"Kind of a step down from a golden palace and magic hammers and whatnot," Rocket commented when we got off the truck leading into New Asgard.
"Thor's never really cared about those things," I mused, and Banner agreed.
"Hey, have a little compassion, pal. First, they lost Asgard, then half their people. They're probably just happy to have a home."
"You shouldn't have come," a young woman called out, making Banner grin.
"Ah, Valkyrie. Good to see you, angry girl."
"I think I liked you better either of the other ways."
"I said the same thing," I muttered, offering her a hand. "Jess Stark and this is Rocket."
"How ya doin'?" Rocket greeted, getting a look before her gaze went back to Banner.
"He won't see you."
"It's that bad, huh?"
"We only see him once a month when he comes in for… supplies."
I sighed when she looked to the barrels of beer off to the side, starting up the pier. "Which house is his?"
"Weren't you listening? He won't see you."
"He won't have a choice. Trust me," I answered, eyes flaring gold for a brief moment as I walked.
Banner chuckled awkwardly behind me, apologizing to Valkyrie and soon catching up, pointing out Thor's house. "C-Could we at least try to talk to him before we burn his house down?"
"He'll have five minutes to open the door before he loses the door," I replied, not really in the mood to deal with a full-grown man having a temper tantrum.
Rocket knocked twice, before pushing the unlatched door open, leading us into what could only be the home of someone who'd very much let himself go.
"What the… Whoo! Something died in here," Rocket commented at the smell.
"Yeah, someone's dignity," I grumbled.
"Hello? Thor?" Banner called out as we stepped further in, hearing him finally call out.
"Are you here about the cable? The Cinemax went out two weeks ago. The sports are all kind of fuzzy."
We glanced at the shirtless, overweight man as he went and grabbed a beer with a golem-looking fellow and some sort of worm.
"Thor?"
Thor held out his arms with a false smile. "Boys! Oh my God. Oh my God, it's so good to see you!" Thor hugged Banner and went for Rocket. "Come here you little rascal!"
"No, no! I'm good! I'm good! T-That's not necessary!" Rocket complained at Thor's noogie, whereas he hadn't noticed me yet, standing just behind Banner.
"Hulk, you know my friends. Miek and Korg, right?"
"Hey boys!"
"Hey, guys. Long time no see," Banner greeted, giving me a look over his shoulder uneasily.
"Beer's in the bucket. Feel free to log into the wifi. No password, obviously," Korg said, before touching his headphones. "Thor, he's back. The kid on the TV that called me a dickhead again."
"Noobmaster," Thor grumbled.
"Yeah, Noobmaster69. Called me a dickhead again."
Thor took the headphones and mic, chewing out the kid angrily. "Noobmaster? Yeah, it's Thor again. You know, the God of Thunder? Listen, buddy. If you don't log off this game immediately, I am 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. Yes, go cry to your father, you little weasel!"
"Thank you, Thor," Korg smiled.
"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?" Thor beamed. "We have beer, tequila, all sorts of things."
My eye twitched when he popped open his beer bottle on his ax and I'd finally had enough. I stepped around Banner, grabbing the cord to the TV and yanking it out of the wall.
"Hey! Thor, something just happened to the…" Korg trailed off as he caught sight of me leaning against said TV holding the plug with blazing golden eyes.
"Get out."
"Y-Yes, ma'am," Korg stuttered, dropping his controller and headphones, grabbing Miek and rushing out of the hut as Thor scowled.
"What'd ya do that for? Why is she here?" Thor questioned Banner, who rubbed the back of his neck uneasily.
"Uh, intervention?"
"Why? I'm fine. Don't I look all right?"
"You look like melted ice cream," Rocket argued.
"I'm fine. Why are you here anyway?"
"We need your help," Banner explained as I dropped the cable and folded my arms over my chest, waiting for my turn to lay into Thor and get him seeing some common sense. "There might be a chance we could fix everything."
"What? Like the cable?" Thor burped. "'Cause that's been driving me bananas for weeks."
"Like Thanos," Banner corrected, and that goofy smile slid off Thor's face before he grabbed Banner and pointed at him.
"Don't say that name."
"Please take your hand off me," Banner said calmly. "Now, I know that... guy might scare you."
"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."
"I get it. You're in a rough spot, okay? I've been there myself. You wanna know who helped me out of it?"
"I don't know. Is it... Natasha?"
"It was you. You helped me."
