Inside the sanctum, Dr. Strange hesitated as he stared at the closed Darkhold. As he opened the first magical pages, it was almost as if it were alive, and knew what he was looking for. "The multiverse," he read, "and the infinity stones. Well all be dammed, that tricky asshole was telling the truth." He turned and looked over his shoulder, wondering if Loki was behind him, but the space was empty.
Meanwhile, at the avenger's headquarters, everyone sat around the table in wait. "The multiverse," Tony said in disbelief, "it's real. Is that not blowing anyone else's mind right now?"
Sam confessed, "I'm still not sure I understand what it's supposed to mean."
Tony explained, "It's like I was saying. We all make choices multiple times a day. What to eat, what to watch, where to go, which car to drive, which flight to get on, those sorts of things. New universes are created whenever we make a choice, because a different version of yourself chose to have cereal instead of eggs for breakfast. There are big choices we've all made that would change it was well, like if Steve decided not to take the serum or if you, Sam, decided not to help him when he said he needed to that day. Things like that."
"Yes it's all very simple," Thor said nonchalantly, "you guys had little idea of it before?"
Clint explained, "It's always been considered a theory, but no one thought it was real. Or at least, none of us knew it was."
"So Asgard has always known about this?" Tony asked.
Thor replied, "Yes, it's common knowledge among our people. Our mother was raised by witches, she'd look into the multiverse all the time and used its knowledge to protect our father and everyone else on many occasions. No one else here has ever heard of it?" He looked around at their confused faces.
Tony said, "I guess we're just not that advanced." He looked at Loki, sitting silently. "You're oddly quiet." He merely smiled back at him.
"Loki," Thor asked, "what are you up to?"
"I'm reading over the sorcerer's shoulder," he answered, "he found the part of the book I mentioned. It looks like we're in business."
It only took a few minutes for Dr. Strange to return through another portal. "Loki was correct," he said, "the Darkhold has held the answer to our problem all along."
Steve asked, "Which is?"
"Making a copy of an infinity stone is impossible," he explained, "it can't be done, no matter how hard you try, or how close you get to it's original molecular structure, it won't be the same. It'll always end up wrong."
"Then what did Loki do?" Sam asked, "The impossible?"
Dr. Strange continued, "Not quite. He created as close to a copy as he could get. It's that any duplicate of an infinity stone is cursed to break the multiverse."
Defeated and terrified at the implication, Tony asked, "Are you kidding?"
"Does that mean this is it?" Clint asked, "That it's all over before we even got started?"
"No, I'm not done explaining everything yet," he said, "if we work with this power properly, and do everything correctly, we can hop in and out of different universes to fix our reality, without ruining others."
"Fix our reality?" Steve asked, "What are you saying?"
He took a deep breath before he explained, "We can take the infinity stones from these other universes, perform our own snap, and then return them back where we originally got them from, and it'll all be fine for everyone everywhere. We'll save our universe, and leave the others undisturbed."
They all stood in shock of what he just said.
Tony said, too anxious to excited at the propspects of what he just heard, "So this is going to work? We're actually doing this?"
"I hope so," Dr. Strange said, "for everyone's sake."
Steve said sadly, "But we can't bring Vision back. Not if the mind stone gets returned to where we get it from originally, from another universe."
"I'm sorry but this is the only option we have," Dr. Strange said, "I know it's sad, but we'll bring billions back with this idea. There is one caveat. According to the Darkhold, we can only hop into universes where the stones are currently being used. That's the only way this'll work. That's why we went to the top of Stark Tower in New York when Thor asked for the tessereact, because that's a time it was already in use."
Tony asked, "We seriously can't go someplace one of these things is sitting on a shelf somewhere? I mean, the tesseract was at the bottom of the ocean and locked in a few different people's briefcases for decades that we know about, let alone throughout the 13 billion years he could try to traverse."
Dr. Strange shook his head. "That's how it is."
Loki sighed and said, "Well this just got much more complicated. When were they all in use?"
Thor explained, "We know the aether was used on Asgard a few years ago when it was inside Jane's body."
"What do you mean inside her body?" Steve asked.
He answered, "The angry sludge that was the reality stone was originally called the aether, and it made it's way inside of her one day, and then dark elves chased us down to try and take it from her." He glanced at Loki angrily, remembering how he faked his death afterwards.
