Sam, over comms, asks Steve if he can hear him.
"Sam?" Steve asked.
Sam smiled, they're back. They're all coming back.
"On your left." A portal opens on Steve's left.
Steve laughed at the callback Sam made to him annoying him by saying it.
"I got you back!" Sam laughed. "Yes!"
T'Challa, Shuri and Okoye walk through, Sam flies through. More portals start opening.
"Holy shit." Tony swore. He didn't think he could've felt happier or more relieved than he was in this moment. They weren't going after Thanos alone, separately, they were all together now and maybe that meant that they stood more of a chance. He glanced at Strange, who turned to look at him, and nodded in thanks. The portals were him or maybe not just him, but he was bringing everyone together and that was what mattered.
Strange, Mantis, Drax, Quill and Peter join.
"Peter. Oh my god, I'm so glad you're okay." May whispered, holding her nephew close. "You are never stepping foot off of this planet as long as I live, got it?"
Rocket, though he may never actually admit this out loud, was elated to have his friends- his family back again. Even Gamora, though they may never see their Gamora again, at least they have a version of her... maybe.
The Wakandan's start chanting. Ships fly through some portals.
"The Ravagers?" Quill asked.
"Well, we're gonna need all the help we can get." Strange said.
Bucky and Groot walk through one.
"Good to have you back, Buck." Steve said with a grin on his face.
Valkyrie walks through one with the Einherjar and Korg.
"Is... is that a Pegasus?" Valkyrie asked, tears in her eyes. She hasn't ridden one or seen one since the day Hela slaughtered all of her sisters. Now, she found herself wondering where the Pegasus came from.
Wanda lands near the Asgardians and the sorcerers come through the portals.
Wanda took a deep breath and put her best game face on. Thanos will pay for what he did- what he took.
Wasp flies through a little portal.
"Oh my gosh, it's a little portal." Scott said. "That's adorable."
Pepper lands, wearing the suit Tony made for her.
"It's a good look on you, Pep." Tony said, kissing her temple.
Strange asks if that was everyone.
Wong asks if he wanted more.
"I mean... if more is an option than..." Sam said.
Scott makes himself huge and lowers Bruce, Rhodey and Rocket to the ground.
"Thanks, man." Rhodey said to Scott, very glad that the three of them didn't end up drowning.
The camera zooms out to show everyone and the portals.
Everyone started tearing up. "Why am I crying?" Carol asked herself, laughing a bit.
"This is definitely the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. It just makes me really happy seeing all of us together." Steve said, tears streaming down his face.
Natasha wiped a tear off her cheek. The sight was beautiful, all of those people coming together to fight Thanos and his army. Key word: Together. Before they were fighting on multiple fronts-multiple planets even- and they were apart. Now they were together in one place. She believed that they stood more of a chance.
"Avengers Assemble." Steve summons Mjolnir and the Avengers charge. Thanos orders his army to attack as well and the fighting begins.
"We've got this." Steve said. "There's more of us and we're all together. How it should've been the first time around. We're not going to let him get those stones. We're not going to let him win. Not again."
Scott punches a Leviathan.
"We could have used you in New York." Clint said.
T'Challa, Okoye and Shuri take out foot soldiers. Drax stabs one in the back a few times, Pepper shoots at one of Thanos' pods, Tony joins her and they blast more soldiers.
"Isn't that sweet? Husband and wife side by side." Rhodey commented.
"Best. Date night. Ever." Pepper said sarcastically, though she had to admit that she was glad to be fighting alongside Tony.
Thor and Steve uses lightning to take out some soldiers, at some point they switch weapons. Thor throws Mjolnir back to Steve and says he can have the little one.
Steve snorted. "Thanks." He said, sarcastically.
"My weapons. I decide which one you use." Thor said, jokingly.
Bucky and Rocket shoot at soldiers. Tony blasts some but a bigger one throws him into a rock. Peter webs the soldier and pulls him away and Scott steps on him.
"Well isn't that ironic. Ant-Man stepping on someone as if they were the ant." Hope laughed.
Peter helps Tony up and says Tony won't believe what's been going on
"After what we've already seen, I don't think there's much I won't believe anymore." Tony said.
"Amen to that." Steve agreed.
Peter asks if he remembers when they were in space and he got all dusty.
"I don't think that's something any of us are going to forget any time soon." Clint said. He knew he wouldn't and it hasn't even happened to them yet.
He says he must have passed out because he woke up and Tony was gone and Strange was there saying that it had been five years and they were needed and Strange started doing the sparkly thing he does all the time.
"I don't do it all the time." Strange protested. "Only when necessary."
Tony hugs him.