"Why don't you ask the Asgardians down there, how much my help was worth. The ones that are left, anyway," Thor grumbled, dropping into a chair.
"I think we can bring them back."
"Stop. Stop, okay? 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? So, whatever it is that you're offering, I'm not into it, don't care, couldn't care less. Goodbye."
"We need you, pal."
There was a shattering of glass that made Thor's eyes go wide.
"W-What are you doing!"
I dropped the now empty beer bucket onto the floor, having just dumped what was it in out the window. "Oh, sorry. Do I have your attention now?" I asked, not even flinching as he stormed towards me, glaring down at me angrily but with none of the bite the old Thor would have had.
"Get out of my house, Jess."
"See, that's exactly why I'm not leaving," I quipped, not backing down. "You called it a house."
"So?"
"Isn't this your home?" I asked, watching his expression falter before he abruptly turned away.
"I'll just go to the docks and get more."
"Nope. I've just ensured that no more alcohol is to land in the port of New Asgard until further notice."
"You can't do that!"
"Just did," I replied, lifting my phone, which he promptly took from me and crushed in his hands with a smirk.
"No, you didn't."
I blinked slowly. "You do realize that destroying my phone won't stop the text I already sent, right?"
He slammed a fist onto the mantel of the fireplace right next to me, making Banner take a step forward.
"Jess, maybe we should—"
"No," I stopped him, not taking my eyes off Thor. "I'm not leaving until he's got it through his thick skull that we're not leaving without him. We have a chance to stop all this from happening, and you want to just wallow in what? I won't even call it self-pity, because that's not what this is, is it? None of us could have stopped him. Even if you went and chopped off his head the moment you first met. This was always going to happen, Thor. Thanos was always going to come down here and cause mayhem. People were going to die and what makes you think that this is your fault? Huh? Your whole damn planet couldn't stop him, and you think you by yourself could?"
Thor grabbed the front of my shirt and still, I didn't flinch. "You don't know anything," he growled as Banner made to step in again.
"Don't," I stopped him. "He won't hurt me."
"You don't know that," Thor snapped. "I could throw you through this wall if I wanted."
"I'm sure you could, but you won't. You're still Thor under all this bravado, and you're honestly acting like Tony right now. Acting like the worst possible person you can be to make everyone hate you and leave you alone because that's what you feel you deserve. Am I right?" I asked, seeing on his face that I was. "You think none of us are blaming ourselves for this mess? Tony has nightmares of being unable to stop Thanos. Bruce had to work to get Hulk to behave because he was afraid of Thanos. Hell, I had visions of all this shit happening and willingly went to the Fridge because I felt I deserved to be punished for letting this happen when I knew it would happen! I was told I could fucking stop it, Thor, and you think I'm just sitting around wallowing on my ass now that half the universe is gone? Who does that help! What good does it do anyone to sit around like a blob of jello when we finally have the chance to make things right!"
Thor hesitated. "It… It's not that easy."
I scoffed. "Easy? Who the hell said it would be easy? You think we'd have dragged our asses down here to get you if it were easy? Don't be stupid. Now, let's go. Get your things, grab your ax and let's fix this because I'm tired of feeling useless when there's finally something I can do. Got it?" I shoved his ax into his fumbling hands, only for the significance of that to make everyone's eyes widen.
"Well, shit," Rocket muttered as I blinked.
"You know what? I'm just going to forget that happened." My eyes narrowed at Bruce and Rocket. "And if either of you tell Tony and the others, I'll maim you. Got it?"
"Don't need to tell me twice," Rocket answered, looking to Thor. "So, you coming?"
Thor looked at the ax in his hands and over to me, as I shot him a raised brow. Aren't you? Slowly, he nodded, cracking the slightest of smiles.
"Yes. I'll come."
"Good. I really didn't want to throw out all the alcohol when we got back," I huffed, earning a wince from the others as we stepped out. "How do you think Natasha's doing with Clint?"
Banner winced. "Honestly? I'm almost worried for him."
I snorted as we climbed into the ship and headed back to headquarters.
I stepped into the area where Lang was getting ready, scolding Banner for something or another.
"These are Pym particles, all right? And ever since Hank Pym got snapped out of existence, this is it. This is what we have. We're not making any more."
Rhodey held up his hands. "Calm down."
"Sorry," Lang apologized as I rolled my eyes, leaning against the wall and just listening in.
Tony had banned me from helping him after I'd nearly lost a finger with the laser saw. Just the thought of it had me rubbing at my eye. Between the stress from Thanos and getting older, I had more problems with it than before.