In shock, everyone stared at him awkwardly. Tony said, "Well now we know where that one is. What about the others?"
"I was given the mind stone by Thanos," Loki said, "and used it in New York alongside the tesseract against your little group of heroes." He smiled as everyone glared at him.
"We remember," Clint said hastily.
"Wait," Natasha said, "we might be able to grab both at the same time. You left the sceptor unattended at the top of the tower."
Loki interrupted, "My mistake."
She continued without skipping a beat, "If we go the universe where the tesseract is currently in use, we should be able to get the mind stone at the same time. If it works, we'd only create one portal. Less chances of messing things up that way."
Dr. Strange said, "And we'd have one less universe to hop into. Not bad, if it works."
Tony asked, "You're from New York, right doc? Were you there when he was, you know?" He gestured to Loki.
"I was," he replied, "but I wasn't a wizard back then, let alone sorcerer supreme. Don't worry, I'll talk the sorcerer supreme at the time into handing over the time stone."
Steve said, "That's three down already. What about the others?"
"Thanos used the power stone against me on his ship," Loki said, looking down at the floor as he remembered the pain he went through, "I have no idea how he aquired it."
Natasha asked, "What do you mean he used it against you?"
"He put me in a power stone prison that attempted to rip me apart by the nerves every time I took a breath or blinked my eyes or moved so much as a muscle," Loki answered hastily, hating that he had to remember that.
Clint asked, concerned, "He tortured you?"
"Yes!" He said quickly, "Did you think we were the best of friends? I haven't done all this for altruistic purposes you know."
"I met some people in space," Thor interjected calmly, "they called themselves the guardians of the galaxy. Apparently they thwarted a minion of Thanos, some guy named Ronan, from using the power stone against the people of Xandar. Perhaps that's a better time to obtain it."
Dr. Strange said, "We'll try for that option if it's possible. What about the soul stone?"
They all turned to stare at Loki. He put his hands up defensively, "I have no answer for you. He left his ship, and when he returned, he used it to turn my soul inside out."
After an awkward silence, Steve said, "We'll save that one for last."
"So we're actually doing this," Tony said, still too scared to let himself get excited, "we're going to go to alternate universes, steal their infinity stones, perform our own snap, and then send them back to where they came from. I got it right?"
"Yeah," Sam said, smiling, "we're actually doing this! We're actually going to save everyone!"
"Wait," Steve said causiously, putting his hands up, "what are we going to wish for when we snap our fingers?"
Tony said, "For everyone to come back, Steve!"
"To here and now?" Steve asked, "To this very moment? They've missed out on a year of their lives, it might be better to wish us back in time to before Thanos snapped his fingers."
"Yes!" Thor exclaimed, "And then when I kill him, when we kill him," he gestured to Loki, "I'll make he stays dead this time and take the stones away from him!"
Dr. Strange warned, "We don't know if that's going to work. If we go back in time we might forget everything in the past year and it'll likely play out the exact same way it did before. We might end up in a time loop." He held his wrists, remembering the pain of his hands getting burned off.
Natasha asked, "So we have to bring everyone here? But won't that just bring back everyone who was snapped away? What about those who committed suicide when their whole family died, or died when their planes crashed, or in car accidents in the chaos? Can we make a wish stating everyone comes back unharmed, even those unrelated to the snap?"
"I don't know," Dr. Strange answered.
Sam said, "The time travel thing sounds messy."
"And learning you missed out on an entire year of your life is traumatizing," Steve said, glacing at Bucky who nodded in agreement.
Thor said, "Well since we have the stones, if one option doesn't work, we could try the other option on the second go around."
"I don't know about that, Thor," Loki said, "you saw Thanos after he made his wishes. He was half dead by the time we got to him."
Dr. Strange said, "But it might be our only option."
"Alright," Tony said excitedly, "we're going to go in, collect the stones, perform our own snap or two in order to save everyone, and then send the stones back to where they came from! We got this! It's written in stone!"
BAM!
A massive flat faced golden boulder suddenly appeared behind him and Loki stood up and presented Tony with a carving tool and hammer straight from the stone age. Everyone stared at him in disbelief as to what was happening.
"What the hell is this?" Tony demanded.
"You said it's written in stone," Loki replied, "so go ahead write it in stone." He tried to hand the tools over to him, but Tony put his hands up and refused.
He insisted, "It's just an expression."
Thor asked, "You don't want it written in stone? Then why say so? I don't understand."
"We don't actually write shit in stone when we say that," Tony explained, getting annoyed by both of them, "that's the meaning of 'it's an expression,' we just say it, not mean it."
Loki innocently continued to gesture to the tools in his hand. "We always do in Asgard, that is why it is a saying in the first place, because that's how it is done."
Tony scoffed and said, "I'm not spending all year carving out rune stones just to appease your ridiculous royal highness."
"Take the tools and tap the stone," Loki commanded, "try it."
Dr. Strange said, "Take the damn tools, Tony, so we can all move on from this quickly."
He finally gave in and snatched them from Loki's hand. "This better not be a trick." With the hammer, he lightly tapped toward the top of the stone. Old Norse runes suddenly and magically formed throughout it, writing the lines perfectly thoughout the rockface. "Whoa," he said.
Bucky said, "Now that's cool."
"Loki!" Thor shouted, startling everyone in the room, "Take that last line out of there, that's vulgar!"
"What," Loki replied calmly, giggling to himself, "he doesn't know what he's written."
Tony demanded angrily, "What did you make me write!?"
Thor explained, "Well it explains how we're going to hop across universes and get the stones and all that for the most part throughout these lines, but the very last line says you," he pointed to Tony, "take it in the ass from him," he pointed to Steve, "every night."
"Gross!" Tony recoiled.
"No!" Steve shook his head in disgust, not believing what he just heard.
Thor said, "Remove the last line at once, Loki."
He replied, "But he had no idea what he wrote until you told him. It's causing no harm."
"As King I decree-" he started.
"Oh fine," Loki said, conjuring a sander, "I'll take it off since you're so upset about it." He magically removed the last line of the rune stone carvings. "There, happy now?"
Thor replied, "Yes. Thank you for complying."
"Alright," Steve said, "gather round."
Loki groaned, "What is this? A group pep talk from the man out of time?" Thor pulled him into the group circle as he rolled his eyes.
"Yes," Steve said.
Loki taunted, "For beings with such short life spans you sure waste a lot of time standing around doing nothing."
Tony asked Thor, "Can you sew his lips shut again, or maybe put a muzzle on him, or something? I'm getting sick of his nonsense real fast, Thor."
Thor grabbed Loki's hands and forced them over his mouth. He tried to pull and kick away but Thor was too strong. He lifted him off the ground and said, "There, he'll be silent now. Please continue, Captain America. I for one love your speeches. Henceforth."
Steve said, "We know what we're going to do. We'll get the space stone, the mind stone, and the time stones first. We need to take our time. There's no need to rush, because if we make mistakes, we could botch this entire operation and ruin another innocent universe that did nothing to deserve it. I can grab the tesseract out of the machine."
"I'll grab the sceptor off the roof when Loki leaves it there unattended," Natasha said.
"And I will get the time stone from the sanctum," Dr. Strange said.
"Everyone else will wait here and watch the portal for any anomalies," Steve said, "I just hope this works. If it does, we'll move on to the other stones very carefully. Understood?"
Dr. Strange, Tony, and Thor said, "Understood."
Loki finally pulled away from his brother and shouted, "Let go of me!" Thor threw him off to the side.
"How do we know he's not going to do anything stupid to mess this up for us?" Tony asked, pointing directly at Loki, "What if he's planning on doing something else with them, something against the group? Maybe he'll try to take over Earth with them or something. We need to know before we collect them all for him just to betray us."
Steve asked, "Loki, are you planning to do anything with these six stones?"
"Yes," he answered, smiling at the lot of them.
"Too broad," Thor said, "that could mean anything. You must be specific. Loki, are you planning to do anything nefarious with these six infinity stones we're about to collect?"
Loki replied, "No, nothing nefarious. I simply want revenge against Thanos."
They all looked at each other. "I'm not buying it," Clint said, "even with that truth spell on him, I still feel like he's going to try something."
"Let me try an even more specific question," Thor insisted, "Loki, are you going to betray us when these six infinity stones we're about to collect?"
"No."