"Well I don't know what I expected but it wasn't that." Peter said. He got his hug though and for that he was happy. His disappearance must've effected Mr. Stark more than he thought it would have.
Quill quickly takes out some soldiers, one stands over him and Gamora shoots it. Quill gets up and looks at her, shocked.
"This is gonna go well." Rocket said sarcastically.
"I would not wanna be in your shoes right now." Rhodey said.
Quill walks up to her and says he thought he lost her.
'I did.' Quill thought to himself. Wincing as he remembered watching as Thanos threw Gamora off the cliff, sacrificing his 'daughters' life for the Soul Stone. 'We did.'
Gamora takes his hand, knees him in his crotch twice and tells him not to touch her.
"I should've expected that." Quill said.
"I would apologize but I don't..." Gamora said. How does one apologize for something their past self- who's not quite their self- did?
Quill falls to the ground. He says she missed the first time and got them both the second time.
"Ouch." Sam said.
Gamora asks Nebula is he's the one. Nebula says she had the choice of him or a tree.
"That makes me feel so much better about myself, thank you." Quill said to Nebula, sarcastically.
Clint runs from one of the bigger Chitauri. Sam flies in and stabs it with his wings.
"Thanks, dude." Clint said.
Clint, over comms, asks Steve what he wants him to do with the gauntlet.
Steve, who's fending off soldiers, tells Clint to get the stones as far away as possible.
"That's a lot easier said than done." Clint said. The compound is a battlefield now, nowhere near there is safe.
Bruce says they need to get the stones back to where they came from.
"The quantum tunnel is likely destroyed." Steve reminded him. "How are we supposed to return them?"
Tony reminds them that Thanos destroyed the quantum tunnel.
Scott says that wasn't their only time machine and uses his keys to honk the horn of the van.
"The van." Hope remembered. "How do we find it under all that?"
"I'm surprised it made it out of all that to be honest." Hank said. He thought for sure that it would have been destroyed when Thanos unleashed hell on the compound.
Steve asks if anyone's seen an ugly brown van.
"It's not ugly. I'll have you know that Luis is very proud of that van." Scott said.
Valkyrie says she does but they won't like where it's parked.
"That is awfully close to Thanos' ships." Clint said, warily.
Tony asks Scott how long he'll need to get it working.
Hope lands next to Scott, who says he'll need 10 minutes.
Steve tells him to get it started and they'll get the stones to him.
"We've got this." Hope said to Scott who looked nervous about the whole thing. Trying to start that van in the middle of all this mess? He can only hope that it works.
Strange uses his magic to take out a group of soldiers. Tony lands near him and reminds Strange that he said they had a 1 in 14 million chance and asks him to tell him that this is it.
"It better be." Tony said.
Strange says if he tells Tony what happens it won't happen.
"I guess that makes sense." Bucky said.
Tony tells Strange that he better be right.
"I agree. I can't- I don't know what I would do if we lose again." Thor said.
Scott and Hope enter the van. Scott tries to start it to no avail and realizes that it's dead and that he needs to hotwire it.
"Well do it quickly." Sam said.
Thanos strikes down a sorcerer.
Strange's jaw clenched.
Thanos asks Glaive where Nebula is.
Glaive says she isn't responding.
"She's dead." Nebula said voice almost a growl. "I killed her."
Thanos spots Clint running with the gauntlet in hand.
"Shit!" Clint swore.
Clint uses his sword to take out a few Chitauri. T'Challa tells Clint to give the gauntlet to him.
"Ah! You do care. You cared enough to remember my name." Clint said, feeling triumphant as he remembered watching their fight in Leipzig. 'Hi, I'm Clint.' 'I don't care.'
T'Challa takes the gauntlet and runs through the battle field while taking out soldiers. He uses the energy in his suit to knock a group of them down.
"Honestly, you have such a cool suit." Ned complimented.
T'Challa gets hit with Thanos' sword and he drops the gauntlet.
"Oh no." Shuri said, worry evident in her voice.
Thanos starts to chase T'Challa but Wanda lands in front of him. She says he took everything from her. Thanos says he doesn't know who she is.
"Something tells me you're about to." Sam said. Wanda looked angry, she was about to rock Thanos' shit.
Wanda says he will and uses her powers to send pieces of debris at Thanos.
Wanda glared at Thanos. He took Vision and he wasn't coming back. So even if she can't kill him, she will make him feel all of the pain that he deserves to feel.
Then starts blasting him with her power. T'Challa tries to get the gauntlet. Maw uses his telekinesis to trap him in rubble. Peter webs the gauntlet and takes it and activates instant kill on the suit.
Peter froze. He never thought he'd be put in a situation where he would need to activate 'Enhanced Combat Mode', he thought it was an unnecessary feature that Mr. Stark had added to the suit. He found that he did not like being wrong about that.
Wanda stops Thanos' sword from hitting her, then hits it away, breaking a piece off.
"Wait you broke it?" Gamora asked. That sword was made from the strongest metal out there, there wasn't anything she knew about that could damage it. Though maybe those rules didn't apply to people with... abilities beyond what any other biological being should be able to do.
Wanda lifts Thanos up, along with some rubble and his armor starts breaking away.
Wanda hoped that would be enough to kill him. He did appear to be straining... in pain. If someone feels pain... if they bleed, they can be killed.
Thanos orders an air strike. Thano's ships start firing, Wanda gets blasted away and the sorcerers try to shield everyone.
"He's gonna fire on his own troops just because he wants to come out on top." Steve said, disgusted.
Pepper notes the flooding and asks if anyone else sees it, Strange uses his magic to take care of it.
"Thanks" Pepper said.
"Now what do we do about the air strike?" Sam asked.
Peter is being overwhelmed with outriders, and asks for help.
"Kid!" Tony and Steve shouted.
Steve throws Mjolnir and Peter webs onto it, flying away, one of the blasts breaks his web and he falls Pepper grabs him, then Peter lands on Valkyrie's Pegasus. Peter says it's nice to meet her.
"It's nice to meet you too." Valkyrie said.
Peter falls off the Pegasus because of the blasts and catches the gauntlet before he hits the ground. He decided to duck for cover as the firing gets worse.
"Peter!" May screamed. She had a vice grip on his arm. Peter shouldn't even be there, he was too young to be involved in something like this.
The others start ducking for cover but eventually the firing stops completely.
"What? He wouldn't call it off... would he?" Bruce asked.
"He wouldn't. I don't know why it stopped." Gamora said.
The guns on the ship point up.
"What could be out there that he's turning all of his guns toward?" Wanda asked.
"I think I know." Fury said.
Sam asks what's going on.
Tony asks FRIDAY what Thanos is firing at.
FRIDAY says something entered the upper atmosphere.
"That's a good thing, right? If Thanos is firing at it then whoever or whatever it is is on our side." Sam said.
Carol flies through Sanctuary and destroys it.
"Oh, it's you." Rhodey said. "I was beginning to wonder if you were going to show up."
"Well, I'm there now. That's what matters, right?" Carol asked.
"Well, in any case. Thank you for that." Steve said.
Scott powers up the quantum tunnel. Carol lands in front of Peter who introduces himself as 'Peter Parker.'
"What's the point of having a secret identity if you don't use it?" Ned asked.
"Well the mask is already off and... I'm among friends." Peter said.
"And enemies." MJ reminded.
Carol asks if he has something for her.
Peter hands her the gauntlet and says he's not sure how she'll get it through all that.
"Don't worry about that." Carol said. "I can take pretty much whatever they decide to throw at me."
Wanda, Valkyrie and Okoye land. Okoye says she has help. Pepper, Mantis, Shuri, Hope, Gamora, and Nebula join.
Natasha found herself wishing she was there to join them all too. She didn't get the chance to fight alongside most of them and she wished she had the opportunity to.
They charge at Thanos' army, Gamora and Okoye stab some Chitauri. Wanda takes care of one Leviathan while Valkyrie handles another. Carol flies toward the quantum tunnel, Pepper, Shuri and Hope blast Thanos.
"Come on, come on, come on, come on." Scott repeated.
Thanos throws his sword at the quantum tunnel just before Carol gets to it.
"No!" Everyone screamed.
"What the hell are we supposed to do now?" Bruce wondered. "We can't keep them from Thanos forever."
"We could use them." Clint suggested. "But I don't know how we're supposed to return them."
The shockwave sends everyone flying back, Carol drops the gauntlet. Thanos goes for the gauntlet, Tony tackles him and Thor uses both Mjolnir and Stormbreaker to keep him away. Steve grabs onto stormbreaker from behind Thanos, trying to bring it closer to his neck.
"Do it, do it." Sam said. Hoping that they could finally end all of this.
Thanos shoves Thor off and flips Steve to the ground, punching him and knocking him out.
"Steve!" Both Bucky and Sam shouted, overcome with worry for their friend.
He grabs the gauntlet.
"No. no no no no no, please no." Peter said.
Carol lands in front of Thanos and starts throwing punches. Thanos grabs her arm and flings her away, sliding his hand into the gauntlet.
Everyone tensed. Waiting for the inevitable. Maybe Thanos was right about that, maybe all of this was unavoidable. Maybe it was futile to try and prevent it.
Carol grabs the gauntlet before he can snap his fingers. She tries to pry it off. He head butts her, she doesn't move so he grabs the Power Stone and uses it to send her across the battlefeild.
"No!" Carol yelled, frustrated with herself, and with Thanos.
Tony looks to Strange who holds up 1 shaking finger.
"This... this is it?" Tony asked.
"Tony..." Pepper said, a nervous edge to her voice.
Thanos puts the Power Stone back into his gauntlet. Tony tries to take the gauntlet off, Thanos punches him away. "I am Inevitable" He snaps his fingers.
Everyone tensed bracing themselves for what was about to happen- for what they were about to relive.
Nothing happens. Thanos turns his hand to see that the stones aren't there anymore.
Everyone glanced back at Tony and then back at Thanos. Tony hadn't taken the gauntlet off no, but he'd taken the stones instead.
The stones slide into place on Tony's gauntlet.
Tony straightened up in his chair, giving the screen his complete attention. If he used those stones... he wasn't making it out alive. He'd said it himself, that amount of radiation and energy is enough to kill any human.
"And I... am... Iron Man." Tony snaps his fingers.
Tony felt like his heart jumped into his throat. He wasn't naïve, he knew what Strange's signal had meant. He knew this was the end for him he just never expected- he didn't think he'd go out like this. He used to be so obsessed with legacy and how he impacts other's lives and maybe... maybe this isn't a bad way to go out. His only regret is that because of this, Morgan will grow up without a father.
"Tony!" Rhodey, Pepper and Happy all screamed.
Clint, Steve, Bruce and Thor all had resigned looks on their faces as they realized that they were going to lose another friend.
The Leviathan Rocket is shooting at turns to dust as well as the rest of Thanos' army.
"It's over." Steve said, tears shining in his eyes.
"It's over." Tony agreed, still recovering from the shock of watching himself snap his fingers.
Thanos watches as his army turns to dust.
"How does it feel?" Wanda asked.
Thanos sits down and slowly disappears.
Gamora and Nebula watched with grim satisfaction as their adoptive father turned to dust before their very eyes.
A dying Tony leans against some debris. Rhodey lands across from him.
Rhodey look at his best friend, tears pooling in his eyes. "You don't look so good." He said, trying to be positive but he couldn't. Not now. Not while his friend was dying. He sniffed. "I'm gonna miss you, man." He said, voice breaking.
"I'd be mad if you didn't." Tony said, smiling through his tears, before getting up to hug his friend. "It's gonna be okay." He said, repeating Natasha's assurance to Clint, even if he didn't believe those words 100% yet.
Peter drops down in front of them and asks Tony if he can hear him, he says that they won and he did it and then apologizes.
"Kid." Tony said, voice barely above a whisper. Peter sniffled, wiping the tears from his eyes. The Tony in the room with them may not have met him formally yet but regardless, he's made a pretty big impact on Peter's life and he'll always be thankful for that.
Pepper helps Peter up and lowers herself to Tony's level. When prompted, FRIDAY says his life signs are critical.
Pepper let out a shaky breath, determined not to release the sob that built in her throat.
Pepper tells Tony to kook at her. She says they're going to be okay and he can rest now. Tony dies and the arc reactor goes dim.
The sob she was holding off broke free and once Pepper started crying she couldn't stop. Tony pulled her into an embrace and she cried onto his shoulder.
Natasha looked at Tony with a sad smile on her face. "At least I have a friend in the afterlife." She said softly.
Steve appeared to be lost in thought. It seems like everything always came back to the heli-carrier. He remembered telling Tony that he wasn't the guy who'd make the sacrifice and let the other guy crawl over him. Being proved wrong was... eye opening. How much had one of them ignored about the other just so they could continue thinking the worst? He liked to think that, if the circumstances were different- if the same mistakes didn't get made, he and Tony could've been better friends to one another.
"I don't know how many more friends I can stand to lose." Thor said, voice uncharacteristically light. First it was his parents, the warriors three, then Thanos decimated the remaining people- those who couldn't escape anyway, then Heimdall, Loki and Natasha.
"Sometimes I really hate it when you're right." Bruce said. Tony said that the gauntlet was enough to kill a human and- and he was right about that. They corrected what Thanos did but it cost them all two if their teammates- two of their friends, a part of their family.
"You're a son of a bitch you know that?" Clint asked, choking on his words. He said he didn't want to lose any more friends that day but we can't always get what we want. Natasha and St- Tony didn't deserve to be dead right now. It wasn't- they should still be alive. They should be alive and happy and they're not. It wasn't right.