The Avengers all come back from the past. Bruce asks if they got the all.
"We did." Clint said solemnly. "At the cost of our friends life."
Clint drops to his knees. Bruce asks where Natasha is. The Avengers slowly start to realize just what happens and Bruce falls to his own knees in his grief.
The silence was eerie as everyone recalled what happened to Natasha. They better be able to bring everyone back or else... it wasn't even worth it. Clint for one knew that he couldn't just let Natasha die for nothing. That's what was not gonna happen, not on his watch.
Out on the dock, the Avengers mourn. Tony asks if Natasha had family.
Natasha briefly found herself recalling a group of spies she lived with when she was younger. They weren't a real family, not by any measure of the word, but before the SHIELD and the Avengers they were the closest thing she had to one.
Steve says her family was them.
Natasha smiled sadly. Being part of this team, this family as she said before, was one of the best things that she could've asked for. "Best family I could've asked for." She said. If there was an afterlife, she knew her future self would be missing them there.
Thor asks why they're acting like Natasha's dead and says they can bring her back as long as they have the stones. He tells them to stop this shit and get it together because they're the Avengers.
"Thor..." Tony sighed. Thor had a dejected look on his face. Natasha's death was final even if they had the stones... they couldn't bring her back. But that doesn't mean he doesn't wish they could and he knew the others felt the same way.
Clint says they can't get her back and her death can't be undone.
Thor calls Clint an Earth being and says they're dealing with space magic and 'can't' seems very definitive.
'He's in denial.' Loki thought to himself. He couldn't say he was surprised, after losing everything that Thor lost it only made sense that he would refuse to believe that Agent Romanov was truly gone.
Clint admits that he's out of his paygrade and says Natasha still isn't there and says that that's what Red Skull said. He tells Thor to go get his hammer and fly away to talk to Red Skull before saying that it was supposed to be him.
"No." Natasha said, shaking her head. "It was always going to be me, Barton. I think we both know that." She added, voice a touch softer than it was when she started speaking.
Clint says Natasha sacrificed her life for the stone.
"We have to make it worth it." Steve said. Natasha's sacrifice can't be for nothing. It just can't.
Bruce picks up a bench and throws it across the lake. He says Natasha isn't coming back so they need to make it worth it.
Steve says they will.
"He's right. You deserve better than for us to give up." Clint said to Natasha. "We'll make it worth it, I promise you that much."
"We won't let you die for nothing, Natasha. We won't let you down." Steve said.
"Oh, I don't think you could ever let me down, Steve." Natasha said. This was all very heartwarming, realizing that yes, she does have people that give a damn about her, and do care. "Not in any way that matters. I know you guys will make this all worth something. You're not gonna fail."
Tony uses technology to maneuver the stones into a gauntlet. 'Boom!' Rocket shouts, scaring Tony and Bruce.
"You are such an asshole sometimes." Tony said.
"Only sometimes!?" Quill asked.
Later, they're al in a lab. Rocket says the glove is ready and asks who's gonna snap their fingers.
"There's only two of us there that have the potential of even surviving it." Tony said. "That much energy and radiation all at once? It's enough to kill any human."
Thor says he'll do it.
"Thor... I'm not sure that's the best idea." Valkyrie said.
"You think I can't do it?" Thor asked.
"It's not that, it's just You're not exactly in the right frame of mind and-" Scott started. 'It's not worth the risk.' was left unsaid.
Everyone tries to stop Thor as he walks toward the gauntlet. Steve says they haven't decide who's putting it on.
Thor asks if they're all sitting around waiting for the right opportunity.
"No... we're discussing it as a team." Steve said. "It's a big decision, especially considering that this might just kill us all."
Scott says they should discuss it.
Thor says sitting and staring at the gauntlet won't bring everyone back and says it's his duty as the strongest Avenger.
"Exactly." Thor agreed.
"That has nothing to do with this decision, Thor." Tony said. "You are one of our heaviest hitters, I'll grant you that, But the point still stands, that your head is not in the right place for you to be doing something like this."
"To wield the stones requires a lot of concentration, focus, and a clear mind. You have none of those." Strange said. "No offence meant."
He asks Tony to let him do something right.