"If you do, Loki," Dr. Strange said, "you can count on me to end you right then and there no matter how much Thor wishes against it. For now, we all have our assignments." Loki rolled his eyes at hearing such a thing.
Steve, Natasha, and Dr. Strange went through the portal at the same time to the roof of New York City. Steve and Natasha came back at the same time with their stones, but the doctor remained.
"Alright," Clint said, nervous around Loki's staff, "how do we get the mind stone out of this thing?" He took it from her.
Loki said, "I put a spell on it. No mind can separate the stone from the scepter, but my own." He outstretched his hand and Clint pulled away, as if he would simply hand it over to the man who brainwashed him with it before. "May I?"
"As if we're going to give you this thing so easily," Tony said hastily, "what are you going to do, brainwash all of us?"
"No," he answered, "I'm going to break the spell I put on it so we can use the mind stone properly."
One by one everyone tried to pry the stone out, even teaming up and using multiple people's strength but nothing worked. The stone remained.
Sam asked, "How did it get out of this last time?"
"Ultron did it," Tony answered.
Loki asked, "Who is Ultron?"
Thor answered, "A robot Stark created in an attempt to protect humanity. It did not work out so well."
"That's why he got it out," Loki said, "because a robot has no mind."
Thor stepped between them and said, "Let me try." He grabbed his axe and had the other avengers hold the staff on one end, and continuously bashed the scepter on the other. The stone nor the metal were budging under his full strength. He commanded that it break free, but nothing was working.
"We don't exactly have a lot of options right now, guys," Natasha said, "it's either let Loki do it or this stone is staying in there. I'd rather have the stone."
With her word, they finally handed it over to Loki. He held onto the spear with both hands, horizontally. He closed his eyes to concentrate and imbued it with his magic and had the mind stone leave the scepter's tip, only to be assaulted with images of Thanos.
Thanos sat back on 'the garden' with the black order standing before him and appeared to hold the soul stone in his hand. "The avengers plot against us once again, we'll make sure they pay for that." He turned and looked up, as if he were peering directly into Loki's soul.
Loki threw the staff down; the stone flew across the room as he jumped back and gasped in fear.
"Whoa!" Steve said, "Take it easy!"
"Thanos is coming!" Loki exclaimed, terrified.
"That spear makes you see things," Clint insisted, "okay? We know that. It's made to get inside your head and mess with you. Whatever you saw, it wasn't real. Relax."
Loki shook his head at him and explained, "This was no nightmare. When I broke my spell over this stone it alerted Thanos of what we in this room are doing. He knows! He's coming! He's headed this way to stop us!"
"Calm down," Tony said, approaching him cautiously, "it was probably just an illusion."
Loki stepped up to him hastily and said, "You dare accuse I, Loki, master of magic, as someone who is unable to decipher a vision from an illusion?" He stared him down.
Before things could get too intense, Thor pulled Loki back by the arms and twirled him away from the tension building between them. "Enough," he said, "Loki, show us what you saw and we'll see for ourselves if it was real or a farse."
With a wave of his hand, Loki gave everyone in the room the vision the specter gave him. Natasha said, fearful, "Oh he's coming for us alright."
"How does he have the soul stone?" Clint asked.
"I don't know," Loki answered, "but if he leaves his planet at this very moment, we have less than 5 hours to collect the rest of the stones and perform our own snap before he shows up to kill us all!"
They all stood and stared as the magnitude of what was coming hit them all at once. Steve looked around at the fear in everyone's eyes and said, "This is no time to panic. We still have five hours, all we have to do is come up with a new plan. We're going to have to hurry instead of taking our time. I'd say suit up, but the government took all our suits last year."
Tony said, "I still have some of our old ones stored away in this warehouse. I can bust them out."
Sam pointed to the portal still wide open and said, "Dr. Strange is still in there trying to get the time stone. He has no idea what's coming."
"We'll give him an hour-" Steve stopped, "no, 30 minutes, and then we'll storm in there and ask him what's taking so long. He might just be getting the time stone now. We don't want to mess this up for him."
Bucky said, "You know what we're about to be up against, Steve. I don't think waiting is a good idea."
"30 minutes," Steve insisted, "and then we'll march in there and see him. For now, we have to figure out what we're going to do with the stones we have already sitting in front of us."
Loki sat down at the end of the table again and said, "I suggest we keep them altogether and put them in the gauntlet until the time is right. That way we'll be prepared for Thanos' arrival."
"No," Tony said angrily, "we're not doing that."
"Do you say such a thing because I am the one who suggested it?" Loki asked innocently, leaning back in his chair.
Tony explained hastily, "Yes, that is the exact reason why! I don't like you, Loki. I don't like how you showed up on our planet, brainwashed Clint, killed a bunch of people, and then turned us all against each other! I don't like how you murdered Agent Coulson, chucked me out a window 100 stories off the ground, and then opened up the literal gates of hell on our asses! And I certainly don't like how I have to work with you now after you did all that shit! I wish Thanos would have killed you with bare hands so I'd never have to see you again."
Loki smirked and giggled to himself.
"What's so funny about anything I just said!?" Tony demanded seriously.
"You say those things as if you're an innocent man, Tony," Loki explained calmly, "as if you could hold a claim that you're better than I, when we all know the truth. Black Widow over there isn't the only one with a ledger dripping with innocent blood."
Tony used his nanotech, leveled his canon in his hand, and blasted him directly in the face, only to see the blast suddenly launch itself into the cieling. He ducked, along with everyone else, and turned to see Thor holding his axe between them. He had reflected the blow, sparring Loki from the attack.
Thor said, "Please cause no harm to my brother, Stark. As annoying as Loki is, he is the reason we have hope in the fight against Thanos on this day."
"You're not real brothers," Tony spat, "you said so once yourself."
Thor turned to see Loki's jaw dropped in offense. Thor said angrily, "I have never uttered such words."
"He told us Loki is adopted," Steve said, crossing his arms, "that's different and you know it, Tony. Stop trying to pick a fight." Off to the side, Loki conjured himself a bowl of popcorn.
Tony rolled his eyes and said, "Oh Mr. White Knight over here all of sudden, spare me. Don't tell me you're so for redemption you're willing to overlook everything he's done." He motioned to Loki but glared at Bucky.
Steve stepped between him and Bucky and explained, "I'm not overlooking anything, Tony. Unlike you, I have the emotional maturity of a grown man."
Offended, Tony demanded angrily, "Why don't you tell us how you really feel, Cap?"
"Alright I will," he said, "I don't like Loki. I don't even want to look at him, let alone have to work with him. But Thor is right when he says he is the reason we not only have hope of bringing everyone back, but we know Thanos is coming for us so now we can prepare accordingly. Thanks to that I'm willing to see this through to the end even though he's an asshole. When this is all said and done, I'll punch him in the neck myself." He stopped himself and turned to see Loki chowing down on popcorn. "Are you manipulating us right now with the mind stone like you did before?"
Loki laughed and said, "This isn't me! This entire theatrical show you're putting on display right now is from the truth spell you ate the other day."
Tony said, "So it is still your fault we're acting like this now, because if you weren't such an untrustworthy piece of shit we wouldn't have had to eat that damn truth candy in the first place!"
"Alright," Natasha said, "that's enough with the insults."
Thor said, "We must all keep a calm head." He leaned over and grabbed at some of Loki's popcorn when he wasn't looking. Before he could pull away, Thor's hand went right through the bowl. Loki recoiled, but it was too late. Thor grabbed some pens on the table and launched them at Loki, only to see them fly right through his illusion.
"Dammit, Loki!" he shouted, "Where's your real body?!"
Loki's illusion stood up and put his hands up defensively. "Not here," he replied, then faded away into nothing.
"What the hell?" Sam asked.
Clint demanded, "Where is he?!"
"I don't know!" Thor said, looking around the room, "If he's not in this room, he likely went through the portal." They all booked it over to the opening.
Meanwhile, inside the portal, Dr. Strange stood across the Ancient One inside the sanctum by the staircase.
"I promise you I have good reasons for needing your time stone," Dr. Strange insisted, "and I can assure you I'll bring it right back to this point of time, so your reality isn't ruined or left unprotected. We'll only need it to perform the snap, and then it'll be returned to you as if this never happened."
She said, "You keep saying that, but you cannot assure me it'll return in one piece. This stone remains here."
Dr. Strange said, "We've been talking in circles since I got here."
"Then leave," she said, "you can go whenever you wish, Master Strange." He motioned toward the front door behind him.
"As I told you before," he said, starting to lose his paitence, "it's Doctor Strange."
She said, "I have already told you the terms and you have refused to listen to them." Just as she was preparing her power, a knife sudden struck through her heart from behind. She collapsed, blood pouring out of the open-heart wound to suddenly had. Loki revealed himself to be behind her, grabbed the eye of agamotto, and tossed it to Dr. Strange.
"We have a problem," Loki said hastily.
"Yeah!" Dr. Strange said, horrified, "You just murdered a woman!"
"That isn't the problem," he replied.
"Yes it is!" he insisted.
Loki rolled his eyes and said, "Well if you're so worried about it then use the time stone to bring her back to life already." He stepped off to the side and gestured to the Ancient One's dead body.
Dr. Strange put the necklace on and prepared to use the time stone. In a manner of moments, the Ancient One was breathing again and brought back to life. She stood up and stared at the two of them.
"Hello, madam sorcerer supreme," Loki said, waving at her.
"You!" she said in an accusatory tone, then turned to Dr. Strange and said, "You conspire with the God of mischief?"
Shocked, Dr. Strange asked, "You two know each other?"
Loki answered, "Not personally of course, but this little takeover I'm committing at this very moment is hardly the first time I've been to this realm and caused some trouble. Although this is the most dramatic visit I've had."
"Stephan Strange," she said angrily, preparing herself, "you're not leaving with that time stone, especially not with him." She launched an invisible sword at Loki's chest.
He deflected it with ease away from himself, aiming it directly at Dr. Strange instead. The cloak tried to take the damage, but it wasn't fast enough! Instead, the invisible blade went right through Dr. Strange's heart. He collapsed as it killed him instantly. His blood pouring out as his heart stopped beating.
Loki grimaced at the scene. He pointed to his dead body and said to the Ancient One, "Oo, that's on you not me." She attempted to attack Loki with more magical ropes, but he fended her off, cut through them with his knives, and took the time stone off of Dr. Strange's dead body for himself. There was a moment he wondered if he should leave Dr. Strange there, dead, but then he remembered everyone in the portal waiting for him would wonder what happened. He reluctantly opened the eye of agamotto and turned back time, bringing Dr. Strange back to life.
"What happened?" he asked, standing back up and seeing the Ancient One tied up in her own ropes. She used her magic and broke free.
Before Dr. Strange could attack, Loki created illusions of them both and turned their true selves invisible to her eyes. The Ancient One unknowingly attacked their illusions.
"She'll fight our doubles," Loki said.
"You didn't have to come here," Dr. Strange said, "I was negotiating with her to hand over the time stone just fine."
He replied, "As a master manipulator, let me tell you the rules of manipulating someone. Firstly, take control of the conversation, secondly, take control of the situation, then you'll never lose. She was in complete control of both. You weren't getting anywhere. Now, we have no time to waste." He presented him the time stone.
Dr. Strange took it back and created a portal under their feet to the top of the Avengers tower. Walking through the portal was easy enough, but what greeted them was a group of angry avengers.
"Loki!" Thor shouted, the entire group glaring at him.
"Would you relax?" He replied calmly, walking over to deactivate the fake tesseract and it's portal, "we aquired the stone."
Dr. Strange said, "Yes, three stones down, three more to go."
"Now," Loki explained, "as I was attempting to tell you before, doctor, we have a problem. Thanos is coming! He knows what we're doing, and we have about 4 and a half hours before he shows up here ready to kill us all."
He asked, horrified, "That's what you were trying to tell me!?"
"Yes."
"How do you know he's coming and that he knows what we're up to?" he asked. Loki showed him his memory of what happened moments earlier with the mind stone and the sceptor.
"We have to hurry," Tony said anxiously, "which stone was on the list go after next? Which one!?" He turned to face everyone in a panic.
"Wait," Dr. Strange said, stopping everyone from going anywhere, "with the time stone in my possession again, I can look forward to different possible futures and search out the best possible outcome for everyone. From there I can attempt to get us down the path of the best one, so we don't make any missteps along the way."
Steve said, "Awesome."
Tony demanded, "Then hurry up alright! We're so close to victory I can feel it!"