"Wait, wait, wait a sec. Let me ask you something," Rhodey cut in, making me realize I'd zoned out long enough for Clint to take Lang's place in the testing suit. "If we can do this… You know, go back in time. Why don't we just find baby Thanos, you know and…" He made the motion of strangling and Banner and I exchanged looks.
"First of all, that's horrible," Banner said with a wrinkle of his nose.
"It's Thanos."
"And secondly, time doesn't work that way. Changing the past doesn't change the future."
Lang jumped in before I could explain. "Look. We go back, get the stones before Thanos gets them. Thanos doesn't have the stones. Problem solved."
"Bingo," Clint agreed.
"That's not how it works," Nebula argued as I nodded.
"She's right. Time's not linear. Just because you change point A doesn't mean point C is the same just without Thanos."
"Well, that's what I heard," Clint argued.
"What? By who?" Banner questioned and I groaned.
"Every movie ever."
"Star Trek, Terminator, Time Cop, Time After Time," Rhodey listed off with Lang and Clint jumping in every once in a while, with their own movie references.
"I don't know why everyone believes that, but that is not true. Think about it. If you travel to the past, that past becomes your future. And your former present becomes your past. Which can't now be changed by your new future."
"Exactly," Nebula said, though I could see the gears turning in their heads.
"So, Back to the Future is a bunch of bullshit?"
"Look. Back to the Future is what would happen if time was linear. You kill someone ten years ago, they don't exist ten years in the future that you still live in, just without that person. This is different. Say we go back in time and find baby Thanos," I drawled, using Rhodey's example. "Now, Thanos never destroyed half the population, never destroyed Asgard, never found the stones, sure. But he also never had Nebula and her sister and never caused the Battle of New York which then gave way to creating new heroes, new alliances, new experiences. But the thing is, the moment we go back, we're not rewriting anything. The snap still happened. Half the universe is still dead, but now we have the stones here. That's what we're trying to do. Besides, we kill Thanos, then what? Someone else could take his place. Maybe we ended up in a timeline where he turns out to be a good person, who knows? Either way, it wouldn't change the snap. We need the stones to reverse it."
"You do know your explanation didn't exactly clear things up," Clint muttered, and I sighed.
"This. This is why I got married to Tony. He may act like an idiot, but at least he can keep up."
"Hey," Clint grumbled as I waved at him and stepped away.
"Missed you, Clint."
I heard a muttered complaint, but Clint didn't have long to worry about it before he was trying out the device we'd finished. It was a tense couple of minutes before he returned and when he confirmed it worked, we knew we had to get to planning.
"Okay. So, the 'how' works," Steve said, taking charge of our planning meeting. "Now, we've got to figure out the 'when' and the 'where'.' Almost everyone in this room has had an encounter with at least one of the six Infinity Stones."
"Or substitute the word 'encounter' for 'damn near been killed' by one of the six Infinity Stones," Tony jumped in.
"I haven't," Lang announced. "But I don't even know what the hell you're all talking about."
"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."
"Our history. So, not a lot of convenient spots to just drop in, you know?" Tony added.
"Which means we have to pick our targets," Clint concluded.
"Correct."
"Let's start with the Ether. Thor, what do you know?" Steve said, but Thor didn't move and remained silent.
"Is he asleep?" Natalie asked.
"No, no. I'm pretty sure he's dead," Rhodey quipped, and I let out a heavy sigh.
"Thor, you've got three seconds to get off your ass and help, or I'm throwing out all the alcohol in this entire building."
"I'm up, I'm up," he grunted, pushing himself out of his chair and heading over to the image of the Reality Stone. "Uh, where to start. Um, the Ether firstly is not the stone. Somebody called it a stone before. It's sort of an angry sludge sort of thing, so someone's gonna need to amend that and stop saying that," he said, putting in eye drops.
"Speed it up Thor, and I'll let you have one drink when you're finished," I drawled, fingers typing away notes on my tablet and he perked up.
"Well, long story short, I had this old flame of mine, Jane who put her hand in a rock and the Ether sort of went into her. I then had to take her to Asgard to get her healed."
I pointed to the door. "Go eat some breakfast and I'll give you access to Friday who will provide one drink of choice."
"Excellent," he hummed, bounding out as Rhodey let out a long whistle.
"You certainly have him on a leash."
I snorted. "I know what he wants, and I've got complete control over his access to it. Carrot and the stick."
Rocket leaned over towards Tony. "And you married her?"
"I get something better than carrots," Tony teased, and Steve cleared his throat, ending the conversation before my ears could get any redder.
Rocket was next, followed by Nebula and the others as we ate our dinner. Tony had gone to bed early, knowing he'd need to be working for an unknown amount of time on the machine and offered me a chance to join him, but I waved him off, wanting some time to myself and to look up more of what I could on the stones. With all of us having a quick run-down of the stones, who had them and where, it only came down to picking the time to get them. I had a computer program trying to line them all up by the time I'd gotten up to get more coffee. I hadn't expected to find Steve sitting at the table with a glass of water.
"Can't sleep?" He asked, seeing that I was getting coffee instead of something less likely to keep me up.
"Insomnia," I replied, being honest as I grabbed a clean mug from the cupboard. "Was diagnosed after the snap, though my therapist thinks it's been an on-going thing for much longer." I waved vaguely at my head. "Nightmares."
"You mean, your visions," he concluded, and I hummed.
"That too."
"I… I really am sorry for what I said back then. Blaming you wasn't right, no matter what I was feeling at the time."
"Steve, we settled this ages ago," I complained, shooting him a look as I leaned back against the countertop. "I'm not upset. I'm sure someone told you guys, but I wanted you to blame me. It's always easier to blame someone else than yourself, and I'd rather you lot took it out on me than wallow in self-pity like Mr. Demi-God did."
"That doesn't make what I did right," he declared, eyes serious.
"Well, no, but it doesn't change anything either. People died. We're all mourning someone or something. And the only person we can truly blame is the man who did the act himself."
"You didn't even want to go after him."
I shrugged. "I know what it's like to want to get revenge on someone. I know how it eats away at you afterward. How you finally feel like you accomplished something only to step back and realize hurting them did nothing to make you feel any better."
His gaze softened. "You're… not talking about Thanos."
I cracked a grimace of a smile. "My father was an abusive alcoholic after my mother passed away. He couldn't stand even looking at me because I reminded him too much of her. I lived with him for years, before we got into a car accident. A car accident that… wasn't entirely an accident. He died. I'd wanted to die, but was all right in the end and you know what? Nothing changed. I still felt like he was there for years after the fact. I still flinched away when someone moved too fast or shrank back when people shouted. I couldn't form relationships because I always felt that I would screw it up somehow, just like father always told me. Hurting him never made me feel better; it only made me feel worse.
"So, yeah. As much as I hate Thanos for what he did, and as badly as I want to make sure he pays for what he's done… Killing him wouldn't change the fact that it's happened. Took me a while to figure that out, but I did. There was no point in blaming myself for not being able to do anything because nobody else could have stopped him either. Worlds and armies had already fallen by his hand. What could one single person like me do? Foreknowledge or not?"
"You're not alone, Jess," Steve declared, standing as I got my cup of coffee and smiled at him, taking him aback.
"Course not. Like I said, no point in blaming myself for trying to do something impossible on my own. Tony's been trying to get me to figure that out for a long time, but everything with my father kept holding me back. Did you know? He's actually rather upset with Doctor Strange for helping me through most of that thinking in Nepal. You think you and him in a room together is bad? Him and Strange together is practically a circus."
"So… what do you think now?" Steve asked, curious.
"Now? Now, I know better. Saying it sounds a bit cheesy, but I've got you guys to back me up. I may not be able to change the future on my own but figuring this mess out together always seems to work in the end, right?"
Steve smiled. "You've certainly changed."
"Please," I scoffed. "I'm still going to give you guys shit for being idiots. The only difference is that now I won't be able to get away from you all."
"Thanks, Jess. For everything."
There was a rap on the door and we both turned to see a suspicious, worn-out looking Tony leaning against the doorframe.
"Should I be worried about my marriage, Captain?"
Steve cracked another smile, holding up his hands. "No, sir."
I just rolled my eyes. "I'll be with you in a second, Tony."
"Not with another cup of coffee, you won't," he argued, nodding behind him. "Your computer is going off."
"Oh, scan must be finished," I chirped, ducking under his arm after giving him a kiss on the cheek in thanks.
"Scan?" Steve questioned as they both followed.
"Trying to see if any of the times and places of the stones lined up. Figured that if we can find a cluster of them, even two in the same place and time, might make things easier. We're limited on people, so having one person going after a stone on their own is a risk, especially with who knows how many others chasing them." I picked up my laptop and settled on the couch. "Bigger the groups we split up into, better the chance of a plan going well, and us getting a… stone."
"What? What is it?"
I stared in surprise at the results. "There's three."
"Three?" Steve asked, him and Tony coming up behind me to look over my shoulder at the screen.
"Three stones in New York all during that battle in 2012. You better wake up the others early. We've got to come up with a plan."
"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," Steve explained as we all got ready to go, standing on the finished platform of our makeshift time machine. "Most of us are going somewhere we know. That 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. Whatever it takes. Good luck."
Rocket smirked. "He's pretty good at that."
"Right?" Lang beamed in return as I sighed.
"That's why he's in charge."
Rocket shot me a look. "I thought you were in charge."
"Oh, she is," Tony answered, looping an arm around my waist and kissing my jaw. "But Steve's better at motivational speeches. Jess is more of the… crack the whip type."
"Hot."
"Oi," I complained, lightly kicking at Rocket's leg that he nimbly dodged with a chuckle.
"What? It's a compliment. If you ever get bored with tinman, you know where to find me."
"Yeah, I don't do raccoons."
"Don't knock it till you try it."
"Yeah, this conversation needs to stop now, before I vomit all over you," Natasha groaned in complaint.
"Just having a bit of fun, Nat," I chuckled.
"You? Fun? Didn't know you were capable of that," she teased as Banner stepped up after getting the machine ready. "See ya in a minute."
Our helmets came on as the machine started up, throwing us out and separating the three groups. Rhodey, Clint, Natasha, and Nebula were to get dropped off on the planet Morga to deal with the Soul Stone on Vormir and the Power Stone there. Rocket and Thor were sent to Asgard for the Reality Stone and the rest of us were back during the Battle of New York to split up and get the Mind, Space and Time Stones.
"All right, we all have our assignments," Steve announced the moment we landed, and our suits shifted to reflect our clothes. "Two stones uptown, one stone down. Stay low. Keep an eye on the clock."
There was a roar then and we turned to watch the Hulk smash an alien with a car, stomp on it angrily and throw a tire at another. Banner sheepishly brought his hand up to his face and Steve shot him a look.
"Maybe smash a few things along the way."
"I think it's gratuitous, but whatever," Banner replied, tearing off his shirt and giving half-hearted roars as he punched a car roof and threw a motorcycle.
Tony pulled me away briefly as we started to split up, brushing a hand over my face as I rolled my eyes at the action. "Stay safe?"
"I'm going to meet a wizard. You lot are the ones who need to stay safe."
He smirked. "That's my girl."
He kissed me with a hint of desperation before pulling away and running off with the others as I sighed. Let's just hope this goes well.
"Banner, let's go!" I called out, making him stop his half-hearted rampage and head over. "Give me a lift?"
He raised a brow. "Don't you have your suit?"
"Yeah, but why bother? We're going to talk, not fight."
"Steve's right."
"What's that?" I asked, climbing onto his back and wrapping my arms around his neck.
"You've mellowed out. Or, well, that's what he said. He wasn't really there when you chucked out Thor's booze."
I snorted. "Shut up and go."
We flew along the rooftops before landing on top of the New York Sanctum and he allowed me to slide off his back as he went for the doors in.
"I'd be careful going that way," a familiar voice called out. "We just had the floors waxed."
My gaze softened at the sight of the Ancient One and I hardly realized that Banner had stepped forward to speak with her.
"Yeah, I'm looking for Doctor Strange."
"You're about five years too early," she replied, eyeing him and giving me a brief look as well. "Stephen Strange is currently performing surgery about twenty blocks that way. What do you want from him?"
I went to explain, but Banner must have been channeling his inner Hulk and continued to take charge of the situation… poorly.
"That, actually."
"Ah! I'm afraid not."
"Sorry, but I wasn't asking."
"Bruce," I muttered, warning him as she did much the same when he approached.
"You don't want to do this."
"Ah, you're right, I don't. But I need that stone and we don't have time to debate it." He reached for it and I sighed heavily as the Ancient One slammed a palm forward and knocked him out of his body.
His astral self gaped in shock as she calmly eyed him.
"Let's start over, shall we?" She smiled, turning her attention to me. "You seem to carry more common sense than your compatriot. Shall we discuss things?"
A flash of pain went through me. "You don't know who I am?"
Her head tipped to the side. "Should I?"
"Well, you knew Strange, but I suppose it's a bit presumptuous of me to assume. Jess Stark," I introduced with a slight bow of respect. "Or, well. Jess Norris when I met you. Meet you?" My brows furrowed. "Should I talk in past tense or future?"
She cracked the slightest of smiles. "Whichever you prefer. How do you know Strange and me if we've never met and aren't supposed to meet?"
I ran a hand through my hair, giving the sky a brief glance and knowing time was short. "It's a… bit of a long story but the gist of it is I was traveling in Nepal and the sanctum locked me in during a rainstorm. You took a liking to me. Strange happened to be there and we sort of saved the world from falling into—" I stopped suddenly. "Ah… that's… a future I probably shouldn't have spoiled. As for you not knowing me…" I cracked a sad smile. "I'm not meant to exist in this universe."
"Impossible," she argued, but as she looked me over, I could tell she understood that as being the only possible explanation. "But apparently truth."
"Jess, we don't have time for this!" Banner complained and I waved at him.
"We have time. Our plan is far simpler than Tony's. Simpler means less likely to get messed up, fewer holes. I don't doubt we'll get the stone."
The Ancient One shot me a look at my confidence before I suddenly scowled down at the necklace.
"Don't laugh at me."
"Excuse me?" She questioned.
"Not you, the stone," I grumbled. "It thinks this is funny."
"You can communicate with it?"
"With all of them, yeah. That one—" I pointed at the stone. "—likes me the most."
"Look, we really need the stone," Banner piped up, hovering over my shoulder. "The fate of the universe depends on it! This guy, he takes all the stones and obliterates half the universe. We came back in time to get the stones to reverse it!"
"I'm sorry. I can't help you, Bruce," the Ancient One said, walking to the other side of the roof. "Nor you, Jess. If I give up the Time Stone to help your reality, I'm dooming my own."
"With all due respect, all right," Banner said, chasing after her as I sighed. "I'm not sure the science really supports that."
The Ancient One swept a hand in front of us, revealing a line through the sky. "The Infinity Stones create what you experience as the flow of time. Remove one of the stones—" She flicked an image of the stone off the line, forming a second. "—and that flow splits. Now, this may benefit your reality, but my new one, not so much. In this new branch reality, without our chief weapon against the forces of darkness, our world will be overrun. Millions will suffer. So tell me, Doctor, Jess. Can your science prevent all that?"
"No," Banner said before I could say my piece. "But we can erase it. Because once we're done with the stones, we can return each one to its own timeline at the moment it was taken. So, chronologically, in that reality—" He plucked the stone and put it back, getting rid of the second line. "—it never left."
The Ancient One walked away and the image vanished. "Yes, but you're leaving out the most important part. In order to return the stones, you have to survive."
"We will. I will. I promise," Banner said.
"I can't risk this reality on a promise. It's a duty of the Sorcerer Supreme to protect the Time Stone."
"Strange gave it away," I said then, making her turn to me in shock.
"What did you say?"
"Strange was with us when we fought Thanos. Tony—Iron Man was there with him and said Strange looked into over fourteen billion realities, searching for the chances of success and said he only found one," I explained, eyeing her. "Iron man said that Strange swore he would protect the stone even if it meant that everyone there died, but he gave it to Thanos."
"Willingly?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"I have no idea. Maybe he made a mistake," Banner said.
"Or I did," she murmured, making me raise a brow as she put Banner back into his body.
"I have a theory."
"What?" Banner gaped at me in stunned shock and I held up a hand.
"It's not like Strange to make a mistake. He's a narcissistic perfectionist. He had a plan when he gave up the stone. My guess? In order for the one reality where we win to happen, he had to give up the stone. This isn't on you, Ancient One," I said, not willing to have her blame herself for this like so many of the others.
She watched me for a moment before opening her necklace and holding out the stone.
"Strange is meant to be the best of us."
"He is," I smiled as she placed the stone in my hand and left hers on top of mine. "Or, you know, the best with attitude."
She smiled a little as well. "Sounds like him. You two get along, I hope."
"Oh, yeah," I waved off. "I bother him all the time for good tea."
Her eyes met mine then seriously. "I'm counting on you, Jess."
"Wouldn't be the first time," I murmured.
"We all are."
"Then, I'm sorry for this."
Her eyes widened as I stepped forward, hugging her tightly before she understood and lightly held me in return. I backed up, clearing my throat awkwardly and looking at Banner.
"Let's take this back."
He nodded and I gave the Ancient One a final bow of respect before we flashed back to our time. And let's hope nothing went wrong.