"Thor. You have done nothing wrong, okay? No one blames you for any of this, you don't need to prove that you're still worthy and you don't have to make up for a mistake that you never made." Bruce said. "And even if it was your mistake, everyone makes them and there's other ways to atone for those at no cost to yourself or anyone else."
Tony says it's not just the fact that the glove is channeling enough energy to light up a continent and says Thor is in no condition.
"And if Tony's the one saying something about you not being fit to do something because of your mental health, you know that it's serious." Rhodey said.
Thor asks what he thinks is coursing through his veins.
Rhodey suggests that it's cheese whiz.
"Can we stop with the fat jokes, please?" Thor asked.
Thor says it's lightning. Bruce tells him that lightning won't help Thor so it needs to be him.
Bruce figured that it would be. He and Thor had the highest potential for survival and since Thor was in no position to be able it, it only made sense that the duty would fall to him. He just hoped that it would work. "Are you sure about this, Bruce." Sam asked.
"No but, I don't really have much choice." Bruce said.
Bruce says that the stones nearly killed Thanos and none of them could survive it.
"And you're sure that you will?" Clint asked, he wasn't prepared to lose another teammate to these God forsaken stones.
Steve asks how they know Bruce will survive.
Bruce says they don't and says the radiation is mostly gamma so it's like he was made for it.
"I hope you're right." Tony said. "We're not losing another friend today."
"Yeah, I can't have you join me in the afterlife so soon, Bruce." Natasha joked, but no one else really found it all that funny. The memory of her falling to her death was still all too fresh in their minds.
Past Nebula activates the Quantum portal.
"I'm sorry." Nebula said. "For what my other self is about to cause." But no one said anything, they were too busy mentally preparing themselves for the second battle against Thanos and his army. They could only hope that they would snap their fingers before Thanos could take the stones back.
Tony reminds Bruce that he's just bringing back the people Thanos snapped away 5 years ago and says not to change anything from after that point.
"Here we go." Clint said. "Let's hope this works. I don't know what I'd do if it didn't."
The Avengers stand back, Tony suits up and shields Clint. Tony tells Friday to activate Barn Door protocol. The compound goes into lockdown. The gauntlet morphs to the size of Bruce's hand as he puts it on. Bruce falls to his knees as the gauntlet activates.
Bruce winced as he saw what the gauntlet was doing to him. His whole arm was charring and he looked like was in a considerable amount of pain (Obviously)
"You've got this Banner." Natasha muttered, even though she really wanted to scream at him to take the gauntlet off because it was hurting him.
Thor tells Bruce to take it off.
Steve asks Bruce if he's okay.
"You better be alright." Tony said, anxiously.
Bruce says he's okay.
"Good." Thor sighed with relief.
Past Nebula brings Thanos' ship to 2023.
"Shit." Valkyrie cursed. Thanos is coming.
Bruce finally manages to snap his fingers. The gauntlet falls off and he passes out.
"Bruce?" Steve asked. Was he alright?
Tony sprays something over Bruce's arm. Bruce wonders if it worked. Thor says they don't know.
"It better have." Rocket said.
The compound lockdown is lifted. Scott looks out the window.
"Well... everything certainly looks a lot more lively than it did before." Scott said. "That's a good sign, right?"
Clint's phone buzzes, he picks it up to see that Laura's calling.
"Laura?" Clint gasped, tears springing to his eyes and streaming down his face. He doesn't think he's ever felt such relief. It worked. Their snap worked. Laura was back. His kids were back. He thought back to Natasha and sobered immediately. Their snap wouldn't... their snap couldn't fix that. That was permanent, and it hurt. Boy did it hurt. But at the very least, her sacrifice meant something and she didn't have to die for nothing. Because of her, they were able to bring everyone back and Clint would always be grateful to her for that.
"It worked." Steve smiled. "We did it guys. We won."
"Damn right we did." Tony agreed, happily.
"I told you it would be okay." Natasha said with a smile.
"We haven't won yet." Thor said, voice solemn. "We still have Thanos to deal with. We need to get those stones back to the past before he can get to them."
Scott says he thinks it worked.
All of the snapped individuals- rather the individuals who knew that they'd been snapped- (Peter, Quill, Mantis, Drax, Wanda, Groot, Fury, Hope, Hank, Bucky, Sam, T'Challa, Shuri, Maria and Strange) were overcome with joy. They were coming back! They would get to see their friends again, see their families.
Peter was shaking, he didn't think he'd ever felt so many emotions at the same time before. It was almost too much. He immediately hugged May. "It worked." She said, squeezing her nephew tightly. She didn't think she'd ever let him go again.
Thanos bombs the compound and the Avengers get trapped in the rubble.
"Oh god!" Pepper yelled, panicking. What if they die? What if Thanos gets the stones? What happens then?
Bruce lifts a piece of rubble off of himself. Rocket struggles to breathe as he tries to free himself.
'Is this how I die?' Rocket thought to himself, wondering how Natasha was able to watch herself fall to her own death.
Rhodey puts his suit in canopy mode and crawls out to help Rocket.
"Thank you." Rocket said to Rhodey.
Rhodey and Rocket get swept away by a flood of water.
"Shit!" Rhodey panicked. How were they going to find their way out of the compound, let alone find Thanos?
"It feels like the universe gave us a small amount of hope then immediately spat in our faces." Clint said, bitterly. They just brought everyone back, was it really all for nothing?
Over coms, Rhodey says the lower level is flooding and they're drowning. Scott says he's there and asks if they can hear him.
'Come on Scott.' Hope silently urged, hoping that he'd get to them in time.
Clint struggles to stand up then uses a flashlight to look around. He finds the gauntlet and hears a growling noise.
"What the hell was that?" Sam asked.
"Probably one of his." Gamora said.
Clint shoots an arrow to find out that he's surrounded by outriders. Clint grabs the gauntlet and makes a break for it, the outriders chase him.
"Shit." Clint cursed.
"Not those things again." Okoye said quietly.
Thanos beams down from his ship. Past Nebula walks up to him. Thanos says she did well.
Nebula tensed. For the longest time all she wanted to hear were those words but now... now they felt like utter filth, not the praise she used to seek from him.
Past Nebula says they never suspected a thing. She ditches the bronze head plate she took from Nebula.
"She's right." Steve sighed, maybe they should've had more safeguards in place. They were dealing with time travel and genocidal aliens, you can never be overly safe. "We didn't even notice that she left the room, let alone that she wasn't our Nebula."
Thanos says the arrogant never do.
Gamora snorted. "Oh how right you are."
"I just want to know how we're apparently the arrogant ones." Carol said. "We're not the genocidal maniacs who wiped out half the universe because they, alone, think that it was what we needed."
Thanos sits down and tells Past Nebula to find the stones and bring them to him.
"He's- he's just gonna sit there?" Tony asked. "That doesn't seem right."
Past Nebula asks what he'll do.
Thanos says he'll wait.
"He's being uncharacteristically patient. I don't like it." Natasha said.
"Well he saw that he wins. He doesn't have a reason to fear us, thinks we'll go down just as easily as we did before." Nebula said.
"He's arrogant enough to believe that his plan will go off without a hitch." Steve said. "Let's make sure that never happens."
Gamora walks into Nebula's 'cell' and asks her what happens to them in the future. Nebula says she tried to kill Gamora several times.
Gamora let out a small laugh. "Very blunt, okay." Tony said.
Nebula says they eventually become sisters. Gamora helps Nebula up and says they can stop him.
Gamora smiled, glad that her past self eventually came to her senses. She knew her 2014 self wanted to betray Thanos and wanted him to lose. Maybe she was just biding her time, waiting for the right moment.
"That was easy." Steve commented.
"Gamora has wanted to see Thanos fail for a lot longer than I have. She was lilely just waiting for the right moment to do something about it." Nebula explained.
Tony walks up to Steve and hands him his shield. He tells Steve that he's keeping it if he loses it again.
"Well then I guess I'll try not to lose it." Steve said.
Steve asks what happened. Tony says when you mess with time it tends to mess back.
"So you think this is the timeline trying to correct itself?" Bruce asked. It wasn't such a far fetched theory, in fact it was true.
Steve and Tony join Thor in watching Thanos. Tony asks what he's been doing.
Thor says he's been doing nothing.
Steve wonders where the stones are.
"With me... hopefully safe." Clint said as he remembered the outriders. "Hopefully."
Tony says they're somewhere under the rubble and that all he knows is Thanos doesn't have them.
Steve says to keep it that way.
"A lot easier said than done." Scott said.
Thor tells them that it's a trap.
"Not really much we can do about it." Tony said.
Tony says he doesn't care.
Thor summons Stormbreaker and Mjolnir, and magically changes into his armor and says to kill Thanos properly this time.
"You braided your beard. I love that." Ned said.
"Thanos is in for it." Peter said. "Maybe." He added on, remembering how easily he was able to defeat them before. But that was when he had the stone, right now he doesn't so maybe he's weaker.
The three of them walk toward Thanos. Thanos says they couldn't live with their own failure and says it brought them back to him.
"More like it brought you to us." Steve said.
Thanos says he thought by eliminating half of life the other half would thrive but they've shown him that that's impossible.
"You're damn right it is." Clint snarled.
Thanos says as long as there's those who remember what was there will be those who won't accept what can be.
"If you think we're just going to lie down and accept your humanity- your universe, you've got another thing coming." Fury said.
Tony says they're all kinds of stubborn. Thanos says he's thankful because he now knows what he must do.
"And what is that?" Peggy asked, not actually wanting to hear the answer, because she knows that what he says will be worse than what he's already done.
He picks up his sword and says he'll shred the universe to it's last atom and create a new one with the stones that will team with life, and knows not what it's lost, only what it's been given. He says that universe would be grateful.
"His thought process actually astounds me." Tony said. How the hell did he see what he's done and what people think about it and think that eliminating all instead of half was somehow better?
Steve says it'll be born out of blood. Thanos says they wouldn't know that because the Avengers won't be alive to tell them.
"Like hell we won't." Rhodey said. "We're stubborn. I for one, am not going down without a fight and I can guarantee that everyone else here agrees with me."
"We're not going to lose this time." Wanda vowed.
They start attacking Thanos.
Meanwhile, Bruce, Rocket and Rhodey are about to drown. Rhodey says he'll see them on the other side.
"Rhodes!" Tony exclaimed. "I swear, if you die I will bring you back from your afterlife and kill you myself." He felt like his skeleton was going to leap out of his skin, he was so anxious. He couldn't let Rhodey die, not after they'd already lost Natasha. Just- not him too.
"I am Groot." Groot said sadly. (Are you going to die? I don't want you to die, not when we're finally all back)
Scott quickly makes his way toward them.
"You've got this, Scott." Hope muttered. "Come on."
Clint is still being chased by Outriders, he places some bomb arrows around the tunnel and quickly dives away as they go off.
"Just how many different types of arrows do you have?" Sam asked.
He uses a grappling hook to pull himself up before an Outrider can attack him then uses his sword to slice those that follow him. He jumps to the higher level, killing the last outrider. Past Nebula walks up to him, he hands her the gauntlet under the impression that he knows her.
"No you don't." Nebula said, suddenly very tense.
"Shit." Clint sighed, mentally cursing his future self for being so careless with the gauntlet. "I guess it's not safe anymore. Damn it! I'm sorry, guys."
Past Nebula tells Thanos that she has the stones. Past Nebula points her gun at Clint.
"Just when I thought it couldn't get worse, it does." Clint groaned in frustration.
Gamora enters with her own gun pointed at Past Nebula. Past Nebula says Gamora is betraying them.
"I don't have a choice but to betray him." Gamora said. She can't, in good conscience, sit by and let Thanos destroy any more than he already has. No version of herself could.
Nebula enters, Past Nebula points her gun at her instead. Clint ducks for cover. Nebula tells Past Nebula that she doesn't have to do this. Past Nebula says she is this.
"No we're not. We can be more than this." Nebula said. "We are more than this." If only it didn't take her so long to realize that for herself.
Gamora says she isn't.
Nebula allowed herself to smile at that.
Nebula says she's seen what they become and says she can change.
Past Nebula says Thanos won't let her.
"You were scared of him." Natasha noted.
"Look what he did to me of course I was scared." Nebula said, voice falling to a whisper on the word 'scared.' "I never wanted to betray him because I didn't want this to be worse. And then, after Ronan, I stopped caring and all of my fear became rage."
Past Nebula points her gun at Gamora but Nebula shoots her before she can shoot Gamora.
"Okay there has to be consequences of this right?" Scott asked. "I mean, she just killed herself."
"I did what I had to. She needed to be stopped." Nebula said.
"But it was you..." Scott said, he was so confused.
Clint grabs the gauntlet.
Tony, Thor and Steve are still fighting Thanos. Thor blasts Tony's suit, supercharging it, Tony blasts Thanos with his repulsor beams.
Tony found himself thinking back on when he and Thor fought in the woods the day they met. Thor had hit him with lightning, thinking it'd knock him down but it inly proved to be a greater benefit to him. He's glad they made use of that little piece of information.
Thanos spins his double edged sword to deflect them. Thor throws Mjolnir and hits it with Stormbreaker.
"Okay then. Whatever works, I guess." Ned said.
Thanos picks Tony up and uses him to shield himself from Mjolnir and throws him.
"Tones!" Rhodey gasped. "Hey, if I'm not allowed to die, you're not allowed to die either, You hear me?"
Steve fights Thanos, who throws him into a boulder.
Peggy gasped.
He throws his sword at Thor, who dodges it then hits him with Stormbreaker. They start fighting and Thor drops Stormbreaker. Thanos slams him into various boulders. Thor tries to summon Stormbreaker but Thanos catches it and forces it down on Thor's chest.
"Thor!" Loki exclaimed. Thanos already killed him. He'd be dammed if he let him kill Thor too.
Everyone in the theater slowly started losing their hope again. This Thanos didn't even have any of the stones and he was still handing them their asses. How the hell were they supposed to beat him?
Mjolnir lifts off the ground and flies into the waiting hand of... Steve Rogers.
"You are worthy!" Thor cheered. "I knew it." Ever since they watched as they each tried to lift his hammer and Steve moved it, he'd been waiting too see the Captain finally lift the hammer. He thought back to the enchantment he remembered his father placing on the hammer after he was banished. 'Whosoever holds this hammer should he be worthy shall possess the power of Thor'. "Congratulations, you now possess the power of Thor."
Steve was trying to move past the shock. He could lift Mjolnir!? He was worthy!? "I'm worthy?" He paused for a second, eyeing Thor. "What do you mean you knew? Was it because I was able to make it move when we watched ourselves try and lift it?"
"Yes, actually." Thor responded.
"You're surprised?" Bucky asked. "Steve Rogers. You're one of the most genuinely good people I've ever met. Of course you're worthy, I can't say I'm all that surprised about it either."
"Wait so were you just faking it the first time you tried to lift it or... what was that?" Sam wondered, obviously he wouldn't get an answer because this Steve hadn't tried to lift it yet.
"I guess we'll never know." Steve said.
Thor says he knew it. Thanos kicks him down. Steve swings Mjolnir and hits Thanos on the head with it. He throws his shield at him then throws Mjolnir too, it bounces off the shield and both come back to him.
"Get him Steve." Natasha said.
Steve continues hitting Thanos with both his shield and Mjolnir then summons lightning and hits Thanos with it.
Thor smirked.
Thanos chokeslams Steve and starts attacking him with his sword, knocking Mjolnir out of his hand. He continues hitting Steve with his swords, chipping away at his shield.
"He's breaking the shield." Steve said blankly. He didn't think anything could penetrate vibranium but apparently there is something that can.
Thanos hits Steve across the battlefield. Steve doesn't get back up.
"Steve." Bucky said softly. He always thought Steve was invincible, thought he battled through all of his illnesses out of spite. He never thought there would be anything that could take Steve Rogers out, he didn't want to be proven wrong.
Steve struggles to bet back up again. Thanos says all his years of conquest, violence and slaughter was never personal.
"So you killed trillions of people for what? Because you could? Because you didn't think there'd be anyone stop you?" Steve asked, angrily.
Thanos says he's going to enjoy what he's about to do to their annoying and stubborn planet. The Black Order and Thanos' army of Outriders and Chitauri arrive.
"That's a big army." Tony said, instantly paling. "You're gonna take it on by yourself?"
"If I have to." Steve said. Tony and Thor were incapacitated and God only knows how the rest of them are faring.