouldn't be so sure about his feelings," Bucky warned. "I've seen how he looks at you when you're not watching. That's not the look of a man who doesn't love a woman. It's the look of a man who's regretful for what he's lost."
"He might not even stay this time," she said, desperately thinking of all the reasons why it wouldn't work. She couldn't go back down this path. Couldn't let herself fall for the man only for him to hurt her all over again.
"Maybe," Bucky said with a nod, "But you won't know unless you talk to him. You can reason it out with me all you want, but I don't have the answers that you're looking for."
"I know," she exhaled.
She saw Bruce stumble into the room, trying to get another cup of tea since Toni had banned the kettle from the lab, saying coffee was the only acceptable hot liquid beverage, and his eyes widened as he took the two of them in.
"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt," Bruce said sheepishly, "I can come back later."
"Don't worry about it," Bucky said as he stood, "We were finished anyways."
He shot her a wink, as he walked out the door, leaving her own feelings in chaos while Bruce made tea, all the while unaware of her inner turmoil.
Toni Stark-Rogers was exhausted.
She'd never had much of a sleep schedule before. Why sleep when she could just drink a cup of coffee and stay up and work on something that would change the world? There were so many better things she could be doing, and more often than not, sleep fell to the bottom of her list every single time.
And when Toni had lost her children, sleep wasn't something that came easy to her. Even with all of Steve's urging, every time she shut her eyes, she was reminded of the vision of Peter fading away before her eyes. She imagined how scared Morgan would have been when it had happened to her.
Now however, sleep was something she didn't want to waste time on. A combination of the first two reasons were why. She needed to stay awake and keep working on re-programming Vision's synaptic connections. She couldn't fail, because then history would repeat herself and she would lose her children and grandchild.
And between both of those points, she couldn't bring herself to take a break. Even though Ava had fallen asleep at her computer, and Bruce had carried her to her room, and T'Challa had urged Shuri to take a nap because her eyes were beginning to droop.
Bruce had stayed up with her, and she wondered if he was also feeling guilty. Guilty for not being there. For not doing enough. Guilt for what they couldn't stop.
"We're going to get this done, Toni," Bruce promised her, "We won't fail this time. We have the upper hand. We know he's coming. We know what he wants. And we'll get the stone out of Vision and save him."
"He's as much yours as he is mine and JARVIS'," she said to him. He'd left before she and JARVIS had established a familial relationship with the android, and never had had the chance to be there for Vision like she had.
"Hm?" Bruce asked, as he looked up in confusion.
"Vision," she told him simply, "It's our code in him. He's derived from JARVIS, but he also has your code and mine. I consider him a grandchild because of J, but you do have some claim to him as well."
"I don't know if he'd appreciate that," Bruce sighed, "I left him too, when he was just learning how to find his place in life. Do I even deserve any sort of parental claim on him when I abandoned him like I did Ava?"
"That's for him to decide, don't you think?" she asked him gently, "We have a second chance, Bruce. A chance to make things right with the people who got hurt because we couldn't stop Thanos. A second chance to fix relationships that were damaged."
"I know," he sighed, as he ran his fingers through his hair. "I owe you an apology too, you know?"
"Why?" she blinked in surprise.
He looked at her incredulously. "Toni. You gave me a home when I spent so long on the run. You got the US Military off my back and trusted me to live in the Tower. Even when I was gone, you helped Ross get put away for the things he did to me. And I left without even saying goodbye. You deserved better than that. You all did."
"I never asked for anything in return," she told him gently, "I offered because I wanted to. Because you deserved better than the life you were living."
"I hurt so many people without meaning to," he exhaled. "I just wanted to keep them safe. I hurt people in Johannesburg. I could have hurt any one of you and I couldn't have that on my consciousness. I couldn't be the reason that anyone else got hurt. I just needed to keep them all safe. But in doing so, I ended up hurting everyone. I don't know if she'll ever forgive me."
"Do you still love her?" she asked him, despite knowing the answer.
"Of course," he said without a second thought. "I've loved her since the moment we met on the Helicarrier. I loved her every single day I was in space and was the one in charge. I love her more than anything. But I don't know if she'll ever forgive me for leaving her. Besides, I know she moved on."
She looked at him in surprise and he gave her an indignant look.
"I saw how she and Barnes were looking at each other," he told her simply, "It's clear as day that there's something between the two of them."
She knew it wasn't her place to get in the middle of their relationship and point out the fact that Bucky had also left Ava because he was worried that he was dangerous and thought that she deserved better. So she wasn't going to say anything about it.
"I think you should talk to her," Toni said without elaborating. "Even if the two of you don't get back together, don't you owe it to her to clear the air at least?"
"Maybe after this is all over," he sighed. "I will talk to her, I promise. But we have more pressing concerns than my feelings."
"Fair enough," she said, with understanding. The two of them were grown adults, and it would be up to them to work out their relationship.
"For now, we should focus on Vision," Bruce said, gesturing to the screens, "Saving him and removing the stones are the highest priority."
"Yes," she agreed, as she saw Steve enter the lab, and she immediately knew why. "But I have a feeling that our Captain is going to insist we call it a night."
Steve nodded as he overheard the last part, "That's exactly why I'm here. It won't do to have the two of you overwork yourselves now. You need rest. JARVIS and FRIDAY can work on the programming overnight."
JARVIS echoed the statement and she sighed.
"Okay," she said, as she leaned into her husband and he kissed her head. She knew it was going to be a long few days, but they were going to get through it. And she'd be damned if they didn't all make it through to the other side.
