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ilguna · 6 months

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☼ when the dead rise pt2 (Stephen Strange) ☼

summary; five years pass, and you come to terms with the fact that you may never see Stephen again. when Tony calls you, telling you that there may be a way to change everything, you decide to take one more chance.

warnings; swearing, willing starvation, needle mention, weapon usage, death, blood, ehh gore, suicide mention, weight gain/loss, kinda cringe if you think about it, happy ending!

wc; 18.7k

notes; the entirety of endgame, haha, i'm not kidding. with nonsensical talk of time traveling, more angst, some fluff, tony and y/n get along, and stephen is there at the end.

part one.

—

The galaxy that you’re floating in is beautiful. It’s perfect, and if you weren’t here right now, sitting in front of the window, you’d say that it’s not real. There’s a mix of the rainbow out there, the brightest hue being aquamarine. Which paints everything in the spaceship the same shade.

You’ve been sitting here for hours, just staring at the stars. They don’t change, captured at their best times. It’ll be millions of years before they burn out, by then they’ll have fulfilled their purpose. There will be no regrets.

You wish you could say the same.

“(Y/n), are you going to come over and eat?” Tony asks from behind you.

He’s sitting at the table with Nebula, they’ve been going back and forth playing their games, trying to keep entertained. You heard him talking about eating, but you never bothered to join the conversation. You don’t have the energy to get up and go over there.

“No, I’m fine.” You murmur, leaning into your knees, arms wrapped around the back of your thighs. “Go ahead and have the rest.”

It’s quiet for a moment, then you can hear him sigh. “You haven’t eaten anything today.”

“I know.” You tell him. “I’m not hungry.”

The sound of a chair scraping against the metal flooring fills the air. You close your eyes, taking in a deep breath. His footsteps echo through the ship, shuffling to a stop behind you.

“You haven’t been hungry for the past couple of days.” He says, voice surprisingly gentle. “You can’t do this to yourself. It won’t change things.”

With gritted teeth, you swallow thickly, and let out an uneven breath. “I know that too, Tony.”

He moves to stand right next to you, letting out a grunt. When you open your eyes, looking over, you see that he’s sitting beside you, legs crossed. The shiny silver bag is in his hand, he shakes it, looking inside.

“It’s some sort of mix. It doesn’t taste good at first, but it’ll grow on you.” He says, holding it out for you.

You stare at him, pressure building behind your eyes again. Your lips begin to tremble first, face twisting as the tears take over. Tony frowns, setting the bag down, and reaches to pull you in a hug. As you begin to cry into his shoulder, he squeezes you tightly, causing the ache in your ribs to surface.

“I just want him back.” You sob, “Is that too much to ask for?”

DAY TWENTY-THREE

“It’s been twenty-three days since Thanos came to Earth.” Rhodes says, he’s standing at the wooden table where a holographic projection displays out of a cylindrical device in the middle.

In the air, you’re able to see the faces and names of those you lost that day. It’s constantly rotating, a few of them being Nick Fury, Bucky, Sam, Wanda, Peter, and Stephen. There’s more, of course, faces you don’t recognize because you cut ties with the Avengers a couple years ago.

“World governments are in pieces,” Natasha begins. “The parts that are still working are trying to take a census and it looks like he did…” She trails off for a moment, Tony pushes up his glasses, hand covering his face when Peter appears in front of him. “He did exactly what he said he was gonna do. Thanos wiped out,” She sighs, “Fifty percent of all living creatures.”

There’s a moment of silence across the table, you play with one of your rings, twisting it between your fingers.

Tony moves his hand, lifting his head. “Where is he now? Where?” He’s currently in a wheelchair, hooked up to an IV. He’s looked better, but to be fair, so have you. You’re two peas in one miserable pod.

While you came out with bruised ribs and a gnarly scar from where Thanos had ripped out a chunk of your skin—which Tony tried his best to repair while on the spaceship. He had to fight through an infection from being stabbed by his own nanotech, which Nebula had the pleasure of healing.

In the end, there was only so much food to pass around on the ship. Even though you’d gone days without eating, it didn’t help the supply any. However, your weightloss is nothing compared to Tony’s, because he’s sick at the moment.

“We don’t know.” Steve says, his arms are crossed over his chest. He’s leaning against a table nearby. “He just opened a portal and walked through.”

Tony wheels forward, sighing, looking off to the side. “What’s wrong with him?” He asks, motioning to Thor. He’s sitting in a separate room, leaned forward on his knees, a hard expression on his face, moving his thumbs.

“Oh, he’s pissed.” Rocket says. He’s a talking raccoon that was part of Quill’s group, you met him after you landed back on Earth. Which only happened because Tony and Nebula set off a distress signal, and a woman named Carol Danvers came to save you. “He thinks he failed.” Tony’s hand falls. “Which, of course, he did, but there’s a lot of that going around, ain’t there?”

“Honestly, until this exact second I thought you were a Build-A-Bear.” Tony says.

“Maybe I am.”

“We’ve been hunting Thanos for three weeks now.” Steve says. “Deep space scans and satellites and we got nothing.” He pauses, looking up at the table. “(Y/n), Tony, you fought him.”

“Who told you that?” Tony asks. “I didn’t fight him. No, he wiped my face with a planet while the Bleecker Street magician—” You turn your head to look at him, eyebrows drawing in. “Gave away the store. That’s what happened.”

“Don’t talk about him like that.” You snap, suddenly getting up from your chair. When it begins to fall back, you catch it with one hand, slamming it against the floorboards. “Prick.”

“There was no fight, ‘cause he’s not beatable.” Tony finishes, unbothered by you.

“Okay,” Steve nods. “Did he give you any clues, any coordinates, anything?”

Tony makes a noise, saluting Steve. “I saw this coming a few years back.” He sinks into the wheelchair. “I had a vision. I didn’t wanna believe it. Thought I was dreaming.”

Steve stands. “Tony, I’m gonna need you to focus.”

“And I need you.” Tony says, it’s muffled because of the hand in front of his mouth. He drops it. “As in, past tense. That trumps what you need. It’s too late, buddy.” He shakes his head. “Sorry.”

You run a hand through your hair, and then settle into crossing your arms.

Tony sniffs. “You know what I need?” He slaps a bowl away from him, the spoon clattering against the table. He gets to his feet, one hand on it as he leans forward. “I need a shave. And I believe I remember telling all youse…”

He begins to pull at the IV needle, Rhodes steps toward him. “Tony, Tony!”

“...alive and otherwise, that what we needed,” He does a circular motion. “Was a suit of armour around the world. Remember that?” His voice is raising. “Whether it impacted our precious freedoms or not. That’s what we needed.”

“Well, that didn’t work out, did it?” Steve asks.

“I said we’d lose.” Tony points to himself. “You said, ‘We’ll do that together, too’. And guess what, Cap? We lost. And you weren’t there.” Steve sighs. “But that’s what we do, right? Our best work after the fact?” Rhodes grabs Tony by the arms to steady him. “We’re the ‘Avengers’. We’re the ‘Avengers’, not the ‘Pre-vengers’.”

He looks at Rhodes, who nods. “Okay.”

“Right?” Tony asks.

“You made your point. Just sit down, okay?”

“Okay.” Tony says, looking away. “No, no, here’s my point. You know what?” He points at Carol. She’s unamused, “She’s great by the way.”

“Tony, you’re sick. Sit down.” Rhodes tries to push him down.

“We need you. You’re new blood.” He pushes off of Rhodes. “Bunch of tired old mules. I got nothing for you, Cap.” He walks to stand a foot away from Steve. “I got no coordinates, no clues, no strategies, no options. Zero. Zip. Nada. No trust, liar.” He whispers.

You watch as he reaches up to grab the arc reactor, ripping it from his chest. Tony’s breathing becomes uneven, as he grabs Steve’s hand, and slaps the reactor into it. “Here, take this. You find him, put that on, you hide.” He falls to his knees.

You, Steve and Rhodes move forward at the same moment.

“Tony!” Steve reaches for him.

“I’m fine.” He says. “Let me…”

His eyes roll back, collapsing.

—

Tony lays on a reclined bed, unconscious, with Pepper beside him, holding his hand. Rhodes drops off his glasses on the bedside table, and then leaves the room, coming to join you, Natasha, Steve and Carol.

“What about you, (Y/n)? You never said anything.” Steve says, several eyes land on you.

You twist the ring, looking at the engraving on the inside for the hundredth time today. Always with you, it says. You found it in Stephen’s room one afternoon, after he’d asked you to clean if you had time. You couldn’t say no, and though he liked to make sure he looked neat, his bedroom could be a mess at times.

When you asked about it, he smiled and told you to keep it. You tried to resist it, hiding it in places all throughout the Sanctum to ensure that it wouldn’t end up back in your possession. He always knew where to find it, and at the end of the day, he’d give it back to you. A gift.

You never really liked wearing jewelry on your hands and wrists. It interferes with the whole ‘raising-the-dead’ thing. You can’t remember the amount of times you broke a bracelet or scratched a ring at the beginning. But when you finally accepted the gift and stopped trying to give it back, you promised Stephen that you’d wear it everyday.

Now you can’t keep it on, as if the gold burns your skin each time it settles into place. Always with you. It feels like a taunt, a joke, something you can’t get away from.

Where is he?

“No offense, Steve.” Your voice is colder than you mean it to be. “But if I knew anything, don’t you think I would’ve said something?”

Steve opens his mouth to speak, but Rhodes doesn’t give him a chance. “Bruce gave him a sedative. He’s gonna probably be out for the rest of the day.”

“That’s for the best.” You mutter, sliding the ring into your pocket.

“You guys take care of him, and I’ll bring him a Xorrian elixir when I come back.” Carol says, arms crossed over her chest as she begins to walk away.

“Where are you going?” Steve asks.

“To kill Thanos.” She says simply.

The four of you follow after her quickly, because her pace isn’t slowing down. “Hey.” Natasha calls, Carol stops and turns around. “You know, we usually work as a team here and, uh, between you and I, morale’s a little fragile.”

Rhodes leans against the doorway.

“We realize up there is more your territory, but this is our fight, too.” Steve says.

“You even know where he is?” Rhodes asks, looking up from the tile.

“I know people who might.” She says.

“Don’t bother.” Nebula cuts in, standing across the room. “I can tell you where Thanos is.”

“Well, let’s hear it.” You say, going down the steps to join her in the sitting room.

When you get inside, you see that Rocket is in here, too. Nebula moves to stand next to the window, waiting for the others to join you. You twist a chair around, sitting in it, and sinking into the navy blue cushions. Bruce and Thor roundup to join you.

“Thanos spent a long time trying to perfect me.” She says, once everyone has come inside the room. “And when he worked, he talked about his Great Plan. Even disassembled, I wanted to please him. I’d ask…” She pauses. “Where would we go once his plan was complete?” She turns her head. “And his answer was always the same.” She joins them at the table. “‘To the Garden’.”

Rhodes makes a face, tilting his head. “That’s cute. Thanos has a retirement plan.”

“So, where is he?” Steve asks, moving around the table.

Rocket pulls up a projection of the Earth. “When Thanos snapped his fingers, Earth became ground zero for a power surge of ridiculously cosmic proportions.” The projection sends off a blast to emphasize this. “No one’s ever seen anything like it. Until two days ago…”

He messes with the projection to show a different galaxy, zooming in until you’re met with a planet with rings around it. When you lean forward to see it, the name tag above reads, ‘PLANET 0259-S’.

“On this planet.” Rocket finishes.

“Thanos is there.” Nebula says.

Natasha leans in close. “He used the stones again.”

“Hey, hey, hey.” Bruce nervously chuckles, he’s standing at the doorway. “We’d be going in shorthanded, you know.”

“Look, he’s still got the stones, so—”

“So, let’s get ‘em.” Carol’s eyes are locked on the planet. “Use them to bring everyone back.”

“Just like that?” Bruce asks.

“Yeah. Just like that.” Steve says.

You sit up on the chair at the sound of this.

“Even if there’s a small chance that we can undo this, I mean, we owe it to everyone who’s not in this room to try.” Natasha says, shaking her head.

“If we do this, how do we know it’s gonna end any differently than it did before?” Bruce asks.

“Because before you didn’t have me.” Carol says, hands on her hips.

“Hey, new girl?” Rhodes looks at her. “Everybody in this room is about that superhero life.” She tilts her head slightly. “And if you don’t mind my asking, where the hell have you been all this time?”

“There are a lot of other planets in the universe. And unfortunately, they didn’t have you guys.”

Rhodes and Steve make the same face at each other—fair enough.

Thor pushes up from where he’s sitting at the dining room table, still chewing his food. He walks up behind Carol, and she faces him. He holds his hand out over her shoulder, Stormbreaker—the axe that was made on Nidavellir—goes to him, narrowly missing her head, blowing her hair into her face. She doesn’t flinch.

He sighs, squinting, and then nods. “I like this one.”

There’s a moment of silence, you get to your feet, wandering over to stand at the table. Steve looks at you, “Let’s go get this son of a bitch.”

—

The planet that Thanos has chosen to inhabit is, unfortunately, gorgeous. It’s a peaceful place, quiet, with thriving nature and wildlife. The group of you walk in silence, allowing you to enjoy the sounds of the animals chittering around you.

It doesn’t take long before you come up to the wood shack that Carol had noticed when she came through the atmosphere about ten minutes ago. She went in first, while the rest of you waited in space, wanting to make sure that there wasn’t anything waiting for you on the planet.

She’d come back, happy to report that there wasn’t a single living being beside Thanos. No satellites, ships, armies. There weren’t even ground defenses. Which would’ve had you excited, if it weren’t for what happened last time you fought him. You practically had the advantage then, too. There were so many people with different abilities.

Bruce positions himself underneath the shack, wearing his iron suit to supplement the fact that Hulk is still out of commission. You watch as Steve waves his arm in a circle, giving Carol the signal. A bright and fiery beam goes right through the shack, and seconds later, she follows.

There’s the sound of Carol fighting Thanos, getting him into position. Bruce breaks through the floor first, with Rhodes and Thor coming through the ceiling. It isn’t until you hear Thanos screaming, do you concur that the gauntlet must be off, done in the most aggressive way possible.

Steve goes up the stairs first, you and Natasha following close behind. Carol has Thanos in a headlock, Rhodes holding his right arm, Bruce holding the left. On the floor lies Thanos’s hand, the gauntlet still attached to it.

Thanos is groaning, face twisted. Rocket makes his way around to the handle, flipping over the gold gauntlet. “Oh, no.”

You look over, expecting to see that everything is fine, besides his mangled arm. You’re met with empty slots, not a single one of the stones is attached to the gauntlet. You sigh, pressing your lips together.

Natasha and Steve share a look before he speaks, “Where are they?”

Thanos groans, Carol pulls her arm tighter, “Answer the question.”

Half of his face is scarred, as if he’s recently been in a fire. Your eyes trail down to what’s left of his arm, finding it in the same condition. In this moment, you can feel the little hope you have leaving your body.

“The universe required correction.” Thanos says. “After that, the stones served no purpose, beyond temptation.”

“You murdered trillions!” Bruce shouts, shoving Thanos back.

“You should be grateful.”

Bruce punches him.

Natasha takes a breath. “Where are the stones?”

“Gone.” He tells her. “Reduced to atoms.”

“You used them two days ago!” Bruce exclaims.

“I used the stones to destroy the stones.” Thanos says. “It nearly killed me.”

You shake your head, corners of your lips turning down. “That’s not true.”

“It is.” His eyes land on you. “But the work is done. It always will be. I am inevitable.”

“We have to tear this place apart. He has to be lying!” Rhodes says.

“My father is many things.” Nebula murmurs. “A liar is not one of them.”

“Ah.” Thanos breaths. “Thank you, daughter. Perhaps I treated you too harshly.”

Thor swings his axe up without notice, shouting as he cuts off Thanos’s head. It hits the ground with a thud, purple blood splattering against the wall, on Nebula's face. His body falls back.

“What?” Bruce breathes.

“What did you do?” Rocket asks.

“I went for the head.” Thor mumbles, turning to walk out of the hut.

The rest of you stand in silence, watching as Nebula walks over to his body, kneeling down to shut his eyes. You take in deep breaths through your nose to calm the rising anger. Various thoughts on how you could torture him, even though he’s dead, begin to come to you. You could drag his pathetic body back to Earth, conjure it everyday, make him work his fingers to the bone, never let him rest.

He took Stephen, you think.

You grit your teeth. “All due respect, Nebula, but we better burn his body.” You tell her, Natasha and Carol glance at you. You squeeze your hands into fists. “Or else I’m going to make sure he never rests. I could find thousands of ways to make the afterlife miserable, trust me.”

She nods at you, and then turns back to him.

You move to follow after Thor, who’s already down the stairs, traveling toward the spaceship. “If you need me, I’ll be by the ship.”

The hero suit fades away, falling back to your regular clothes. Your fingers dip into your jean pocket, coming into contact with the ring you’d stored earlier. You pull it out, holding it in your palm for a long moment. Then, you sigh, sliding it back into its place on your thumb.

ONE YEAR LATER

The dark clouds swirl above the field, acting as a warning that you don’t have much time to practice today. It rains often in New York, so this wouldn’t be your first time having to experience it while testing your abilities. However, it’s happened enough for you to say that you hate the feeling of it.

Lately, you’ve been feeling heavier whenever you come out here, like the ground is one giant blackhole and you’re constantly fighting against flying inside of it. The rain will only make it worse, and you can’t stand it when your clothes are waterlogged. It makes the seats of your car soggy.

Despite this, you take your time walking to the middle, not that you’re able to go faster than this, anyway. You haven’t been yourself for quite a few days, you think a cold might be coming on. Wong has begun to notice too, it was a struggle to convince him to let you leave the Sanctum. Which was done on the promise that you wouldn’t come out here to do this today.

Well, unfortunately for him, you can’t afford to lose time. Every day you spend on your ass, you take a step back from what you’re working towards—a breakthrough. It’s got to be right around the corner, this whole week, you’ve repeatedly felt yourself come to the ledge, but you were too afraid to jump.

You know now that this is how you grow to be stronger, to have a better understanding of your abilities. You can’t become a better hero if you don’t know how to sacrifice yourself sometimes, too.

There’s something under there, beneath the grass. It’s more than just the dead that you’re used to bringing to life. You get a feel for it each time you try, but it’s like uprooting a tree that’s been standing for hundreds of years. It’s resistant.

You haven’t told any of the Avengers yet, afraid to get their hopes up. You think that it’s those who were killed in the blip. The reason why it’s so hard to bring them back is because they don’t have physical bodies, so what happens if you try to put them back together?

It sounds ridiculous at first, but it’s not that heinous when you map it out. When you tried to explain it to Wong, he shut you down within the first thirty minutes, telling you that this isn’t how it works. You told him that it’s fine if he doesn’t want to have hope, you won’t let him drag you down.

It goes like this—it’s very simple—their bodies are everywhere. Those who were killed outdoors have been spread through nature. They were in the air at one point, but now they’re in the grass, the dirt, the Earth. They’re here, half the job is already done for you. What you need to do is focus on one person to bring back in the area, and work from there.

And it’s not even that ridiculous of an idea! When you were on Titan last year, directly after you’d lost Stephen, you tried that exact method. It’s where your inspiration came from. The ground shook, trying to listen to your direction. The issue is that you weren’t strong enough, you didn’t have enough practice to be doing something like that.

Now, you do. It’s what you’ve been working toward for the past few months, day in and day out, no breaks, absolutely no days off.

You slowly lower yourself to the ground, joints aching. You breathe heavily, sitting sideways on your legs, because your knees hurt from sitting on them for hours at a time. You place your hands in front of you, palms flat in the grass.

When you close your eyes, the ticklish feeling in your stomach rises. You focus on that, what it means, how long it’ll take for it to build before it becomes the dark energy that is necromancy. It isn’t until you feel the pressure beginning in your palms, as if you’re being sucked downward, do you switch to that.

You don’t allow it to bring you down, in fact, you pull back with ten times as much force. You’re coming to me, you think, not the other way around. It doesn’t want to, though, so you sort through the mass. Eyes bouncing from side to side behind your lids, looking for the weakest link.

You find it, and yank. The first few times, it doesn’t budge, it’s coming from several directions, exactly what you’re looking for. With this excitement, you beckon it toward you. The body isn’t fighting anymore, it’s like reeling in a dead fish. Which wouldn’t be appetizing to others, but it’s what you’re looking for.

The worry sets in when you realize that it’s not slowing down. You’ve just lifted your right hand off of the ground, when the matter surges through your body—your head whipping back so fast that you’ll be feeling it for weeks.

A scream tears through your vocal chords, fire eating you up inside.

It explodes.

You’re thrown into the air, body twisting at an awkward angle as you come into contact with the ground. You land on your bad shoulder, sending a spike of electricity through your torso and down your legs.

There’s an unbearable ringing in your ears when you roll onto your back, struggling to breathe through the cloud of black smoke that comes to choke you. Your head rolls off to your right side, fingers reaching to touch the scorched grass that you’ve landed on top of.

The moment you come into contact, it crumbles, turning to dust.

And so do you.

—

The consistent beeping of the heart monitor next to you is what you hear first. A moment of relief floods you, because this means that your hearing isn’t permanently damaged, but it’s fleeting when you realize what that means. Your eyebrows draw in, squeezing your eyes before you try to open them.

The hospital room is dark, the entire afternoon has been wasted away. You look to the window a few feet away, and find a lovely shade of blue and grey, blurred because of the raindrops that cling to the other side. It’s raining, of course, which means that you won’t be able to go out and try again tonight.

You roll your eyes, letting out an annoyed sigh, which you instantly regret when the pain seizes your entire body. You let out a grunt, pressing the back of your head into the pillow, teeth grit while you wait for it to pass.

You remind yourself that this is only a temporary setback. As soon as it’s not muddy out there anymore, you’ll try again. So, maybe not tomorrow, but the following day. You’ll do it again, and you’ll do it right.

A knock on the hospital room door makes you look over. It swings open without you granting entrance, making it a courtesy knock, and when you see who it is, there’s no explanation needed.

Tony Stark strolls into your room as if he owns the entire hospital. His eyes are on you, jaw set. You know this look, it’s the same one he gives right before he lectures you. The look on his face is the least of your worries when you see that his lip is busted and swollen. There’s also a cut across his forehead, blood leaking from it.

“What happened?” It hurts you speak, you wince, scooting to sit up higher on the bed. “How do you know I’m here?”

He shuts the door behind him, there’s no vase of flowers, not even a get well soon card in his hand. This is not a visit he’s making to check on your wellbeing, he doesn’t want to comfort you.

“I’m your emergency contact.” He tells you, stopping at the end of your bed. He sticks his hands into his pockets, eyebrows raised. “I got a call from the nurse because she thought you needed some support.”

You press your lips together, eyes drifting away from his face and to the door he just came through. Stephen is supposed to be your emergency contact, you did it when you got extremely sick during your first year of dating. He was worried you wound up dead somewhere when you hadn’t seen or talked to him for three days straight. He called every hospital in New York to find you.

Tony’s your backup, actually. You know that if anything were to happen to you, and if there’s no one else to make the decisions, he’d do what’s right and in your best interest. The two of you are very close, but you know he’d never let emotion get in the way if he knew you were suffering.

“I’m fine.” You murmur. “Just had an accident, that's all.”

“An accident?” Tony repeats. “That’s what you call raising a monster from hell?”

You blink, face twisting. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I mean, I think something exploded but there was no monster.”

“You weren’t awake for that part.” He tells you. “I just spent the last hour fighting it and your wizard buddy had to contain it.”

You stare at him, unsure if he’s telling the truth or not. A part of the evidence is his face, you suppose. You didn’t see anything, though. Just the smoke… which very well could’ve hidden it.

“What were you doing out there, anyway?” He asks.

“I’m working on something.” You adjust in the bed, settling back. “I’ve almost got it. As soon as I get out here, I’ll try again.”

“Try what again?”

You smile, “To bring them back, of course.” Tony’s face falls, he closes his eyes, shaking his head at you. “You have to hear me out first—”

“See, when Wong told me what you were up to, I didn’t believe him.” Tony reaches up, rubbing his face. “I thought that you couldn’t possibly be naive enough to—”

“Oh,” You groan out, waving your hand dismissively, “Don’t listen to Wong, he says I can’t do it. I’m so close though, I can feel it. I almost had it this afternoon, I think I just… chose the wrong thing, you know?”

“(Y/n),” Tony warns.

“See, this is one of the reasons why I didn’t want to tell you so soon. Either it’d get your hopes up, or you’d fall with Wong. Ignore him, he doesn’t know anything.”

You look out the window again. You’re not sure why he’s shutting you down like this. Out of everyone, you thought that he’d be the one that’d jump on your side. It wouldn’t be the first time he bet on something so outlandish. With him on your side, you think you have a better chance at succeeding.

Besides, you can bring back the dead, anyway. How is this that big of a stretch? And if you did pull a monster out of the ground—it’s even more the reason to believe you.

“I can bring them back, Tony.” You say.

“(Y/n), you can’t.” He says, “You tried, remember? You couldn’t then, and you can’t now.”

“Yeah, because I haven’t had my breakthrough yet.” You laugh, which dissolves into you grimacing. “I’m not strong enough. Just a couple more times, and I’ll have it.”

“No.” Tony waves his hand, as if he’s cutting off your plan. “You do any more of this, and you’ll get yourself killed.”

“That’s not true.” You shake your head. “We both don’t know if I can even die.”

“At the pace you’re going, it doesn’t even matter!” He holds his hand out. “In the end, if you die, all you would’ve been doing to yourself this entire time is torture.”

You tilt your head at him. “I know you’re worried about me, and I appreciate it. I’m fine, though, look at me.”

“I am, and I feel like I’m talking to a corpse. Have you looked in the mirror lately?”

“I’m sick, Tony. It’s just the flu.” You say.

“No, (Y/n), your body is wasting away because this,” He motions aggressively to the window. “Is all you do. Wong has been contacting me for weeks, afraid that you’re going to drop dead any minute.”

“Fine,” You sigh. “If you two are so worried, I’ll take a break, but I’m not giving this up. It’s a hiccup, as soon as I get it down—”

He cuts you off, “What would Stephen think of this?”

You stare, “Don’t.”

“No, you don’t.” He tells you. “I know we don’t have the best relationship at times, but I sure as hell won’t watch you kill yourself.”

“Then walk away.” You point to the door. “No one asked you to be here, to come in here talking about what Stephen would or wouldn’t want. You don’t know anything about him!”

“That doesn’t matter, because it doesn’t take a genius to know that he cared about you.”

“Get out.” You tell him. “Get the fuck away from me.”

He starts toward the door, not saying anything until he’s halfway out, turning to look at you. “If I catch wind that you’re doing this again, I’ll have you locked in a padded room for the rest of your life.”

Tony pulls the door shut tightly behind him.

THREE YEARS LATER

The clothes in the closet have lost their scent. After three years of picking them out to hold against your nose, there’s nothing left of him. Which means that your reasoning to stay in the Sanctum has finally expired. You have to move on.

This is by your own choice, not anyone else’s. Wong has made it explicitly clear that if you want to stay here, he will not say otherwise. He doesn’t mind it. In fact, you keep him company, even if your presence is mostly done in silence. What matters is that you’re in the room.

You took this offer, but told yourself that you couldn’t stay here forever. If you were going to be hung up on Stephen, you’d have to do it privately. So, you made a deal; the moment his room stopped feeling like it belonged to him, it was time to go.

You noticed it a few weeks ago, when you came back from the Avengers Compound to collect the last of your belongings. The team was falling apart, again, and as much as you wish you could say that you were going to stay this time, you weren’t. You were already planning on leaving for good, this was just the perfect excuse to use.

The moment you stepped foot into the bedroom, you knew there was no coming back. It felt like you were walking into a foreign planet, a place you didn’t recognize, despite being there hours earlier. Six years of living in this room, gone.

Since, you’ve spent your time trying to find an apartment you like for a decent price, that’s also close to the Sanctum. You almost cried when you got offered a perfect one a few streets away, ready for you to move in. However, your initial excitement has worn off. You’ve been dragging your feet the entire week when it comes to packing, because they had to finalize the paperwork anyway.

Which left you to do it all today.

For the past two hours, you’ve packed everything you own back into boxes and bins, stacking them by the bedroom door. You decided early on that it would be easier if you worked in phases. The hardest part would be detaching yourself from this place, which proved itself to be true.

You’ve cried a few times throughout the process, but it’s done now. The only thing left to do is bring the boxes down to your car, that’s waiting for you parked in front of the Sanctum.

You drag your feet, stopping in front of the first stack. A sigh leaves you when you reach to pull a box into your arms. When you realize it’s not heavy, you adjust to grab the one that was beneath it, too. You’re not entirely looking forward to going up and down the stairs a hundred times.

A sickness rises in your stomach when you leave the bedroom, beginning to go down the hallway. This feels wrong, like a one-sided breakup, leaving before the other person can get home. Your feet pause briefly, shoe squeaking against the freshly waxed floor.

That’s exactly what it is, isn’t it?

No, you think harshly, this is different. Stephen is never coming home. He’s lost, just like the trillions of other lives that were taken when Thanos snapped his fingers. This isn’t a breakup. A part of you wishes it were, because at least then, you’d still have a chance to see him around New York, even if it weren’t on good terms or romantically.

You suck in a deep breath, holding it as you begin your way down the stairs, the first trip of many. You drop these boxes next to the front door, wanting to pack your car all at once. That way, if there’s an issue, it’ll be easier to take it apart. You head back upstairs to repeat this process, it only takes a good fifteen minutes before you’re done.

When you go back to Stephen’s room one last time to retrieve the engraved, golden ring, your heart skips a few beats in your chest. You shuffle toward the dresser, eyes searching the surface, thinking that it might be blending in. You run your fingers over it, and come back with nothing.

You turn around to look into the room, face twisting, eyebrows pushing in as you struggle to remember if you had moved it or not. You walk to his nightstand, opening the drawers, rummaging through them, even though you could’ve sworn you never put it in here.

It’s not there. So, you move to your nightstand, where you’ve kept your jewelry in the past, especially the ring. Except, when you open the first drawer, you’re met with emptiness. You’ve already taken everything out of it, because it’s packed into one of the boxes downstairs.

You sweep the floor with your eyes, but it’s too dark in here. You throw the curtains open, flooding the room with sunlight. When you go back to looking, hoping that the ring will reflect the light, you can’t find it.

You switch to the closet, opening the doors to reveal that it’s half empty now. The only clothes left hanging are the ones that Stephen thought were too important to fold, and to keep them from wrinkling. There’s nothing here, not even in the darkest corner.

Did it fall under the bed?

On your knees, you press the side of your face to the floor, but the only thing under here are the dust bunnies. You make sure of this, too, when you grab a broom to bring it all out.

The panic begins to settle in, spreading through your body. How did you manage to misplace the ring? It’s the most valuable thing to you. You’d think you’d be more careful with something as sentimental as that—a ring from your dead boyfriend.

“Maybe it’s in a box.” You murmur to yourself to calm down, reel in the insanity that’s beginning to rise.

You head out of the bedroom, looking at the boxes over the railing. Once you’re down the stairs and in the foyer, you pull the first box off of the stack, opening the cardboard flaps, and pulling all of its contents out. There is no ring, so you push the objects away, off to the side, not bothering to repack it.

The further you get through the pile, the more hysterical you grow. The box that you’d packed with your jewelry doesn’t have it. The neatly folded clothes, now tossed on the floor, don’t have it caught in the cloth. It’s not stuck between the books, you didn’t accidentally throw it with the rest of your trinkets, it’s not with your electronics.

Everything you own is strewn across the foyer, as you continue to tear them apart.

It’s not here.

You get back to your feet, struggling to breathe, the tears starting.

The front door suddenly opens, you look over to see that it’s Wong. He gives you a wide smile at first, which slowly begins to fall when he sees the expression and the state the foyer is in.

“What’s the matter?” He asks.

“I lost the ring.” You whisper. “I don’t—I don’t know where it is. I’ve looked everywhere.” You turn around to motion to the mess you’ve made. “I don’t have it here, I even checked my car. I set it aside so I wouldn’t lose it and it’s not here. The one thing I carry with me and I’m stupid enough—”

“(Y/n),” Wong says, coming to grab your shoulders. You can feel his fingers pressing into the metal that makes up your left shoulder. A replacement that Tony made for you, covering the entire cost. “(Y/n), stop.”

You press your lips together, face contorting as you nod, trying to focus.

“I told you I was taking it to get cleaned, remember?” He asks, face twisted. He removes his hands, reaching into his coat pocket to pull out the small silk bag.

“Oh.” You breathe, feeling your body relax.

You cup your hands, watching as he carefully shakes the ring out of the bag. It’s polished, smooth. When you tilt it to see the inside, the engraving is there, untouched.

“Okay.” You say.

“You’re okay?” He confirms.

You nod, pushing it back to where it belongs on your thumb. “I’m sorry, Wong.”

“Don’t apologize.” He tells you, turning to face the foyer. “Do you need help repacking?”

“Will you?” You ask.

“Of course.”

FIVE YEARS LATER

The sound of a distantly familiar ringtone begins from the coffee table in your living room, again.

Your eyebrows draw in, turning your head to the side to listen through the first few notes. As you reach for the towel on the counter to dry your hands, you try to remember who it could belong to. It’s garish, dramatic. Whoever the person is, they must resemble the noise.

The bell finally rings.

It’s Stark.

You toss the towel back on the counter when you leave the kitchen. There’s a faint sense of urgency in your steps, considering that you’ve let him call you twice already, figuring that whoever it was would leave you a voicemail.

In fairness, it’s been a long time since you and Tony talked to each other, muchless on the phone. If you remember correctly, the last conversation you had with him happened right before you left the Avengers. Since then, there hasn’t really been a need to keep up-to-date with him.

All of his life updates are posted on social media, anyway. The only thing you’re obligated to do each year is send his daughter presents when the holidays come around. After all, it’s the least you can do after he saved your life and set you straight.

Sure enough, Tony’s face lights up your screen, a sigh escapes you. You pull the phone into your hand, swiping across the glass to accept the call. You press it to your ear, “Hello?”

“Do you ever answer your phone?” Tony’s voice comes through. “I mean, seriously, it took me three tries for you to pick up? What if I were dying?”

You roll your eyes, letting out a light laugh. “I would hope you’d call Pepper before me, considering we haven’t spoken to each other in almost three years.”

“Has it really been that long?”

“Yes, Tony. Is everything okay?” You ask, walking back to the kitchen.

“I’m fine, (Y/n). Listen, something’s happened.”

You put the call on speaker, setting your phone next to the sink so you can resume doing the dishes. “Good or bad?”

“Both.” He answers. You pull a plate out of the soapy water, scrubbing at it with a sponge. “You remember that fight between me and Cap, right? The one in Germany? There was the guy who could go from big to small?”

You hum, “Scott Lang?”

The sound of him snapping fills the air. “Yes, that guy. Well, he, Natasha and Cap showed up at my house the other day.”

He pauses, not going on any further. You wonder if there’s a point to this story, or if he’s just calling to tell you it’s weird that Scott flew from Los Angeles all the way to New York. Which you guess it is, considering…

Your hands freeze on the plate, eyebrows drawing in. “That’s not possible, Scott Lang was killed in the blip.”

“Yeah, I thought so too, but he’s here. They came over talking about quantum jumping, and how he got stuck in the middle of it when Thanos snapped his fingers. Five years felt like five hours to him.”

“And he’s alive?” You ask.

“Yes.” He sighs into the phone. “You know I wouldn’t be calling you if I thought I was just getting your hopes up.”

This is true. When you were parting ways with the Avengers, you and Tony had a long discussion about the future, and where both of you stood on the matter. You told him that you wanted to retire your suit for good. With there being so many heroes in New York again, there wasn’t a reason for all of you to be active anymore.

This set up the idea that this could be the last time you came face to face with them, because it was partially your plan. You can’t be sucked in if you refuse to be involved. He respected your wishes on this, and told you that if anything were to happen to you, he’d be there in a second if you needed him to be.

And before you left, you came to an agreement; if there was a way that either of you could turn back time and fix everything in a reasonable way, you’d be there, no questions asked.

“Okay…” You prompt him.

“(Y/n), I figured it out.” He tells you. “I figured out how to time travel. It’s taken me…” You can picture him shaking his head. “But I think we can go back and fix this. I think we can bring them back.”

You set the clean plate off to the side, placing the sponge back where it belongs in the ceramic dish. “Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

You lean over the sink, nodding slowly. “What did they say about it?”

“I haven’t told them yet. I thought you should be the first to know, that’s the deal we made, right?”

“Right.” You agree. “How soon are we doing this?”

“Today.” He says. “I’ll pick you up. We’ll sort it out with them when we get to the Avengers Facility.’

Your eyes land on the gold ring that’s currently sitting on the window sill. “I’ll be ready.” You murmur. “Tony?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it.”

—

“I remember why I stopped letting you drive me around.” You say, watching as the Facility grows closer. “Cause you’ve got a lead foot.”

“Shut up.” Tony tells you, taking a turn. “We’re almost there.”

“Try not to send us through the windshield before then.” You mutter, being thrown into the door, tires squealing against the asphalt.

As you near the front, you can see that Steve is standing outside of it, hands on his hips. Tony pulls up right before him, putting the car in park when it’s come to a complete stop. He rolls the window down, lazily moving his head to look at Steve.

“Why the long face?” He asks after a moment of silence. “Let me guess, he turned into a baby.”

Steve nods, looking away. “Among other things, yeah. What are you two doing here?”

You throw the car door open to get out before he can start driving again.

“It’s the EPR Paradox.” Tony gets out, too. “Instead of pushing Lang through time, you might’ve wound up pushing time through Lang. It’s tricky, dangerous. Somebody could have cautioned you against it.”

You shut the door, walking around the car to join them.

“You did.” Steve says.

“Oh, did I?” Tony mocks being shocked. “Well, thank god I’m here. Regardless, I fixed it.” He holds up his hand, which has the time traveling cuff—or whatever it is, you stopped trying to understand it after he explained it the second time. “A fully functioning time-space GPS.”

Steve smiles.

“I just want peace.” Tony holds up two fingers. “Turns out resentment is corrosive, and I hate it.”

“Me, too.” Steve says, looking at you. “What are you doing?”

“I’m here to help, obviously.” You give him a bright smile. “I can be useful, sometimes.”

“We got one shot at getting these stones, but I gotta tell you my priorities.” Tony says. “Bring back what we lost, I hope, yes. Keep what I found, I have to, at all costs. And maybe not die trying, would be nice.”

Steve nods again, holding out his hand. “Sounds like a deal.”

Tony takes it, they shake on it. You let out air through your nose, shaking your head as you wander away, staying close to watch Tony open the trunk of the car. He pulls out Steve’s shield, dumping the blanket and stuffed animal back into the car.

“Tony, I don’t know.” Steve mutters.

“Why? He made it for you.” He flips it around. “Plus, honestly, I have to get it out of the garage before Morgan takes it sledding.”

Steve takes it, holding it across his arm. “Thank you, Tony.”

“Will you keep that a little quiet? Didn’t bring one for the whole team.” He pulls out a red case, reaching up with his other hand to press the button that closes the trunk for him. “We are getting the whole team, yeah?”

“We’re working on that right now.” Steve says.

“Cool.” You turn around to walk to the doors. “Until we have everyone here, I will be sitting on my ass and doing exactly nothing.”

“Not very different from what you usually do, right?” Tony asks behind you.

You give him a sarcastic smile.

—

“Okay, so the how works.” Steve begins. “Now we gotta figure out the when and the where.”

There’s a set of three screens he’s standing by, each one showing two stones. It’s sorted into detail by what they look like, what they can be contained in, what building they were originally found in, and who might have them in their possession.

Your eyes are set on the most obvious one, the Time Stone. You and the others already pretty much agreed that you’ll be going after it. You know the most about it, after spending years of being around Stephen.

“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 says, standing on the other side. There’s a coffee cup in one of his hands.

“Well, I haven’t, but I don’t even know what the hell you’re all talking about.” Scott says.

“Regardless, we only have enough Pym Particles for one round-trip each.” Bruce tells you, walking around the back of Scott’s chair. “And these stones have been in a lot of different places throughout history.”

“Our history.” Tony emphasizes. “So, not a lot of convenient spots to just drop in, yeah?”

“Which means we have to pick our targets.” Clint’s got his eyes on the ground.

“Correct.”

“So, let’s start with the Aether.” Steve says, eyes set on a specific target. “Thor, what do you know?”

Thor, who has since gained weight, forgotten how to shower, and grown a beard, sits in the corner of the room, slouched as deeply as possible in the chair. There’s a beer in one of his hands, the other rests on his stomach. The pair of sunglasses on his face prohibits you from seeing where his eyes are.

Everyone turns to look at him, waiting.

“Is he asleep?” Natasha asks.

“No, no. I”m pretty sure he’s dead.” Rhodes says.

Tony lets out a sigh, shaking his head. He slaps a hand on his shoulder, which jumpstarts Thor. “Rise and shine, buddy. What do you know about the Aether?”

Thor groans, “I was just about to get up.”

“Right.”

He gets to his feet, wanting to the front. “Uh, where to start?” He pulls off the sunglasses, holding them in his hand. “Um… The Aether, firstly, is not a stone. Someone called it a stone before.” He points at Steve briefly. “Um, it’s more of an angry sludge sort of a thing… so someone’s gonna need to amend that and stop saying that.” He tilts his head back to squirt eye drops into his eyes.

Your mouth falls open slightly, watching him do this. Is this what you looked like to everyone else when you freaked out that first year? Of course, you were the opposite of whatever Thor is representing, but still. His coping mechanisms are a hell of a lot worse than yours were… you think.

Clint comes beside you, pulling a chair out to sit down.

“Here’s an interesting story, though, about the Aether. My grandfather, many years ago, had to hide the stone from the Dark Elves.” He makes a ghostly sound, laughing in the middle. “Scary beings. So, Jane, actually—” The middle screen changes to show her face. “Oh, there she is. Yeah, so Jane was a—was an old flame of mine.”

You rub your face, letting out a sigh while you tilt your head back to look at the ceiling. These past few days already have been long, while you waited for them to design the time traveling suits, build the platform, and send Clint into the future as a test run. You can’t imagine what today and tomorrow are going to be like, if this is how it’s starting.

“You know, she stuck her hand inside a rock this one time and then the Aether stuck itself inside her and she became very, very sick. And so I had to take her to Asgard, which is where I’m from and we had to try and fix her.” Thor continues.

You swivel in your chair, facing Natasha. She raises her eyebrows, and you grab her notepad, dragging it in front of you. Clint offers up a pen on the other side, you take it, writing down that Jane Foster has the Aether in Asgard.

“We were dating at the time, you see and I got to introduce her to my mother,” He’s waving around the sunglasses. “Who’s dead and, um… Oh, you know, Jane and I aren’t even dating anymore, so.” He sniffs. “Yes, these things happen, though. You know? Nothing lasts forever. The only thing that—”

Tony goes up to Thor, grabbing him. “Why don’t you come sit down?”

“I’m not done yet.” He pushes Tony away. “The only thing that is permanent in life is impermanence.”

Tony claps twice. “Awesome. Eggs? Breakfast?”

“No. I’d like a Bloody Mary.” Thor smiles.

You take in a deep breath, “Can I get one, too, then?”

Tony looks at you, “Don’t encourage this.”

“Just something to get me through the rest of the day.” You reason, a teasing smile hinting at your lips.

He squints at you, directing Thor to sit back down in one of the chairs. “Let’s take a break, we’ll regroup at dinner.”

The group breaks apart, eager to get out of this room and away from Thor. You stay where you’re seated, and Tony doesn’t move, either. Thor seems disinterested, turning the can of beer on the table. Once the door has shut, you can’t contain your laughter.

They look at you, waiting for you to let them in on what you find so funny. You wave your hand, turning around in the chair to bury your face in your hands. You forget just how ridiculous this team can be at times. It’s more than just crime fighting, it’s camaraderie.

“Okay,” You breathe, facing them again. “Thor, can you give me a year where Jane was in Asgard when she was infected with the Aether?”

“Oh, sure.” Thor says, he’s composed himself. “It was twenty-thirteen. It won’t mean anything unless it’s in the Stone form, though.”

You hum, flipping the page over, writing down everyone that is planning to help. Next to Thor’s name, you put ‘R’ for the Reality Stone, making him in charge of that. He’ll need someone to go with him, of course, because he’s in no state to have this big of a responsibility, but you’ll figure that out later on. The point is that Asgard was his home, he’ll know how to navigate it.

Beside your name, you write ‘T’ for the time stone. No matter what the others say, you won’t let them take this one from you. If they want to help you, you’ll drag someone along. As far as you’re concerned, this will be under control.

“What are you doing?” Tony asks, coming around the table.

“Sorting this out.” You murmur, flipping back to the original page. You begin to write what you know about the Time Stone, which is more than what Thor could give you about the Reality. “Those who know the most about the stones should be in charge of them, I figured you don’t really think otherwise.”

You look at him, he makes a face, nodding to agree with you.

“What are you thinking about for dinner? Takeout will be on me.” Tony says, crossing his arms.

“Burgers.” Thor says, “A nice juicy burger.”

You make a face, “I’ve been craving Chinese lately.”

A few hours later, after everyone has finished what they were doing with the suits or the portal, you find yourself back in the room. Your suggestion on Chinese food was fairly popular with the others, so Tony took the order and had the food delivered to the Facility.

“All right, Ratchet, go for it.” Tony motions once everyone is settled in their seats.

“Rocket.” He corrects, giving him a look. “Quill said he stole the Power Stone from Morag.” The screen lights up purple, you set your fork down to write what he says into the notepad.

“Is that a person?” Bruce asks, smacking on his ice cream.

“No, Morag’s a planet.” Rocket says, standing on the table. “Quill was a person.”

“Like a planet? Like in outer space?” Scott asks from the other end of the table.

“Oh, look.” Rocket places his hand on Scott’s head, beginning to give him a head rub. “It’s like a little puppy, all happy and everything. Do you wanna go to space? You wanna go to space, puppy?” Scott pulls his head away, unamused. “I’ll take you to space.”

“Have you been to Morag?” You ask, looking up from the paper. “You or Nebula?”

“No.” Rocket says, turning around to face you.

“I haven’t, either.” She shakes her head. “I believe it’s kept in a temple.”

You blow a piece of hair out of your face. “Okay…”

You flip the page, finding her name on the list, writing ‘P’. You chew on the inside of your lip, thinking. When you look at Tony, you find his eyes on you.

“What’s the problem?”

“We’re going to have to go in pairs, anyway, right?” You ask, “What if…”

You write ‘R’ next to Rocket, knowing that he and Thor have worked together in the past, during the first fight with Thanos. They went together to Nidavellir, where Thor got Stormbreaker. They clearly get along fine. As for Nebula, lately she’s been working with Rhodes. That’s why you decide to pair them together.

Tony tilts his head, “I don’t see why not.”

It’s the following day when you finally get time to talk about the Stones again, since the conversation on Morag was thrown out the window when technicalities came into play. The group of you called it a night when Thor started talking about Jane again.

“Thanos found the Soul Stone on Vormir.” Nebula murmurs from the front.

“What is Vormir?” Natasha asks, holding the notepad. She’s been up all night writing notes, building off of what you’ve already got in there. When she offered to take it from you, you didn’t argue.

“A dominion of death at the very center of celestial existence.” She says, voice lowering. “It’s where Thanos murdered my sister.”

There’s a moment of silence between the few of you. Not everyone could make it to this time around. Tony opted out because he decided off the bat that he didn’t want to be involved with anything other than the Space Stone—the tesseract—because he believes that’ll be an easy grab, too.

Steve sighs.

“Not it.” Scott mutters.

This causes several people to look at him.

The meeting room is trashed two days later, there’s papers scattered across the room, as well as folders. There’s books opened to certain pages, laying open on the floor to be easily picked up and resumed when needed. Tony and Natasha lay on the table, with Bruce being on the floor, considering he’s permanently part-Hulk now.

You sit in the recliner in the corner, reading through all the notes you’ve gathered thus far, trying to put together a fairly decent timeline.

“That Time Stone guy.” Natasha finally breaks the silence.

“Doctor Strange.” Bruce says, you look up from your notes, clicking the pen.

“Stephen Strange.” You murmur.

“Yeah, what kind of doctor was he?” She asks.

“Ear-nose-throat meets rabbit-from-hat.” Tony says, he’s turned on his side, rubbing his face.

“He was a neurosurgeon, that’s why he likes being called Doctor.” You tell her. “He worked at the Metro-General hospital.”

“Nice place in the Village, though.” Bruce says.

“Yeah, on Sullivan Street?” Tony says back.

Bruce hums. “No…”

“Bleecker Street.” You correct.

“Wait, he lived in New York?” Natasha asks, no longer spinning the pen in her hand.

“Yeah—”

“No, he lived in Toronto.” Tony says.

“Uh, yeah, on Bleecker and Sullivan.” Bruce says.

“Have you been listening to anything?” Tony asks Natasha.

She holds her hand up. “Guys, if you pick the right year, there are three stones in New York.”

Bruce sits up, “Shut the front door.”

You nod, forcing the recliner back to its original position. “Space, Mind and Time, huh?”

“Yeah.” She says. “All we need to do is figure out who’s getting which one.”

An emergency team meeting is called. The four of you move to a different room to be in, because the last one is trashed. The others begin to trickle in steadily, all asking questions on what happened.

It isn’t until the last person comes inside, do you begin. “Everyone, this has gotten a whole lot easier.”

Tony nods, walking up to the projection. At the top, it’s titled ‘Time Heist’, courtesy of Scott, who’s attached to the idea of it. The sections below are broken into three. The first one being New York, which has Time, Space and Mind. The second one is Asgard, which obviously holds the Reality Stone. The third one is Morag / Vormir, for the Power and Soul Stones.

“We have divided the teams.” Tony says. “For team Asgard, we have Thor and Rocket, Morag will be Nebula and Rhodes, and Vormir is Natasha and Clint. As for New York, it will be the rest of us.” He turns around to face you. “(Y/n) has volunteered to grab the Time Stone, Bruce will go with her. Which leaves Scott, Steve and I to get the Space and Mind Stone, because it’ll be in the same buildings at the same time.”

“All right. We have a plan.” Steve says, crossing the room to stand in front of the projection. “Six stones, three teams, one shot.”

You stand up, walking to stand next to Steve. You grab his shoulder, making him turn to you. “Now we can get this son of a bitch.”

—

“Five years ago, we lost. All of us.” Steve begins. “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. Most os uf are going somewhere we know. That doesn’t mean we should know what to expect.

“Be careful.” He says. “Look out for each other. This is the fight of our lives, and we’re gonna win. Whatever it takes. Good luck.” He backs off.

“He’s pretty good at that.” Rocket says.

“Right?” Scott looks at him.

“All right. You heard the man. Stroke those keys, Jolly Green.” Tony tells Bruce.

“Trackers engaged.”

Clint holds out his hand, looking at the Milano—Rocket’s spaceship—which has been shrunk to make for easier transportation.

“You promise to bring that back in one piece, right?” Rocket asks.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Clint dismisses him. “Okay, I’ll do my best.”

“As promises go, that was pretty lame.” Rocket crosses his arms.

“It’s Clint, everything about him is lame.” You say, and when Clint looks at you, you give him our sweetest smile. “Isn’t that right?”

“Be quiet.” He tells you.

Bruce comes up the stairs to the platform, stopping to stand right next to you. He slaps his wrist, causing the platform to begin beeping. You take in a deep breath, tilting your head from side to side.

“See ya in a minute.” Natasha smiles.

The helmet comes over your face, you look down, finding that the ground has opened up, sucking you inside. You travel through… you’re not entirely sure how to describe it. At first, it’s a bright tunnel of color that quickly submerges you in blue, traveling through a molecule and into a white light.

You land on your feet in an alleyway, the street in front of you is covered in debris and overturned cars. The time traveling suit disappears, leaving you in a pair of relatively normal clothes for this time. The sound of screaming, sirens and the alien beings moving around and shooting is slightly overwhelming for a couple seconds.

Steve marches forward. “All right, we all have our assignments. Two stones uptown, one stone down.” He must decide the coast is clear, turning around to come back your way. “Stay low. Keep an eye on the clock.”

Hulk roars, you look around Steve to watch as he lifts a car, smashing it into the alien, clearly killing him. Another one comes to save his comrade, but turns around and runs at the sight of past Hulk plucking a tire off the car and throwing it at a streetlight. Unsatisfied with his original smash, he jumps on the dismembered car a couple times, before stomping away.

Bruce covers his face, embarrassed.

“Maybe smash a few things along the way.” Steve suggests.

“I think it’s gratuitous, but whatever.” Bruce says, ripping off his tank top, walking to the street.

You shake your head at him, rolling your eyes. You begin to walk away, backwards. “This shouldn’t take long. Are you sure you don’t want my help with the other two stones?”

“We’ve got it covered, (Y/n).” Steve gives you a hard nod.

“If you say so.” You tilt your head, before following after Bruce, who’s lazily punching cars.

You walk behind him, amused at the way he tries to mimic how he was in the past. He was incredibly, unnecessarily destructive, wasn’t he? You can’t imagine the amount of things he tore apart or broke solely because he could.

“I think we’ll travel faster if we take the roofs.” He finally says, stopping.

“Why do you think that?” You ask, catching up with him.

He opens his mouth, letting out a sigh. “I don’t want to do this the entire way.”

“Well, unfortunately, you don’t have a baby carrier on you, so you don’t really have an option.” You shrug, “Just enjoy the walk.”

“I can’t.”

“Then don’t break shit, I don’t care.” You laugh, “It’s only a few minutes from here.”

He looks disappointed at your indifference, but he admits that you’re right. Bleecker Street and Sullivan isn’t that far when he’s listening to your directions on the quickest shortcuts. However, you have a problem when the front door to the Sanctum doesn’t open.

Your mouth pops open, tongue clicking. You place your hands on your hips, tilting your head back to see the roof of the building. Your face smooths over when you see orange magic shoot at an alien, causing it to explode.

“Get us up there.” You tell Bruce, it’s a command.

“Sure.” He says.

You allow him to pick you up, setting you on his shoulder. You struggle to balance while he scales the building, but it’s worth it the second you reach the top. He starts for the door that’ll lead you inside of the Sanctum, you don’t move from where you stand, eyes on the lady standing feet away.

A sinking feeling of disappointment hits.

“I’d be careful going that way. We just had the floors waxed.” She tells Bruce before he can open the door.

She’s British, she has an accent, and she’s bald. The robes she’s wearing is a shade of mustard yellow. And she has the Eye of Agamotto around her neck, the same thing that Stephen had in his possession. The Time Stone is right here.

The longer you stare at her, the more you believe you’ve seen her before, or at least heard of her. You go down the three steps, going to join her. You refuse to take your eyes off of her.

“Yeah, I’m looking for Doctor Strange.” Bruce says.

The lady lifts her head slightly. “You’re about five years too early.” She steps away, toward the edge of the roof. “Stephen Strange is currently performing surgery—” she lifts her hand to motion, “about twenty blocks that way.” She stops walking. “What do you want from him?”

“The Time Stone.” You tell her.

“Ah!” She looks down at the Eye. “I’m afraid not.”

“Sorry, but I wasn’t asking.” Bruce says, stepping over the metal bar to walk toward her.

“You don’t want to do this.” She warns him.

“Bruce, I think we should listen to her.” You tell him.

“Ah, you’re right, I don’t. But I need that stone and I don’t have time to debate it.” He says, hand reaching to grab it.

She slams the heel of her hand into his chest, Bruce falls to the ground, unconscious. You stare with an open mouth for a brief second, and then you snap it shut, looking at her.

Her eyes are already on you, head tilted. “Are you going to take it by force, too?”

“No.”

She smiles. “Let’s start over, shall we?”

It hits you after this, you squint at her. “You’re the one that Stephen and Wong talked about all the time. What is it—?” You wonder aloud, eyes drifting as you think. “Ancient One, isn’t that what they called you?” When you look at her again, she’s got her eyebrows raised. “You’re the Sorcerer Supreme.”

“You’re wise.” She says. “What’s your name?”

“(Y/n).” You tell her, she begins to think about it. “I’m not a student of yours, I’m just dating one. We need the Time Stone, it’s urgent.”

“For what, exactly?”

“We need it so we can bring back half of the population of every living being.” The words are grave, her facial expression changes. “We’re from eleven years in the future. And this is the only solution we have left. We have teams gathering the other five Infinity Stones, and when we bring them together in our time, we’ll be able to fix the damage that was done.”

“You want me to hand it over?” She asks you. “No.”

She begins to walk away, heading for the door. You follow after her. “Please, you don’t understand.”

“I’m sorry, I can’t help you, (Y/n).” Her pace doesn’t slow. “If I give up the Time Stone to help your reality, I’m dooming my own.”

“With all due respect, all right…” Bruce’s voice echoes, you turn to look behind you, finding him in his original body, not the half-Hulk, half-Bruce one. Except, he’s see-through, a phantom, a ghost. He joins you two up the stairs, jogging in front of her to make her stop. “I’m not sure the science really supports that.”

With him standing between her and the door, she humors you. She reaches forward, yanking out an orange line right in the middle of them. It stretches far between the blocks of New York on both sides.

“The Infinity Stones create what you experience as the flow of time.” The stones create a ring around the orange. She reaches forward to flick the Time Stone. “Remove one of the stones and that flow splits.” You watch as a black line branches off from where the ring of stones is, creating its own path through the air. “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 would be overrun. Millions will suffer. So, tell me, Doctor. Can your science prevent all that?”

Bruce is rubbing his hands together, “No, 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—” he pulls the Time Stone out of the air, placing it back in the ring, remedifying the split timeline. “In that reality, it never left.”

She turns around, walking away. “Yes, but you’re leaving out the most important part.” She stops at the end of the roof. “In order to return the stones, you have to survive.”

“We will.” You tell her. “I promise.”

“I can’t risk this reality on a promise. It’s the duty of the Sorcerer Supreme to protect the Time Stone.”

“I know.” You murmur. “But Stephen had no choice but to give it to Thanos.”

She stares at you, “What did you say?”

“Stephen gave the stone to Thanos.”

“Willingly?” She asks.

“Yes.” Bruce says behind you.

“Why?”

“We lost the battle so that we could win the war.” You tell her. “It’s what had to be done.”

“I see.” She murmurs after a long moment of silence. She reaches over Bruce’s shoulder, summoning his body.

Bruce returns, back to being giant and green. You watch as she bends her fingers, moving her hands apart, unlocking the Eye. Inside sits the stone, she pulls it out, you cup your hand.

She doesn’t drop it quite yet. “Strange is meant to be the best of us.”

“He is.” You assure her. “He handed it over for a reason.”

“I fear you might be right.” She places the stone in your hand.

You’ve only held it one time before, when Stephen had to fix the Eye of Agamotto. It’s meant to be unbreakable with his spells, but there’s always an exception. He saw how much it bothered you, seeing the Time Stone out of place, and elected you to hold it while he repaired the Eye.

When you told him you were afraid you’d break it, he said that provides more comfort to him, because it means that you’ll be careful with it.

“Thank you.” Bruce says.

She steps forward, hands over yours. “I’m counting on you, (Y/n). We all are.”

“I’ll bring it back.” You tell her.

She lets you and Bruce go through the Sanctum to get to the street, not wanting you to crawl back down the building. As soon as you’ve stepped foot back on the sidewalk, you pass the Time Stone over to Bruce, “Here, you take it back.”

His face twists. “We’re going back together. Don’t you want to hold onto it?”

You shake your head. “No, there’s someone I have to see first.”

“You can’t, (Y/n), if you see Stephen, you’ll ruin the timeline.”

“That’s not who I’m going to.” You wave him off. “I won’t talk to her. It’ll be a few minutes.”

He nods, holding out his arm to type in the present day’s date. You watch as he warps into the air, disappearing. You begin to walk away, reaching up to touch your earpiece, “This is (Y/n) to Tony, Bruce has taken the stone back. How are we looking for the other two?”

Tony sighs in your ear. “There’s been an issue, Loki took the Tesseract and disappeared.”

Your feet pause, but quickly go back to walking, because you don’t have much time to be out here. “Okay, what’s the plan? You don’t have enough particles.”

“Cap and I are going back further in time, we’ll be able to get particles and the stone in the same place. We’re sending Scott back to the present. What are you doing?”

“I’m gonna visit someone. You two be careful.”

“We will.” Steve’s voice comes over. “Remember the plan, don’t interact with anyone.”

“I know.” You tell him.

It isn’t that hard for you to find young (Y/n), mostly because of the shredded asphalt and the decomposing bodies that lay on top of it. You follow this careless path, and divert from it to go through an alleyway, where it leads you right to where she is, standing a few feet away.

There’s a smile on her face, that dissolves into concentration, as she gets on the ground, hunching over to pull more of the dead out of the Earth. You remember this, it’s moments after Tony found you and told you to draw in as many of the Chitauri as you possibly could—as long as you could handle it.

You were so young back then, you had absolutely no idea what you were doing. Or that this would eventually lead you to becoming a hero, yourself. That day, you took a leap of faith, and it completely changed the trajectory of your life.

If you hadn’t done this, who knows where you’d be right now. If life would have treated you any differently. If you still would’ve joined the Avengers, just a few years later down the line. Or if you’d ever even get to meet Stephen.

It doesn’t matter, because you don’t think you’d ever tell your past self to change her mind.

“You’ve got this.” You say to her, eyes flickering between the time system and her, where she’s fighting. “Just keep pushing, you’re on the right path.”

As you type the date in, you watch as she looks up from the ground, eyes landing on you. You submit the time, and just before you leave, you hold a hand up to wave at her.

You’re sucked through the warp, as you travel backwards through the tunnel you took to get here. And despite leaving at different times, it joins you with the rest of your group. You arrive at the Avengers Facility at the same time.

The helmet falls back at the same time it does for everyone else, the suit following directly after.

“Did we get ‘em all?” Bruce asks.

Rhodes laughs. “Are you telling me this actually worked?”

Clint falls to his knees, staring off in front of him. You know this look, something’s happened. Your eyes try to switch to Natasha, hoping that she’ll offer an explanation, but she’s absent.

“Oh, Clint.” You murmur.

“Clint, where’s Nat?” Bruce asks.

Clint’s eyes are watery, his lips turning further down. There’s a long moment of silence between all of you, as the news settles in. You were warned by Nebula that the way Thanos got the stone was through losing his daughter. You were all hoping that she was being difficult and her actions got her killed, not… this.

Bruce falls to his knees, slamming his fist into the platform.

You sigh, shaking your head. “Shit.”

—

“All right, the glove’s ready.” Rocket says, adjusting the fingers. “Question is, who’s gonna snap their freakin’ fingers?”

“I’ll do it.” Thor says, coming over.

“Excuse me?” Tony asks, turning around.

“It’s okay.” He steps closer to the glove.

“Stop, stop.” Tony reaches to grab Thor at the same time Steve does. “Slow down.”

“Thor. Just wait.” Steve tells him. “We haven’t decided who’s gonna put that on yet.”

“I’m sorry. WHat, we’re all just sitting around waiting for the right opportunity?”

“We should at least discuss it.” Scott says.

“Look, sitting here staring at the thing is not gonna bring everybody back.” He brings his fingers to his thumbs on both hands. “I’m the strongest Avenger, okay? So, this responsibility falls upon me. It’s my duty.”

“Normally, you’re right.” Tony steps in front of him. “It’s not about that.”

“It’s not that.” He shushes him. “Stop it! Just let me. Just let me do it.” He whispers. “JUst let me do something good. Something right.”

“Look, it’s not just the fact that that glove is channeling enough energy to light up a continent. I’m telling you. You’re in no condition.” Tony tells him.

“What do you think is coursing through my veins right now?” His hands are on Tony’s shoulders.

“Cheez Whiz?” Rhodes suggests, you snort.

Thor is unamused, holding out a finger to quiet him. “Lightning.”

“Yeah.”

“Lightning.” Thor repeats.

“LIghtning won’t help you, pal.” Bruce says, finally going forward. “It’s gotta be me.” Thor looks at the ground, Tony moves away. “You saw what those stones did to Thanos. They almost killed him. None of you could survive.” He stops in front of the glove.

“How do we know you will?” Steve asks.

“We don’t. But the radiation’s mostly gamma. It’s like… uh, I was made for this.”

“If this is what you want.” You say, backing away.

Bruce nods, reaching into the case to pull out the glove.

“Good to go, yeah?” Tony asks.

“Let’s do it.”

“Okay, remember, everyone Thanos snapped away five years ago, you’re just bringing them back to now, today. Don’t change anything from the last five years.” Tony says.

“Got it.”

Your suit comes to cover your body, preparing for the worst. You shuffle behind Tony and Clint, where Tony brings up a shield as another form of protection.

“Friday, do me a favor and activate Barn Door Protocol, will ya?”

You watch as the skylight slowly covers with metal, as well as all exits, including doors and windows. That way, if anything goes wrong, the only people that’ll be affected are those who are standing in this room.

“Everybody comes home.” Bruce mutters, slowly pulling the glove on. The machinery adjusts to fit his hand, rather than Tony’s. When it secures, it sends a visible shock up his arm, all six Infinity Stones begin to glow.

Bruce drops to his knee, groaning, veins popping out of his forehead. He grabs the glove with his free hand, watching as it transforms.

“Take it off. Take it off!” Thor shouts.

“No, wait.” Steve holds out his hand. “Bruce, are you okay?”

Bruce throws his head back, the fabric on his arm begins to burn up, the colors of the stones are beneath his skin, traveling up the underside of his jaw. He’s in pain.

“Talk to me, Banner.” Tony says.

“I’m okay.” He breathes, as the stones begin to settle. “I’m okay.” He pants heavily, slowly lifting his hand. His green skin is now charred, black, glowing red underneath. Like bubbling lava.

He screams, preparing his fingers, and then snaps.

The glove falls off in an instant, Bruce unconscious on the floor, arm is sizzling.

“Bruce!” Steve crouches down next to him.

Clint kicks the glove away, Tony joins Steve. “Don’t move him.” The healing solution comes from his fingers, coating Bruce’s arm in white.

“Did it work?” Bruce asks, grabbing Steve’s arm.

“We’re not sure.” Thor says. “It—it’s okay.”

The metal sheets begin to lift, doors opening, allowing you to leave. Scott wanders away, and so does Clint a second later.

“Can you feel anything, (Y/n)?” Steve asks, looking at you.

You suck in a breath, closing your eyes, concentrating hard. You discovered a couple years ago that there wasn’t a need for the dramatics if you actually put some of your own energy in to pull some out. You sacrifice a little of yourself, digging deep, feeling around for the same heavy weight that there’s been for years.

“I don’t…” You murmur, head turning to the side, eyebrows drawing in. “I can’t say for sure.” You open your eyes. “It might be the building, it works better when I’m outside. I could go out—”

“Don’t bother.” Clint murmurs, picking up his vibrating phone, pressing it to his ear. “Honey.”

“Guys…” Scott breathes. “I think it worked.”

A smile breaks through when you make eye contact with Tony, finding your happiness mirrored onto him.

You did it.

You touch the ring on your thumb.

A blast of hot air throws you across the room, slamming you into the cement wall, head cracking against it. An explosion shakes the ground. A wave of dizziness hits you as you reach to touch the spot on your forehead, fingers coated in blood.

One second, you’re staring at your friends, and the next, the building is collapsing. The ground gives way beneath you, a scream leaves your mouth as you begin to slide, knowing full well that the Facility goes hundreds of feet underground.

The suit comes to cover your body as your fingers slip from the cement. Your stomach flies to your throat, lodging itself there as you begin to fall with the chunks of rock and debris.

Another rocket hits nearby, as your body is engulfed in fire.

When you wake, a sharp stabbing feeling flies through your abdomen. You reach to grab it, hands coming in contact with a steel rod. It’s wet, but not from your blood. The water from the plumbing system and the lake nearby rain down on you, causing sparks from severed electric wires to zap.

“(Y/n)?” You hear Bruce ask. “Are you with us?”

You struggle to breathe, hearing every breath enter and leave your mouth. You squeeze your eyes shut, head resting back. “I’m stuck.”

“I know, we’ll get Rhodey and Rocket over there to help you.” He says.

“No, Bruce.” You gasp, wincing. “I’ve been impaled.”

The sound of rushing water fills the air. You lift your head, eyes searching from the direction it’s coming from. It sweeps through the rubble, beginning to fill the hole you’re in.

“Guys!” The panic in your voice alerts Rhodes, “Help!”

Rocket gets to his feet, coming in your direction. “Oh, no.”

“Mayday, Mayday! Does anybody copy? We’re on the lower level. It’s flooding!” Rhodes says into the earpiece. “We are drowning! Does anybody copy? Mayday!”

“I don’t think we can get you out of this one.” Rocket says once he sees you. “Bruce, any chance you can come over here?”

“Not really.” He grunts.

You take careful breaths, trying to relax. “If I don’t get out of here, I’m going to drown.”

Rocket shakes his head, hands up. “I don’t know what you want me to do.”

“You don’t have any tools?” You ask, “To cut the bar in half?” He doesn’t respond, you close your eyes. “Fuck.”

“It’s filling up fast!” Rhodes shouts.

“Move back.” You tell him, he listens.

You grip onto the steel bar, “Come to me.” You murmur, the ground begins to shake under you, causing the pain to heighten. You grit your teeth, wanting to stop. “Come here.” You order.

The ground splits somewhere, the cement you’re laying on dips to the side, making you move. You resist the urge to throw your head back, trying to avoid a concussion.

“Oh, what the—” Rocket lets out, “What is that?”

Through half-open lids, you watch as a few of the dead come to crawl out of the rubble. They get to their feet, and without any other word, come to rescue you from where you are. The issue is that they aren’t so gentle, when they grab you by your shoulders and hips, pulling you free.

The insides of your body burns, as you bite back a scream. They drop you on your feet, and with the weight all falling onto your wound, you stumble forward and onto your knees, hand wrapped around the area.

“If you could do that—have them take the rubble.” Rocket motions to Bruce. “So he can get us out of here.”

“They’ll crumble beneath the weight.” You tell him, the dead grab your elbows, forcing you to your feet. “They’re not good for much besides fighting.”

“You can’t tell them to find a way out and we follow them?” Rocket suggests.

“We can’t leave Bruce behind.” You shake your head. “And it’s not guaranteed that it’ll work. They can lead us to a dead-end. They aren’t all-knowing.”

The roof is beginning to fall, Bruce shuddering beneath it. The water is coming through faster, you shuffle to stand with Rhodes, Rocket climbs up as far as he can. You tilt your head back, water creeping up your chest. The dead that were with you are now floating on their backs, no longer alive.

“See you on the other side, man.” Rhodes says.

Rocket whimpers, not liking the idea of dying. You pant, tears in your eyes. You’re going to die before you’re able to see Stephen again. For the past five years, you’ve held onto the idea that it could be possible. And now he’s back, somewhere, but not here.

“(Y/n), stop.” Rhodes warns you.

You cry, the water reaching the back of your head. “Get me out of here!”

“You need to breathe, you can’t hyperventilate under the water.” He says, it’s flooding your ears.

“I know.” You gasp. “I know.”

You take a deep breath in right as the water covers your face. For the first few seconds, you think that it’s fine. And then you reach out, grabbing onto Rhodes’s arm, squeezing tightly. You feel his hand over yours, trying to provide comfort.

The burning in your lungs begins in the second minute, pressure tight in your skull, adding to the lightheadedness. You want to open your mouth and suck in, despite knowing that you’ll fill your lungs with water. It’ll be quicker than fighting this, right?

An object surrounds you, bumping you to the side. Your eyes open suddenly, struggling to see through the murky water on what’s moved you. For a second, you think that it’s Bruce, until you find him joining you. The water current from the other side brings the four of you closer together, as what you assume to be the roof closes in on you.

But then the ground comes up, uneven, and you’re lifted into the air, water running. You gasp, desperate for air, coughing out the water. You drop to your knees, pushing your hair out of your face.

“It’s Scott!” Rhodes shouts.

He must grow through the Facility, because all you can hear is the concrete breaking to pieces around you. He opens his hand when it’s safe, the others jumping off, while you carefully take your time, eyes adjusting to the situation in front of you.

Thanos is here. There’s a giant ship in the air off to the left, with the Chitauri and the Leviathan’s coming out of it. Just like they had eleven years ago when Loki came to New York.

On the right side, is where you find several armies coming together to help. The army from Wakanda, led by T’Challa, the Asgardians, following Valkyrie and sorcerers, preparing behind Wong. And more, ones you don’t recognize, coming through the portals.

With one hand over your side, you hobble out to solid ground, eyes on Thanos. Your upper lip begins to twitch into a snarl, but it’s more for the laughter that catches in your throat.

When you come to a stop, you level your breathing as much as possible. You’ve brought back large armies in the past, but those will compare nothing to what you’re able to do.

The dark energy comes through your feet, snaking its way up your legs. You roll your shoulders back, feeling it wrap around your chest, alleviating the pain in your abdomen enough for you to remove your hand.

“Let’s play.” You smile, swirling your hand in the air. At first slowly, but growing faster, rock trembling, Earth reacting to what you’re demanding.

A hole appears, ground caving in on itself, creating a pit with no visible bottom. You shuffle to stand over it, peering inside. A cold gust of air blows your wet hair out of your face, goosebumps covering your arms.

“Come to me.” You demand, “All of you.”

There’s whispering, and sounds of hissing overlapping each other from deep below. They grow louder as they rise to the top. At the sight of the first undead climbing the walls, you back up to give them room. This is a trick you’ve been practicing for years, hoping you’d get the chance to use it here.

“Got anything for us, (Y/n)?” You hear in your earpiece, it’s Tony.

“They’re coming.” You tell him. “And mine will make the others seem like a joke.”

They crawl out, coming to their feet, walking forward. At first, a few at a time, not wanting to overwhelm the area, or anything. Then they begin to come in crowds, eager to get out of where they’ve been hiding this entire time. You walk away, watching as they come out of every direction they can.

As the numbers multiply and grow, Steve steps forward. “Avengers!” He holds out his hand, Mjolnir flying to it. “Assemble.”

Thor shouts first, the armies following as they rush forward. Yours, not quite yet, waiting for a command. The fun thing about the dead is that there’s so many of them, people will never stop dying. Which means that when you send the ones standing off, more will continue. A never-ending supply.

“Kill them!” You shout, pointing at Thanos’s army.

This is when they move at a steady pace, not feeling the need to run. You stay where you stand, supervising the hole to ensure that a great amount comes from it, before you point straight down the middle.

“Come here, Arzorath.” The flow of dead stops to let this creature come out, five times the size of you, built like a monster. As soon as he’s out, the dead begin again. You grab his grey skin, looking up at him. “You stay here, and you make sure this doesn’t stop.”

He grunts, giving you a solid nod.

With that, you turn to walk into the fight, to the center, where Thanos is going to be. You should be afraid of walking through this crowd, but with the amount of undead that are spread throughout, they jump to protect you if any danger arises.

There’s explosions, the sounds of weapons clashing against one another. You see several laser beams shoot through the air to hit their target. There’s billows of black smoke, indicating several fires.

“Cap!” You hear Clint’s voice in your ear. “What do you want me to do with this damn thing?”

Steve grunts. “Get those stones as far away as possible!”

“No!” Bruce shouts. “We need to get ‘em back where they came from.”

“I made a promise to the Sorcerer Supreme that I’d get it back. I intend on keeping it.” You tell them.

“No way to get ‘em back. Thanos destroyed the quantum tunnel.” Tony says.

“Hold on!” You watch as Scott disappears, likely shrunken back to his regular size. “That wasn’t our only time machine.”

The sound of a horn playing Spanish music makes you turn your head.

“Anyone see an ugly brown van out there?” Steve asks.

“Yes! But you’re not gonna like where it’s parked!” Valkyrie shouts, she’s in the air, riding on a pegasus.

“Scott, how long you need to get that thing working?” Tony asks.

“Uh, maybe ten minutes.”

“Get it started. We’ll get the stones to you.” Steve says.

“We’re on it, Cap.” Hope says—Scott’s partner.

“Do you need me to clear a path for you?” You ask, “Because it won’t be that hard.”

“No, I can fly him there.” Hope tells you.

You continue through the battle, coming upon a patch where there is no one. You climb a pile of rocks, surveying the area to find Thanos, fighting Wanda. She’s got him stuck in the air, squeezing him with her magic.

That’s when the first blue light hits the ground, causing a blast, killing a dozen of your dead. It’s not only one, though, as more following, firing straight into the crowd without any prior aim. Thanos doesn’t care who he hits, as long as he doesn’t lose this fight.

You watch as the sorcerers cast shields, holding them above their heads, working together to cover a small part of the field. You don’t move for shelter, holding your stance. You glance over your shoulder to find Arzorath, still guarding the hole as you instructed him to.

“Help, somebody help!” Peter shouts.

“Hey, Queens, heads up!” Steve says back.

Mjolnir flies through the air, you can see it from where you are. You reach up, pressing the ear piece. “Anyone have eyes on Thanos?”

“He’s by the van!” Scott shouts back, “I need backup!”

You sigh out your nose, jumping down from the rocks, heading straight into the fight once again. “Arzorath!” You shout, looking over your shoulder. He raises his head. “More!”

He raises his arms, throwing them down as he grabs a chunk from the ground, ripping it out and throwing it into the crowd of Thanos’s troops. By widening the hole, it creates a bigger flow. In seconds, you see the difference, as they rush to follow you, and then past you to create a path.

The blasts from the sky become more frequent, like hail. At least half of the dead come to jump at you to protect you, bringing you to the ground. They hold you there, refusing to let you move, until it suddenly stops.

In the silence that comes after, you’re pulled to your feet. When you walk, they do too. The ship above suddenly changes its target, firing into the clouds in the distance.

“What the hell is this?” Sam asks.

It doesn’t matter, you’re able to make it halfway to the van by the time the object from the atmosphere finally makes an appearance, slamming directly through the spaceship, and coming out on the other side. It must destroy the inside, setting off explosions, as the blasters power down, and the ship begins to fall, heading for the lake.

The object in question is Carol, as she does a loop, and flies up through the bottom, coming out of the top. She lands somewhere in the field, presumably where the gauntlet must be, not too far away.

Your concern switches when Thanos’s army begins to run at you. For a moment, you think that it was a stupid choice to run out here this far. Then the sound of bones rattling, and the groaning begins behind you. You turn halfway, finding that your people have followed you all the way out here.

“Destroy them.” You say. With a layer of an undead shield in front of you, you continue forward, watching as Wanda flies past you, followed by some of the other girls. You throw your hand out, pointing their way. “They don’t get hurt!”

Valkyrie and Wanda work together to take down the two leviathans above, while you use Carol’s path of destruction as a way to get to the van faster. When the fire rises, smoke hovering like fog, you cover your mouth, refusing to slow down. But when you come out on the other side, you watch as Carol makes a dive for the van, only for Thanos’s weapon to hit the portal at the same time.

This causes a blast, throwing the weightless dead back. You fight to stay on your feet, leaning into the wind. The gauntlet glove goes flying, landing a few feet away. Thanos runs at it, causing you to jerk forward, too. Tony runs right into him, throwing him to the ground.

Thor lands, Stormbreaker glowing bright blue as he swings at Thanos. When he spins around, intending for a hard hit, Thanos grabs the handle, stopping him. He raises his free hand, and Mjolnir flies to it, acting as a block. Thor’s eyes are bright white, using the power of lightning. Steve runs up behind Thanos, jumping on his back.

Thanos headbutts Thor, reaching back to grab a hold of Steve, and somersaulting forward. When he lands on top, he punches Steve across the face, knocking him unconscious. He crawls the few feet to the glove, getting it in his hands, before Carol kicks the back of his knee, hitting his jaw,

When Thanos fights back, she dodges. She makes the mistake of trying to grab the glove, leaving an opening for Thanos to grab her. He twists, chucking her into the rock and rubble. Once again, reaching to put the gauntlet on his hand, this time succeeding.

Your stomach flies at the sight of the power coursing through his arm, as he raises his hand to snap his fingers. He almost does, until Carol gets her hand between, dragging him down to her height, trying to pull it off. He tries to punch her, but her power creates a shield that he can’t penetrate. When she flies above him, now pushing his hand toward his face, he reaches up, pulling the Power Stone free, and transferring it to his other hand.

She can’t catch herself in time, as he shouts, punching her away. She disappears, leaving a trail of kicked up dirt.

You find Tony, laying on his stomach, dirt and blood smeared across his skin. He’s not looking at you, but to a different part of the field. When you follow his gaze, you’re met with the sight of him.

It’s Stephen, in the same condition that all of you seem to be, too caught up in trying to hold the lake water at bay. Still, he manages to hold up his index finger, telling Tony one.

The confusion lasts less than a second, when you remember one of the last conversations you had together before Thanos showed up on Titan. Out of fourteen million timelines that he lived through, there was only one where you won.

You don’t want to take your eyes off of him, lips parted. The urge to call his name is on the tip of your tongue. He’s right there. He’s so close.

You’re forced to when Thanos puts the Power Stone back on the gauntlet.

You stomp your foot, hard, the dirt around you shakes. “Arzorath, come!” Pain slices through your wound at the sudden movement. “The rest of you, get him!”

They’re faster than you thought they’d be, adjusted to their worn down bodies. They begin to throw themselves at Thanos. In the beginning, he’s able to swing them off, but as the dead come out of the shadows, far through the field, the number is overwhelming. He’s just about to use the gauntlet to swing them away, when a black mist surrounds him. The screams of pain begin, as the poisonous cloud corrodes his skin.

Arzorath appears beside you, materializing out of the air. You cup your hands, watching as he dumps the stones into yours carelessly, since they have no real value to him.

The stones begin to slide over your palms without an order, adjusting to sit in their rightful places over your knuckles. You pull the Time Stone out, holding it in your free hand, not ready for the pain it’s about to inflict. You take a few deep breaths, releasing the power you hold over your army.

They fall into a useless heap of bones and rotten flesh. Thanos bursts out of it, raises his hand, still assuming the stones are on it. You look over, watching as Arzorath crumples to the ground, the life leaving him, too. You can’t afford to have any of them around. Not if you plan to do this.

“I am inevitable.” Thanos says, snapping his finger.

It doesn’t react, there is no flash of white light, the people don’t begin to fall, he fails.

You turn your head, meeting Tony’s eyes, which begin to widen when he realizes why Thanos’s snap didn’t work. “(Y/n), don’t!” He shouts. “You have Stephen! He’s here!”

“You have Morgan!” You tell him. “And I have something a lot nastier than just myself.”

Thanos’s head whips in your direction. You get down to your knees, to the ground, the same way you had to in the past. With the hand that isn’t holding the Time Stone, you press it into the dirt, leaning forward, pulling. You reach through, searching for that miserable monster that had come out four years ago when you’d done this.

This is your only chance—your only trick. It rests, slumbering, refusing to rise at your will. It isn’t until you give a little of yourself, what little dark energy you have left from conjuring so many of the dead, does it wake. And when you pull, it flies up at you, not slowing down.

You can hear Thanos running at you, shouting.

You open your eyes, slapping the Time Stone into its place on your knuckle. The energy that flows through you is different, brighter. This is not the same dark force that you’re used to. You’re able to feel the burning pain up your arm and stabbing into your neck, before it’s gone.

The beast travels through your feet and up your body, heading straight for your mouth. It sets you on fire inside, and you’re barely able to lift your hand in time to snap your fingers, when he takes over, doing it for you. You’re weightless, flying through the air, wind caressing your skin, cradling you like a newborn.

And then you hit the ground.

You roll several feet, arms blocking your face, until you stop on your back. You can see a leviathan coming right at you. And when you manage to finally get your eyes open after blinking, you find that it’s gone, nothing but dust in the wind. You let out a breath.

“(Y/n)!” Stephen’s voice is close, coming toward you.

The ground feels like it’s spinning under your body, creating a whirlpool, sucking you down with it. That would be nice, to join the ones that have kept you safe throughout this fight. Maybe you could give them a proper thank you.

There’s mechanical footsteps coming your way, when you look over, it’s Tony. His mouth is open, hands reaching for you. He’s cut off by someone else, dropping to their knees beside you.

It’s Stephen, your Stephen, as he pulls you into an upright position by your shoulders. You let out a cry, abdomen screaming in reaction. He’s got your face pulled against his chest, one arm across the back of your shoulders to keep you from moving.

“(Y/n), stay with me.” He tells you. “Stark—!”

You can’t see much through the haze, like a film over your eyes. But with Stephen’s face so close to yours, it doesn’t even matter. You throw your head back to get a proper look at him, something you’ve been waiting to do for five years. Of course, there’s a mess across his skin, a few strands of hair out of place.

You reach up with the hand that doesn’t have the stones, wiping a patch of blood away. “I’m fine.” You murmur, eyelids drooping. You begin to fall back, but Stephen catches you, pulling you back against his chest.

When you shakily breathe in, you’re hit with his cologne, a smell you’d thought you’d lost forever. You wrap your fingers around his blue robes, staring at the side of his face.

“What can we do?” He demands.

Stephen’s so beautiful, even in a state like this, especially when he’s angry. You remember that being the first thing you thought about him when he stepped out of his car, the second time he almost hit you. He’s handsome, and he’s yours, in front of you. He hasn’t aged a day. Still as perfect as he was the day he was taken from you.

“I’m okay.” You whisper, but your voice is drowned out by Friday, listing your vitals out loud.

You’re so, so tired.

Stephen jerks you, your eyes fly open. “Don’t close your eyes, (Y/n). You have to stay with me.”

You hum, trying to listen. The worried look on his face has only deepened since learning about your heart rate and blood pressure. You think you can hear Tony making suggestions, all of which Stephen shuts down.

“I just…” You close your eyes, wanting to rest. As you settle, ignoring Stephen’s demands for you to stay awake, a voice from below calls.

Brace yourself.

All you can do is twitch your eyebrows, before a sharp gasp comes through your mouth, eyes opening. Your hand grips at his robes, knuckles turning pale to keep him from going anywhere. The energy resurfaces, bouncing to your temples, a headache slams in after.

You grit your teeth, toes curled as the needles press into every inch of your skin, reminding you that you’re alive. Telling you that you’re not allowed to die. Stephen’s hand is cupping your face, leaning over you.

“I told you;” You breathe carefully, feeling it begin to subside, “I’m fine.”

Stephen smashes his lips into yours, rough and demanding. He holds you there for a long minute, feeling you on him, until he decides when to pull away. You touch the side of his face, a light laugh escaping you.

“I missed you.” You tell him, tears in your eyes. “I can’t live without you.”

“So this is what you do?” He asks, bewildered. “You sacrifice yourself?”

“It’s been a rough five years.” You sniff, reaching over to pluck the stones from your suit. “But this is what had to be done, right?”

“Right.” He says, voice sad, getting to his feet. He helps you up, and catches you when you stumble a step. When you take one toward Tony, he shakes his head. “Are you sure…?”

“Yeah.” You mumble, pulling his hand up to give him the stones. “Here.”

Tony’s standing a foot or two away, staring at you. When you stop, slightly hunched over, he closes his eyes. “You’ve got to be the dumbest person on our team. I could’ve done that.”

“And survived?” You ask.

He doesn’t say anything at first, “Probably not, but it would’ve been more thought out than that.”

“You’re telling me that wasn’t thought out?” You ask, looking back at Stephen. A smile appears on your face first, and when you begin to laugh, you have to force yourself to stop. “I think that went pretty fuckin’ well, don’t you?”

“I would’ve changed a few things.” Stephen comes over to you, “But you’re right.”

“You shouldn’t have…” Tony’s shaking his head, eyes drifting away.

“You saved my life, remember?” You ask him, voice wavering, “That day I told you I was working on a different way to bring them back? I owe you for that.”

“You didn’t.”

“I never—not even in my nightmares—would have let you take the Infinity Stones. Even if it meant that it killed me.” You press your finger to his chest. “We’re even.”

“We always have been.” He tells you.

Stephen reaches to grab you when you sway, not being able to stabilize yourself. “Let’s sit down, (Y/n).”

“Sure.” You don’t resist, letting him lead you to a slab of concrete that’s flat enough to sit down. When you do, the aches in your body leave, you take in a deep breath. “Stephen?”

“Yes, my love?” His eyes are already on you.

You take his hand, lacing his fingers with yours. “I love you.”

He smiles, tilting his head slightly. “I love you too, (Y/n).”

#ilguna #stephen strange imagine #stephen strange oneshot #stephen strange x reader #stephen strange fanfic #stephen strange x you #strephen strange x yn #stephen strange x y/n #doctor strange imagine #doctor strange oneshot #doctor strange x reader #doctor strange fanfic #doctor strange x you #doctor strange x yn #doctor strange x y/n #marvel #angst #fluff

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ilguna · 6 months

Note

Hi how about expired medicine number 83 with doctor strange? pls 💛

☼ when the dead rise pt1 (Stephen Strange) ☼

warnings; swearing, a lot of mention of death, actual death, ehh gore, injuries, use of weapons.

wc; 14.8k

prompt; 83. "Did you really have to be that honest?"

notes; the entire imagine is an infinity war spoiler. all of it. with some stephen sprinkled in, some angst, and very little tony slander (blink and you'll miss it). sorry not sorry.

—

“Seriously, you don’t have any money?” Stephen asks Wong, beginning to go down the steps.

“Attachment to the material is detachment from the spiritual.” Wong replies, following behind the two of you.

“I’ll tell the guys at the deli. Maybe they’ll make you a metaphysical ham on rye.” Stephen muses, you let out a light laugh.

“Oh, wait, wait wait. I think I have two-hundred.”

“Dollars?” You ask, as you stop on the step to look at him.

“Rupees.” He smiles.

“Which is?” Stephen asks, not bothering to turn around.

“Uh, buck and a half.”

Stephen sighs, “What do you want?”

Wong claps his hands together, you let him pass you on the steps, before starting down them again. “I wouldn’t say no to a tuna melt.”

A blinding light comes from the sunroof, shaking the whole building, and slamming straight through the ceiling. A flurry of wooden splinters and marble go flying through the air, as you’re taken with the mass. The debris creates a hazy smog, which coats your throat in a few breaths.

“(Y/n)?” Stephen’s tone is alarmed.

“I’m alive.” You cough, wiping the dusty film from your face.

When you turn your head to see what came crashing through the ceiling, you’re met with a green leg. It makes you jump slightly, as you jerk away from the person. It isn’t until you’ve made it to his face, do you realize there’s nothing to worry about.

It’s Bruce.

His skin is returning back to its regular pigment. He pants beside you, hand reaching out to grab your forearm. Out of the corner of your eye, you can see Stephen and Wong peeking over the hole in the stairs, both on high alert.

“Thanos is coming.” Bruce’s voice is still mixed with Hulks. On his next breath, it sounds more like him. “He’s coming.”

Stephen and Wong share a look, “Who?”

You pull your arm from Bruce, pushing to get to your feet. There’s a few aches that sprout, caused from you landing so aggressively. Wong creates an opening for you to walk through so they don’t have to pull you out of the hole in the staircase. On the other side, standing in the middle of the foyer, you begin to brush the dust off. It seems to be never ending.

“I need clothes.” Bruce says, “Or pants, at the very least.”

You rake your fingers through your hair, watching the dirt rain down around your head like a thin curtain. Wong walks away briefly, coming back with a change of clothes. He drops it into the hole, backing away to allow him to change in privacy.

“The whole planet is in danger.” Bruce says, “Thanos—he’s collecting these crystals that allow him to manipulate different things.” He pauses, you can barely see him pull the shirt over his head. “We’re next, he’s coming here to get more. And when he’s done, he’ll wipe out half of the population.”

Your eyes snap to Stephen, and find that his eyes are already on you, watching. A ticklish feeling crosses over your palms, as a different creeping feeling crawls up your spine and to the base of your neck, goosebumps covering your arms. As if your body is excited by the idea of it.

You aren’t. The thought of billions on your planet dying sends a pain through your heart. With a closed fist, you rub your chest, shaking your head at your boyfriend. This is not the time to be gauging your reaction. You can’t control it, as much as you wish you could.

“We need Tony.” Bruce says, “Tony Stark?”

Stephen raises his eyebrows. “Can we trust him?”

You tilt your head at him. “It’s Bruce, of course we can.”

While Wong begins the process of locating where Tony is at the moment, you and Stephen leave to change. Coincidentally, the suit you have was made for you by Tony, back when you had initially agreed to be an Avenger.

At the time, it was funny, because all these stipulations came with having it. To him, you were still a stranger, but he knew you were trustworthy. As much as he didn’t want to admit it at the time, it was hard for him not to think that. Especially since you were just a bystander the day Loki came to earth to wreak havoc.

You’d spent your entire life running away from problems that you couldn’t overcome or get away from, no matter how hard you tried. But as you watched those ships come through the portal, for the first time, your body had the opposite reaction of what it was used to doing.

In street clothes, with barely any practice with the ability you’d recently discovered—you helped the heroes that were risking their lives to save yours. You threw yourself into that fight, despite knowing full well there was a chance you’d get killed for it.

When Tony finally noticed what you were doing, and got over the initial panic of thinking you were Loki’s accomplice, he gave you an area to protect. Which doubled in size when he saw the impact you were causing. And when it was all said and done, he offered to help you.

You turned him down, out of fear of what the public would actually think when they saw you in action. Of course, you and your ability to bring people back from the dead was smeared across national television, painting you in a good light. That was in connection with the Avengers, though. You couldn’t stand the idea of what they’d say when you were on your own.

You got over it a few months later. You thought Tony would hold your first choice over your head, but he hasn’t mentioned it after all these years. Even though Tony can be an ass at times, you appreciate what he’s done for you.

The suit fits like a glove, despite not wearing it as frequently as you used to. You stopped right around the time Steve and Tony had their fight. The Avengers team crumbled after that, and you didn’t see a need to wear it anymore. Not with how peaceful it is.

Or rather, was.

You join the others back in the foyer, where you find Tony sitting on a couch with his hand over his mouth. At the sound of your approach, he looks over, eyes locking on the suit for a long moment, seemingly surprised that you’re wearing it, before giving you a half-smile.

“(Y/n).”

“Hey, Tony.” You cross your arms. “How’s Pepper?”

“She’s good.”

Stephen clears his throat, you turn to see him standing with Wong and Bruce a few feet away. You tilt your head, wandering to stand next to the staircase railing. “Go ahead.”

“At the dawn of the universe, there was nothing.” Wong begins. “Then…” An explosion of stars appears in the air, creating a galaxy that surrounds you. “Boom. The Big Bang sent six elemental crystals hurtling across the virgin universe. These Infinity Stones each control an essential aspect of existence.”

“Space.” Stephen says, as the floating blue crystal begins to glow, moving off to the side. “Reality.” This stone is a bright red “Power.” A purple stone shines. “Soul.” The orange one sizzles. “Mind.” As the yellow one reflects the light. “And Time.” Stephen finishes, adjusting the necklace that rests against his chest.

He touches it, bending his fingers as he pulls his hands away from each other. This unlocks the restrictions briefly, letting the shimmering green stone breathe.

“Tell me his name again.” Tony says.

“Thanos.” Bruce begins to walk toward him. “He’s a plague, Tony. He invades planets. He takes what he wants.” Tony has gotten to his feet, meeting Bruce in the middle. “He wipes out half the population. He sent Loki. The attack on New York, that’s him.”

The same creeping feeling comes back, something bubbling beneath your skin. Your face twists, “What?”

“This is it.” Tony takes a step back to walk around the room. “What’s our timeline?”

“No telling. He has the Power and Space Stones.” Bruce is following him. “That already makes him the strongest creature in the whole universe. If he gets his hands on all six stones, Tony…”

“He could destroy life on a scale hitherto undreamt of.” Stephen says.

You walk to join the circle that’s formed on the other side of the staircase.

“Did you seriously just say ‘hitherto undreamt of’?” Tony asks.

“Are you seriously leaning on the Cauldron of the Cosmos?” Stephen shoots back.

“Is that what it is?” Tony asks, bending his leg back to stretch it, Stephen’s cloak slaps him. You cringe, because you know that wasn’t a move most people would make. “I’m going to allow that.” He stares at Stephen wordlessly, and then takes a breath. “If Thanos needs all six, why don’t we just stick this one down a garbage disposal?”

“No can do.” Stephen shakes his head.

“We swore an oath to protect the Time Stone with our lives.” Wong tells him.

“And I swore off dairy but then Ben & Jerry’s named a flavor after me, so—”

“Stark Raving Hazelnuts.” You laugh, playing with a piece of wood with your shoe.

“It’s not bad.” Tony looks in your direction.

“A bit chalky.” Stephen says.

“A Hunk of Hulk of Burning Fudge is our favorite.” Wong says.

“That’s a thing?” Bruce’s face is twisted, looking between you.

“Whatever.” Tony says. “Point is, things change.”

“Our oath to protect the Time Stone cannot change. And this stone may be the best chance we have against Thanos.” Stephen tells him.

“Yeah, so conversely, it may also be his best chance against us.”

“Well, if we don’t do our jobs.” Stephen doesn’t budge, and he’s not going to.

Tony turns to face him fully. “What is your job exactly? Besides making balloon animals.”

“Protecting your reality, douchebag.”

You press your lips together, rubbing your forehead. Bruce interjects. “Okay, guys. Could we table this discussion right now? The fact is we have this stone.” he holds his hand out in Stephen’s direction. “We know where it is. Vision is out there somewhere with the Mind Stone and we have to find him now.”

“Yeah, that’s the thing.” Tony mutters, looking away.

“What do you mean?”

“Two weeks ago, Vision turned off his transponder. He’s offline.” Tony shrugs.

“What?”

“Yeah.” He begins to walk away again, you share a look with Stephen.

“These used to be your people?” He asks, “You followed him?”

You wave him off. “We work better in the moment.”

“Tony, you lost another super-bot?” Bruce asks.

“I didn’t lose him. He’s more than that. He’s evolving.” Tony glances over his shoulder.

“Who could find Vision then?” Stephen asks.

Tony’s silent, you let out a sigh. “Probably Steve Rogers. Right, Tony?”

“Oh, great.” Stephen turns away.

“Maybe.” Tony agrees, sighing. “But…”

“Call him.” Bruce says.

“It’s not that easy.” Tony faces Bruce. “God, we haven’t caught up in a spell, have we? The Avengers broke up, we’re toast.”

“Broke up?” Bruce repeats. “Like a band. Like—like the Beatles?”

“Cap and I fell out hard.” Tony shakes his head. “We’re not on speaking terms.”

“Tony, listen to me.” Bruce says, stepping closer. “Thor’s gone. Thanos is coming. It doesn’t matter who you’re talking to or not.”

Tony looks away, sighing. He walks a few feet away, reaching into his pocket to pull out his phone. After he flips it open, he scrolls through to find Steve’s number, staring at it.

He then lifts his head, staring at the wall in front of him. At the same time, you can feel the ground rumbling through your shoes. You reach to grab Stephen, hand closing around the sleeve of his suit. The vases and lamps begin to shake, clinking against the surface they’re resting on.

The five of you stand quietly, listening to the distant noise, until Tony turns around. “Say, Doc, you wouldn’t happen to be moving your hair, would you?”

You look at Stephen to see what Tony means, finding one of the strands that refuses to stay put, wiggling against his forehead. As if a breeze is constantly moving through his hair.

“Not at the moment, no.”

The sound is getting louder, Tony looks up through the hole in the ceiling where Bruce had come from. Your attention is turned to the door, where one person runs by, then two. And they don’t look like they’re jogging.

A dreadful feeling washes over your body as you follow Tony to the door. The closer you get, the louder the screaming is. He swings it open, stepping out onto the sidewalk. You follow him with crossed arms, looking in the direction of where everyone is running away from.

There’s traffic down the street, people are getting out of cars to abandon their vehicles to run away from the danger. A strong gust of air blows through, pulling abandoned papers and leaves with them. You dodge several people to keep up with Tony’s speed.

The police sirens are getting louder, but they’re likely not coming in this direction. You watch as a silver car drives straight into a light pole. Tony points at it, “Help him!”

“Banner!” Wong calls.

“Wong, look alive!”

“Go, go! We got it!” Bruce waves you on.

Tony reaches into his shirt to pull out his tech glasses. “Friday, what am I looking at?”

You stop for a second, allowing Stephen to catch up. He reaches to touch your back, guiding you forward with him.

“I don’t want you to worry about me out here.” You tell him.

“I’ll keep you safe.” He says.

“No, I can do that myself.” You press your finger into his chest. “You worry about you.”

Tony turns around. “Hey! You might wanna put that Time Stone in your back pocket, Doc!”

“Might wanna use it.” He says, magic surrounding his forearm.

Tony peeks around the corner, pulling his head back when a red blanket whips through the air, being blown away. He begins to walk out into the open, and when it’s your turn to see what’s causing the chaos, you swallow.

A giant spaceship in the shape of a ring is down the street to the left. It’s hovering in the air, giving off an electrical buzz. From what you can see, there’s no alien life near it, meaning they must be inside, or they’ve left it behind.

“Friday, evac anyone south of 43rd Street. Notify first responders.”

Stephen moves his hands, working up the magic before he shoves his palms out, sending a blast of air back at the ship. In the silence that settles, you can hear the sirens in the distance. It’s much easier to walk through the street without the wind resistance.

As you grow closer to the ship, a beam of blue light shines down onto the street, two alien beings appearing at the bottom. The one on the left being about the same size as Hulk, dressed in armor with a giant scythe, you believe. While the creature on the right is half the others’ size, fingers pressed together.

Tony’s pace slows the closer you get, leaving four car distances between you and the aliens.

“Hear me and rejoice.” The one on the right begins. Tony crosses his arms. “You are about to die at the hands of the Children of Thanos.”

The giant one says something, lifting his weapon to hold with both hands, revealing that it’s a pickaxe.

“Be thankful that your meaningless lives are now contributing—”

“I’m sorry, Earth is closed today.” Tony cuts him off. “You better pack it up and get outta here.”

“Stonekeeper.” The creature says, eyes on Stephen. “Does this chattering animal speak for you?”

“Certainly not. I speak for myself.” He says, walking forward, moving his hands to show off his magic. “You’re trespassing in this city and on this planet.” Wong does the same behind you.

“He means get lost, Squidward.” Tony says.

“He exhausts me.” The noseless creature says. The tall one responds in the same foreign language. “Bring me the stone.”

“Banner, you want a piece?” Tony asks.

Bruce hums, “No, not really. But when do I ever get what I want?” He claps his hands together, rubbing.

“That’s right.”

“Okay. Push!” He grunts, his skin turning green up until his neck.

“It’s been a while.” Tony says. “It’s gonna be good to have you, buddy.”

“Okay, shh.” He hushes him. “Let me just… I need to concentrate here for a second. Come on, come on, man.”

The tall alien slams its weapon into one of the cars that’re parked on the side of the street.

“Where’s your guy?” Tony asks.

Bruce sighs, “I don’t know. We’ve sorta been having a thing.”

“It’s no time for a thing.” Tony touches his shoulder.

“I know.”

Tony points to the creature. “That’s the thing right there. Let’s go.”

It’s drawing closer with each step. Bruce begins to grunt, his voice changing, green spreading up to his lips. Stephen turns to look between you and Tony, you close your eyes.

“Dude, you’re embarrassing me in front of the wizards.”

“Tony, I’m sorry.” Bruce whispers. “Either I can’t or he won’t.”

“It’s okay.” He pushes Bruce away to stand with Wong. “Hey, stand down.” He looks at Wong. “Keep an eye on him. Thank you.”

“I have him.”

“Damn it.” Bruce mutters.

The creature jogs toward you, letting out a deep roar. Tony pulls on the strings of his track jacket, tapping the arc reactor in his chest twice. Almost out of thin air, his suit begins to crawl over his body efficiently. By the time the creature and him are face to face, he’s in his suit completely.

Tony uses a shield, falling into a kneeling position when he takes the hit. He then stands, swinging at the creature’s face, landing the punch.

As the alien recovers, you watch as the nanotech springs out of his back when he holds his arms out straight, creating four extra blasters that aid him in sending the alien down the street. The shorter one waves his hand, directing his friend to slam into several cars, instead of hitting him.

The blasters merge back into the suit.

“Where’d that come from?” Bruce asks.

“It’s nanotech. You like it? It’s a little something I—”

Tony skyrockets, leaving a trail of dirt behind him as he flies into the air. The alien raises his other hand, uprooting two trees on either side of the street, flicking his hand forward. Wong jumps in front of you, Stephen and Bruce to create a shield.

“Doctor Banner, if the rest of your green friend won’t be joining us—” He creates a portal, Bruce falls through it. The alien throws half of a taxi in your direction, which makes it through the portal before it’s sealed.

Stephen and Wong move in sync, preparing another cast to stop the car that’s coming in your direction. Tony flies through the middle, forcing it back in the direction of the alien. He simply lifts his hand, unbothered, and it’s sliced in half, narrowly missing him, crashing onto the street behind.

“Gotta get that stone outta here, now.” Tony says.

“It stays with me.” Stephen emphasizes.

“Exactly. Bye.” Tony says, before turning to the alien and beginning to fly at him. At first, it’s slow, as he dodges several pillars that the alien knocks down to squish him.

He then picks up speed, but the large alien has recovered, throwing a new weapon, a hammer. The handle extends like a chain, plowing Tony down the street, through a building, and into the park where Stephen had gotten him from.

The alien retracts the chain, and begins to chase after where Tony had gone, running straight into the building without slowing down. You press your lips together, eyes landing on the shorter creature. He raises his hands, palms up, pulling out a dozen bricks that line the streets.

When he twists his hands, the bricks crumble into spikes, which he sends flying in your direction. Stephen creates another portal, allowing the brick to go in. While Wong creates another, sending it out, back in the alien’s direction. He lifts a car to block his own creation, but he’s still nicked.

He breaks a fire hydrant, knocking Wong away. Stephen uses a lasso, getting it around the alien, and pulling him in your guys’ direction. You twist out of the way, right as they slam into each other, flying into a building.

You stumble over to Wong, kneeling next to him. He’s breathing, there’s blood trickling from his temple, where he hit his head. When you look up at Stephen, you can see that the alien has him trapped against the wall using bricks to hold him still.

The alien reaches to grab the Time Stone, but jerks away suddenly. He then throws Stephen onto the street, several feet away from you. You jump to your feet to help him when you see rope sprout from the ground to restrict his hands.

“(Y/n), don’t—!” He shouts.

A car sideswipes you, hard. It slams into the left of your body, knocking you into the car on your right. You can feel the pain blossoming in your ribs from the impact, as you shakily press a hand over the area.

The rope is constricting around Stephen, growing tighter by the second as it wraps around his legs, his torso, and around his neck. The alien makes a fist, the rope stiffens, Stephen lets out a grunt.

“Stop!” You shout.

“You’ll find removing a dead man’s spell troublesome.” Stephen manages to get out.

“You’ll only wish you were dead.”

The coil around Stephen’s neck tightens for the final time, you watch as his eyes roll back. He falls, unconscious, bouncing off the cop car and landing on the asphalt. You jerk forward, but the alien flattens you against the car.

He takes a small chunk of the road out using one hand, turning his back to float away with your boyfriend. It doesn’t work longer for a second, the Cloak of Levitation wraps around Stephen’s body, rocketing off and down the street.

“No!” The alien shouts, and then his eyes land on you.

You adjust to sit on your knees, lacing your fingers, and then slamming your hands into the asphalt, refusing to break eye contact with the alien. A tremor goes through the ground, a blast of hot air following. Car alarms begin to go off in response.

“Rise!” You demand.

The ground begins to shake, rocking you back and forth. You have to place your palms on the ground to keep from getting knocked over. One by one, a collection of species of the dead begin to rise out of the ground, breaking the street into pieces. Usually, you try not to do this in cities because of the construction it takes to repair the damage you made.

Right now, you have no choice.

Humans and aliens alike get to their feet, in varying stages of decay. Some are missing limbs, others have jaws barely holding on, with skin sagging so bad that you can see the muscle underneath. It starts with a simple dozen, but the numbers multiply, until every last dead person in the area is out of the ground.

You get to your feet, leaning against the car. “Kill him.”

At once, they rush forward to attack. You turn around, running in the opposite direction, where the cloak is taking Stephen. You can hear the undead army roaring behind you, as they work together to reach the alien that’s hovering over the ground.

You take a shortcut through the thin, white building that Tony and the larger alien had gone through. From what you can see, Tony is still in the park, fighting him. There’s a blur of red and a hint of blue swinging away.

“You brought the kid into this?” You shout, crossing the street.

“I didn’t call him here!” Tony defends.

Already, you can feel your army growing weaker, meaning that the dead you’d conjured aren’t the strongest. You suck in a breath, and release, feeling the dark energy leave you to allow the bodies to fall. They were more of a distraction to allow you to leave without getting hurt.

You watch as Tony shoots at the alien haphazardly, flying away to dodge his attacks with the hammer. Tony disappears behind the statue in the park, causing the alien to swing at the concrete, destroying it. When Tony gets in too close, the alien secures an electric robotic hand around Tony, throwing him to the ground.

He leaves a path in the grass, trapped and unable to move.

“Are you going to help or not?” Tony’s voice is strained.

“I’m no help, here!” You tell him.

The alien charges in Tony’s direction, a large blade flinging out from his armor. As he jumps, going to stab Tony through the chest, a portal appears. The alien lands on the other side, you jog up behind Wong and Bruce to see that it’s the arctic, lots of snow. He turns around suddenly, jumping in your direction to come back through.

Only his hand makes it out, as Wong closes the portal. The severed hand rolls to a stop at Bruce’s feet, skin sizzling. Bruce kicks it, “Ugh.”

“Wong, you’re invited to my wedding.” Tony says, prying the bars off of his suit. “(Y/n), do you have your mask?”

You nod, reaching through the front of your suit, where the mask is tucked into a pocket on the inside. You pull it out, yanking it over your face. Tony bends his knees, allowing you to line up behind him, wrapping your arm around his neck. The stickiness of your gloves comes into contact with his suit, securing you there.

“Ready?” He asks.

“Let’s go.” You tell him.

He places his hands at his sides, and the two of you shoot off, up into the sky. You can feel the tough wind through your suit, but it’s not bad enough to complain about. You tilt your head back slightly to see the alien ship, presumably where Peter and Stephen had been sucked in to.

“I think it’s time for you to get a new suit.” Tony says, you can hear him in your ear.

“It’s a shame I didn’t keep in contact.”

“That doesn’t matter.” He says. “Friday, unlock 19-C. And give me a little juice.”

You press your face against the back of his neck, and you fly through the air faster to get to the spaceship. If it weren’t for your gloves, you’d be falling to the ground right now, thinking about how you’d be dead in a few seconds.

“Unlock 17-A.” Tony says.

The ship is flying out of the atmosphere, straight into space.

“Pete, you gotta let go. I’m gonna catch you.” Tony says, talking to Peter. You suck in short breaths through your nose, “We’re too high up. You’re running out of air.” He then turns his head slightly. “(Y/n), let go.”

“I want to get on that ship.” You gasp.

“You’ll be right behind me.” Tony says.

You pull your hand off of his chest, anxiety rising in your stomach. You have to tell yourself that Tony would never kill you. He wouldn’t send a suit up here if he knew there was a chance it’d malfunction and get you killed.

You take another breath, and let go, watching as Tony flies away. A scream rises in your throat as you begin to kick your legs and wave your arms, desperate for something to hold on to.

There’s a sudden impact in the middle of your back, as you feel a cool sensation begin to cover your body. The moment the nanotech covers your face, you take a breath, finally able to breathe real air.

“Are you with me?” Tony asks.

The new suit covers the last spot on your thigh. “I’m in.”

“Friday, keep Gloom with me!”

You fly forward, the suit following after Tony on its own. Just by looking around on the inside, there’s a lot of technology that was put into the suit. He must’ve really evolved his engineering, because this is impressive.

“Mr. Stark, it smells like a new car in here!” You can hear Peter.

“Happy trails, kid.” Tony says. “Friday, send him home.”

A parachute springs out of Peter’s back, pulling him back. A little bit of relief goes through you, because there’s no reason why he should be up here. Your suit whizzes past him, coming to idle by Tony as he cuts a hole through the metal of the ship. When he gets it open, he allows you to crawl in first before following.

You take a few steps in, the nanotech disappearing from your face, stopping at your neck. You watch as the ship's machines extend and flex, blue electricity moving off a giant disk above you.

Tony sighs. “Yeah.”

You glance over to see his head is turned away.

“Honey, I’m sorry. I’m sorry, I don’t know what to say.” He says, glancing at you. “Pep?” The connection must be lost, because he shakes his head.

“So, what’s the plan?” You ask, crossing your arms over your chest.

“Let’s find your boyfriend then we’ll work from there.” Tony says, walking away. “Speaking of which—an interesting choice. How did the two of you meet?”

You smile, and then laugh slightly. “He almost hit me with his car, twice in the same day.”

“And you thought dating him was a good idea?” Tony looks back at you.

You shrug. “He made it up to me. And since, all he ever does is protect me. I owe him my life.”

He stops briefly, “What happened to the kickass (Y/n)?”

You place a hand on his shoulder. “She’s been hibernating, but with all this talk about death…” You trail off. “Trust me, Tony, she’s still here.”

“You’re sick.”

“And so are you.” You tell him.

The two of you go through the long hallway and through a door. With the ship being shaped like a large donut, it’s a confusing walk that Tony has to lead. He manages to bring you to a platform, four stories above where the alien is holding Stephen captive.

You lean over the side, hands drawing into fists when you hear Stephen grunt in pain. The alien seems to be manipulating clear shards to press into his skin, to force him to give up the Time Stone.

The Cloak suddenly appears, tapping Tony’s arm. He jerks, hand ready to blast the fabric. “Wow, you’re a seriously loyal piece of outerwear, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, uh, speaking of loyalty…”

You jump at the sound of Peter’s voice, turning in time to see him land on the platform.

“What the—”

“I know what you’re gonna say.” He puts his hands out.

“You should not be here.” Tony says.

“I was gonna go home.” Peter tries.

“I don’t wanna hear it.”

“But it was such a long way down and I just thought about you on the way.”

“And now I gotta hear it.” Tony sighs, shaking his head.

Peter raises his shoulders, “And I kinda stuck to the side of the ship. And this suit is ridiculously intuitive, by the way.”

Tony looks at you. “God damn it.”

You make a face at him. “You were the one that told him to chase after Stephen.”

“So, if anything, it’s kinda your fault that I’m here.” Peter says with a smile.

Tony glares at him. “What did you just say?”

Peter realizes his mistake, stuttering, “I-I take that back. And now, I’m here in space.”

Tony steps forward. “Yeah, right where I didn’t want you to be.” He stops in front of Peter. “This isn’t Coney Island. This isn’t a field trip. This is a one-way ticket. You hear me? Don’t pretend you thought this through.”

“No, I did think this through.”

“You could not have possibly thought this through.”

Peter motions, “You can’t be a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man if there is no neighborhood.” Peter tells him, Tony stares blankly. “Okay, that didn’t really make sense, but you know what I’m trying to say.”

Tony takes in a breath, letting it out shakily. “Come on. We got a situation.”

Peter nods, glancing at you, “Hi, Miss (L/n).”

“Hey, Peter.” You smile, following Tony to stand on the edge of the platform.

“See him down there?” Tony asks, Peter peers over the side. “He’s trouble. What’s your plan? Go.”

Peter crouches, “Um…” there’s a brief pause. “Okay, okay, uh…” He stands up. “Okay. Did you ever see this really old movie, Aliens?”

You let out a snort, but when Tony looks at you, you cover your mouth. You try to swallow the laughter that wants to escape you, it doesn’t work. “So what does that make you, Tony, a dinosaur?”

He glares at you. “Not funny.”

“What’s the matter?” Peter asks, glancing between you two.

“Nothing, kid. Good work.” Tony tells him. “I’ll go down there and blast a hole in the ship. (Y/n), the suit will keep you from flying out, Peter I want you to grab the wizard. Assume position.”

You crouch on the platform, hand locking around the pillar to act as support. Peter crawls away to get on the ceiling, while the Cloak stays near you, waiting for Tony. It’s a shame you’re not able to do more, your abilities limit you in situations like these. Even if people have died on this spaceship, you wouldn’t be able to resurrect them the same way. And even if you could, there’s no dark pull. You have to have a connection, first.

Stephen lets out a scream, as the shards press further into his skin when the alien moves his hand. You grit your teeth.

Tony jumps down a second later, landing behind the alien on the strip, powering up his suit.

“Could end your friend’s life in an instant.” The alien says, loud enough for you to hear.

“I gotta tell you, he’s not really my friend. Saving his life is more of a professional courtesy.”

The alien lifts a hand, a chunk of metal sliding out of the spaceship, as he walks in Tony’s direction. “You’ve saved nothing.” He lifts his other hand, beckoning another piece of metal. “Your powers are inconsequential compared to mine.”

“Yeah, but the kid’s seen more movies.” Tony says.

You watch as Tony blasts a hole open on the far side of the ship. Immediately, the metal and the alien is sucked out into space, creating a blackhole for everything else that’s free-standing in the ship, including Stephen.

“No!” You shout.

The Cloak secures around one of his hands, but the pull is too strong. Stephen slips out, getting closer. Peter jumps from where he’s been sitting, a web shooting at Stephen to grab him. It secures, and when he tries to grab a metal pole inside of the ship, it snaps off.

You watch in horror as Stephen leaves the inside of the ship. Peter’s about to fly out behind him, when mechanical legs pop out from his back, stretching the length of the hole. The legs dip momentarily, before jumping back, pulling Peter and Stephen inside.

Tony works fast to block up the hole with metal, you jump from the top of the platform, landing harshly next to Stephen. He’s on his side, letting out a groan.

“Stephen,” You murmur, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Hey.”

He looks up at you, letting out a breath of relief. He grabs your hand, squeezing tightly. “You’re okay?”

Your eyebrows draw in, “I’m fine.”

He nods, twisting to sit up. You turn his head so that you can get a better look at his face, fingertips brushing against where the shards had touched his skin. You can’t even tell they were inside. The blood that is on his face is from being thrown away a few seconds ago.

“You have to be more careful, especially since they’re after you.”

Tony walks by, his suit disappearing.

“That’s why we gotta turn this ship around.” Stephen agrees, pushing to stand. You help him up.

“Yeah, now he wants to run. Great plan.” Tony says.

The Cloak of Levitation drapes itself over Stephen’s shoulders. You straighten it, walking behind him to follow after Tony. “No, I want to protect the stone.”

“And I want you to thank me.” Tony stops at the front of the ship, presumably. Except, there is no control panel, just a giant warped mess that allows you to see into the stars. And two giant mechanical arms with a singular place on both sides where you can stick your arm inside of to navigate it. “No, go ahead. I’m listening.”

“For what? Nearly blasting me into space?”

“Stephen.” You warn, “We can’t really fight in here.”

“Who just saved your magical ass? Me.” Tony turns around.

“I seriously don’t know how you fit your head into that helmet.”

“Admit it, you should’ve ducked out when I told you to. I tried to bench you. You refused.” Tony says.

Stephen’s face twists. “Unlike everyone else in your life, I don’t work for you.” He glances at you, you turn your head to look at him, eyebrows raised.

“And due to that fact, we’re now in a flying doughnut, billions of miles from Earth with no backup.”

“I’m backup.” Peter says from behind you, raising his hand.

“No, you’re a stowaway. The adults are talking.” He motions between the three of you.

“I’m sorry, I’m confused as to the relationship here.” He motions at Peter. “What is he, your ward?”

“No.” Peter says, offering his hand. “I’m Peter, by the way.”

“Doctor Strange.” Stephen says.

Peter drops his hand. “Oh, you’re using our made-up names. Um… I’m Spider-Man, then.”

Stephen looks at you, completely unamused. “(Y/n), we should go back to Earth.”

“I’m not arguing with you.” You tell him. “In fact, if Thanos is going to go to Earth to kill half of our population, I say our best bet is to be down there.”

Tony scoffs. “You mean your best bet?” Stephen’s head snaps in his direction, your eyes narrow. “So you’ll be able to use the dead for your own personal army? By then it’ll be too late.”

“I don’t want billions of people to die, Tony.” You hiss. “For you to suggest that is a little offensive, don’t you think? I gain nothing from that.”

Tony tilts his head.

That’s enough for you, jaw tightening, body feeling as if it’s been submerged in hot, bubbling oil. You start toward him, hands in fists at your sides. You could take deep breaths to calm down, but you think hitting him might make you feel better instead.

He doesn’t have to say anything, you know exactly what he’s thinking. While Tony has never questioned your sudden decision to switch from being a civilian to an Avenger, he has never let you forget that your abilities are far from heroic. He thinks they’re downright villainy.

In times like these, you wonder whether or not he thinks you’re actually trustworthy, or if he’s just keeping you close, waiting for the day you finally turn on them. He’ll be the first one in line to take you down.

“I really hate it when you suggest otherwise.” You tell him lowly.

“(Y/n).” Stephen says behind you, trying to call you back.

Tony doesn’t move from where he stands. “(Y/n), we both know that you get tingly when it’s mentioned that people are dying.” He says, not caring that Stephen and Peter are standing feet away. You press your lips together. “Half of the population could die by Thanos’s hands today. You’re telling me you’re not the least bit excited by that?”

The creeping feeling begins. You grit your teeth, hard, trying to resist it. “No, because I’m human.” You tell him, unsure if you’re trying to convince yourself or him. It’s tickling the back of your neck, goosebumps starting to form. You won’t let him be right. “And even if my body reacts, my mind knows better. I’ll never stand by when I know I can help.”

“That’s where I don’t believe you.”

You stop in front of him. “What’s your brilliant plan, then?”

Tony crosses his arms. “This ship is self-correcting its course. Thing’s on autopilot.”

Stephen comes to join you two at the front of the ship. He stops behind you, hand appearing on your lower back, rubbing slightly. You grind your teeth, tilting your head to the side to subtly let the shiver run through your body.

“Can we control it?” Stephen asks. “Fly us home?” There’s a pause where Tony doesn’t respond. “Stark.”

“Yeah?”

“Can you get us home?” He repeats.

“Yeah, I heard you. I’m thinking I’m not so sure we should.”

“Tony.” You snap.

“It has nothing to do with you.” He says.

Stephen’s hand falls, moving to get closer to Tony. “Under no circumstances can we bring the Time Stone to Thanos. I don’t think you quite understand what’s at stake here.”

“What? No. It’s you who doesn’t understand,” Tony moves to stop less than a foot away from Stephen. “That Thanos has been inside my head for six years. Since he sent an army to New York and now he’s back. And I don’t know what to do. So I’m not so sure if it’s a better plan to fight him on our turf or his, but you saw what they did, what they can do. At least on his turf he’s not expecting it. So I say we take the fight to him. Doctor

“Do you concur?” Tony finishes.

“All right, Stark. We go to him.” Stephen says. You throw your hands up, shaking your head. “But you have to understand if it comes to saving you or the kid or the Time Stone. I will not hesitate to let either of you die.” He pauses. “I can’t, because the universe depends on it.”

“Nice.” Tony pats Stephen’s arm. “Good, moral compass. We’re straight.” He turns to walk away, in Peter’s direction. He lets out a sigh. “All right, kid.” He knights Peter. “You’re an Avenger now.”

A smile slowly spreads over Peter’s face, he nods.

You lace your fingers together in front of you, walking closer to the warp to see the stars better. You’re not entirely sure if you’ll have the element of surprise on Thanos’s home planet, or if it’ll even matter. Either way, the team you have gathered on this spaceship is far from the one you’re used to.

You can’t believe that Tony pulled that argument on you again, especially in front of Stephen. He’s already suspicious that you’re not the only entity in your body, because the reactions you have at the mention of death are unnatural. You seem uncomfortable, but the involuntary shivers say otherwise—but they’re exactly that, involuntary.

The last thing you want is to confirm that you’re unstable, because you’re not.

“(Y/n).” Stephen murmurs, coming up beside you. You close your eyes, tilting your head back, taking in a breath. He wraps his arm around your body, hand pulling you into him. “You know I don’t mean to upset you.”

“You didn’t.” You tell him, opening your eyes. “I’m tired of having that conversation with Tony. And I do think it would be a better fight on Earth, where the rest of the Avengers are. Our crew doesn’t mean much.”

“Well, I would say we could hijack the system, but we don’t know how to steer it, or get back to our planet.” Stephen says, looking down at you.

You meet his eyes, before resting your head on his shoulder. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” He presses a kiss against your temple.

—

“Hey, what’s going on?” Peter asks, coming up behind you three.

“I think we’re here.” Stephen says.

You watch through the warp as the alien planet gets closer. From what you can tell, it’s a desolate place, not a single living being seems to be inhabiting it. Your eyebrows draw in, thinking that this could make the fight against Thanos easier, if he’s got no other people to help him.

That’s assuming he’ll come alone.

“I don’t think this rig has a self-park function.” Tony says, walking away from the warp. He stops in front of one of the mechanical arms, pulling it open to stick his hand inside. “Get your hand inside the steering gimbal.” He pulls the clasp down. “Close those around it.”

Peter follows Tony’s directions. “Okay.”

“You understand?” Tony asks, glancing over.

“Yes, got it.”

“This was meant for one big guy, so we gotta move at the same time.”

“Okay, okay.” Peter says, readjusting his stance. “Ready.”

You watch as the planet gets closer, the spaceship beginning to rumble. You share an unsure look with Stephen, before moving to find a pillar to hang on to.

“We might wanna turn.” Peter says, and then his eyes widen. “Turn! Turn! Turn!”

Tony has to change into his suit to be able to properly steer. From the force of them turning, you’re thrown a step off to the side. The brand new suit begins to cover your body, possibly reacting to your heart rate when you realize this thing could explode on impact if they’re not careful.

The ship comes into contact with one of the structures on the planet, jerking you from side to side. The rest of the suit covers your body, allowing you to lock your hand in place. You watch as Peter goes from his street clothes to the Spider-Man outfit.

Stephen quickly casts a shield to encase the four of you, the spaceship breaking into pieces. A second later, it slams into the planet, throwing you forward. You shouldn’t have moved more than a foot because of your grip, but your fingers unlock. You slam into the metal flooring, landing on your knees next to Stephen.

He glances down at you. The ship proceeds to slide until it hits a dip, forcing it to stop. As soon as you’re no longer in motion, Stephen drops the cast, turning to help you to your feet. The mask falls away from your face as you shake your head.

“You all right?” Stephen touches your face, moving your hair back.

“Fine.” You breathe.

Tony pushes to his feet. “That was close.” Electricity from severed wires crackles above you. “I owe you one.”

Peter hangs upside down from the ceiling using his web. “Let me just say, if aliens wind up implanting eggs in my chest or something and I eat one of you, I’m sorry.”

Your face twists, “Peter—”

“I do not want another single pop culture reference out of you for the rest of the trip.” Tony says, pointing at him. “You understand?”

Peter holds his hand out. “I’m trying to say that something is coming.”

A small, metallic ball rolls into the middle of your group, and before any of you can react, it explodes. You’re thrown several feet into the air, slamming into the wall, and landing harshly on an uneven surface. You take quick breaths to keep from triggering the pain that’s taking over your ribs.

You close your eyes, feeling the nanotech spread from beneath your chin and over your face to conceal your identity from the intruders. When you prod your fingers into sensitive skin, you let out a hiss. You really hope nothing is broken.

“Thanos!” You can hear a man yell.

The sound of Stephen’s magic makes you turn your head to see where he is. He’s got a shield up, two knives sticking out of it. The man who’s just thrown the knives begins to yell, but he’s silenced when the Cloak wraps around his head.

Another man rockets into the air, Tony jumping to fight him. You push yourself into a sitting position, wincing at the smallest movements. You use the wall as support, watching Tony and the enemy send beams back and forth, until Tony launches a rocket that explodes at the perfect time, sending him back.

Tony grabs a hold of the man, throwing back onto the ground. He lets out a laugh though, pressing a button. Blue lightning appears out of a triangular disc, which magnetizes Tony to the steering gimbal that Peter had used.

Peter lets out a scream, backing away from a woman with antennas that glow at the sight of him. As he scoots back, he shoots his web at her, trapping her where she is. The man that Tony had been fighting comes over, kicking Peter across the room.

“Stay down, clown.” He says, trying to shoot Peter.

Peter’s fast, the spider legs shoot out from his back, carrying him into the scaffolding above. Every time the man fires, he misses, but when Peter comes down to attack him, the man throws a gadget that opens like a net, securing around Peter, electrocuting him.

“Die, blanket of death!” The first man shouts, trying to pull the Cloak from his face.

Tony finally pushes himself off of the steering gimbal, immediately flying over the man fighting with the Cloak. He hovers his hand over his head, powering it up. The Cloak of Levitation then disappears, going back to Stephen.

You take a step down from where you’re standing, making your way toward Stephen. The man that’d taken down Peter, pulls him into his arms, holding a futuristic gun against his head. “Everybody stay where you are. Chill the eff out.”

He reaches to touch a button on the metal mask he’s wearing, making it disappear. If you didn’t know any better, you’d say he’s human. He’s got the complexion, nothing out of the ordinary. