Thank you to everybody who read or reviewed the last conversation. You are all absolutely fabulous. I love all the kudos and comments.

I'm trying to get back into the spirit of the last story, where there were more gaps between interactions and the text messages filled in those gaps. Of course, this is a very different story where all the action happens over a couple of weeks instead of several months. It hasn't actually been a whole week in universe yet. At least not in the gamma timeline. It's been longer on the beta side.

Warning: Major character death.

Conversation 60: The More Things Change

Thursday, March 22, 2018, location redacted

Red spider: Good news, the purple one fell for the trap. However, he only sent the children. They're gone now. Wanda took them out in two seconds before they even touched the Vision decoy.

Red spider: I'm sure somebody survived to tell him it was a fake. So, it's time for us to move. We need your coordinates.

Davis squared: Leo is not here. Ana forwarded your message to me so I could respond because it was tagged as time-sensitive.

Davis squared: I'm not giving you the coordinates. How do I know you're not one of the henchmen using Natasha's phone?

Red spider: Stony is better than widowQuake. All heil Stony supremacy.

Davis squared: Nice to be speaking to you, Agent Romanoff.

Red spider: I still want to smack Stark upside the head for that code.

Davis squared: Better than swordfish. At least I know who I am talking to. Ana is sending the coordinates directly to Vision. That's a more secure uplink.

Red spider: I take it from that security measure you're now at your final location?

Davis squared: Yes. Leo, Fitzsimmons Junior, and May went down to the planet after one of the STEVE drones picked up Red Skull. Or at least something that looks like him.

Red spider: That's big. Why are you not with them?

Davis squared: May wanted a small team to approach. We are on standby. They also have several STEVE drones with them, and they are fully armed. Although Leo calls them dwarfs 2.0.

Red spider: Why Deke?

Davis squared: I think it's [redact] related.

Davis squared: I mean baby bird related. Agent May didn't explain.

Avenger Ana: I hate to interrupt, but we are getting a transmission from Earth from Agent Hunter-Leopold.

Davis squared: He's an agent again?

Red spider:

I personally took care of most of the people responsible for him having to be disavowed. He's not on active duty because his place at Stark Industries is critical. He is on the UN Avengers roster. Although under an alias. Technically, Lance Hunter is dead.

Avenger Ana: I have also transmitted this information to Agent Romanoff's team.

Red spider: Thank you, Ana.

Xxxx

Mr. Leopold: Hey, sweetie. I now know why the big boss is here in the bay area. It turns out the grandson isn't the only timeline visitor we have.

Mr. Leopold: Sharon's neighbor is a Nomad variant. He came back in the late 40s after his timeline dealt with the purple asshole. The good news is that we know that getting stones from different points in time will still work.

Mr. Leopold: The bad news is that if an average human snaps their fingers with the gauntlet, it will kill them. Especially one that already has heart issues. The baby bird has been drawing pictures like this for a while, and the Princess has been keeping it a secret for reasons only known to the teenager. The chief mechanic is not happy.

Mr. Leopold: They're screaming in six different languages right now. Also, I'm pretty sure Mr. Roth came back to make a timeline where Tony doesn't die. He keeps smiling every time he sees the engagement ring. He is pleased about the engagement. There might've been tears of joy.

Mr. Leopold: We also have some Intel on your mission. The only way to get the ring pop is for you to sacrifice someone you love. In the original Grant Roth timeline, the purple prick threw his own daughter over the cliffs to get the ring pop.

Mr. Leopold: In the went back to save the world timeline, Natasha threw herself off the cliff so Clint could get the Ring pop.

Mr. Leopold: Please don't do that. We will come up with something else. But don't do that.

Mr. Leopold: I know you, and you would do that. You think that you're the extra Fitz. That you don't matter. Or that you have to make up for what you did. But you don't, sweetie. You don't.

Mr. Leopold: We have a wedding to plan. And I need you there. And we're going to have kids, lots of kids. I want enough for a football team, but you would kill me. Maybe a basketball team instead.

Mr. Leopold: Football, football, not the American rubbish. You know that, but the person looking over my shoulder does not, despite several years of marriage.

Mr. Leopold: Ana just informed me that you're too far out for real-time communications, which is why I haven't been interrupted during this tirade. When you get this, please let me know you're safe and that you didn't do something like jump off a cliff. Because if you do, as soon as they perfect time travel, I'm going to go back to one second before you did that and smack you upside the head myself to keep you from doing it.

Mr. Leopold: Time paradox be damned. I have no fucks to give. Not without you.

Xxxx

Red spider: He would jump off a cliff if he thought it would save the world.

Davis squared: Because you did?

Red spider: Because it's something any agent would do, and you know it. You would do it yourself if you thought it would work. How long have they been gone?

Davis squared: They left about an hour and a half ago. They had to take a Quinn Jet to the exact location of the ring pop. We didn't want to go directly there in case we were being followed.

Red spider: That's for the best. Try to get them on coms.

Avenger Ana: Agent Leopold and Consultant Fitz Simmons are arguing in the Quinn jet's cockpit. I feel it's best not to interrupt them. They will be arriving in 2.5 minutes.

Davis squared: Thank God. I really did not want to write Hunter a text message where I told him his husband was dead. Or would it be fiancé? Leo told me they're planning a wedding for next year.

Red spider: In a situation like that, it wouldn't matter. Besides, May would be the one to make that call. She's the agent in charge of this mission.

Davis squared: Ana, where is May?

Avenger Ana: I do not know. However, technically I am the one flying the Quinnjet back.

Davis squared: Fuck!

Red spider: That doesn't mean she was the one who threw herself off the cliff.

Davis squared: She would.

Red spider: Let's just wait until they get back here. There's no point in speculating.

Xxxx

Leo has been in a state of confusion and extreme grief since he woke up with the Soul Stone in his hand after May iced him. Obviously, this was her revenge for keeping her from reading the Darkhold. He's unsure how they made their way back to the Quinn jet. They're both too much of a mess to even try flying, even though they both knew how. May, in the other timeline, taught Deke. She's the only May now.

"I'm sorry." Deke finally said after 20 minutes of near silence.

"Not now. I'm not ready for this conversation." Leo wasn't ready to talk about what had happened at all. He's barely keeping himself from crying.

"We need to talk about it. I loved May too."

"But your May wasn't the one who jumped off a bloody cliff. Because if it was her with us, you could've been the one…" Leo stopped speaking when the vision of a devastated Jemma popped in his head. Losing Deke would destroy her.

"But she wasn't with us, making me fucking useless." Deke practically yelled as tears streaked down his face. "I wish I could've jumped, but I couldn't because I'm not from here, and nobody here actually cares about me."

"But there are people from where you are that would care. I'm glad I don't have to tell your grandmother you're gone. I don't want to have that conversation." Just the thought alone makes him sick.

"I don't want you to have that conversation."

"It should've been me," Leo whispered. "I should already be dead."

"Stop trying to sacrifice yourself because you find it easier than dealing with the consequences of your choices," Deke told him.

"I don't do that,"

"You did. And you'll keep doing that because you'll stay here and live this happy life while May is gone."

"The problem is her death wasn't my choice. She knocked us out with icers. I'm sure she had other reasons to do that beyond seeing me happy with Hunter. I know you're still mad about that."

"I am. You chose him over us. But it's fine. You can stay with him, and I can deal with the carnage again. Like I always do." Deke crossed his arms over his chest.

"I'm the one that will have to tell Coulson May is dead, not you. I'm the one that is going to have to deal with this." He remembers the fallout from Roslyn's murder and May's kidnapping. He knows it will be bad, and that's just Coulson. Daisy will probably quake him. He'll deserve it because it should've been him.

"Good. You should, for once. I can't wait until I'm out of this timeline."

"Neither can I." Leo doesn't know how he kept it together until he was on the ship in front of Davis. He keeps envisioning having to tell Daisy and Coulson that he lost May.

"Hunter sent you messages from Earth. They had more Intel on how to get the soul—ring pop. They wanted us to wait." Davis told them quietly. Leo felt like he knew something he wasn't saying.

"It's too late for that," Leo held out the stone. Looking at it made him sick.

"Is that the Stone?" Leo couldn't respond to the question because tears were already streaking down his face at that point. He's been trying hard not to cry since he woke up with the stone and realized what it meant.

"Yes, it is. Don't ask Leo how he got it. I'm going to take him to his room." Deke said as he grabbed his hand, but Leo pushed him away.

"I don't need that. I need to fill out the paperwork and…" Leo couldn't finish speaking. He couldn't even stand. He was on the floor, tears falling harder. Why did she leave them?

To be continued...

You may now commence throwing cyber tomatoes at your author. I completely anticipated this and still pulled the trigger. Just be kind and read the rest of my offer notes first.

Additional notes: I've had some health issues lately and will undergo major surgery in November. (Right after Wakanda Forever because I have my priorities.) I'm currently working on banking at least six more chapters before surgery. (I have one chapter left in the current batch.) But there might be a small break as I recover.

To keep that from happening, we're going on a new chapter every three weeks rotation until at least January. I will then reevaluate my health and see how much I can do.

Writing note: I wrote this chapter before watching Thor: Love and Thunder but finished the final proofreading before sending it to my beta the day after watching the movie. It definitely hit differently after I watch the movie.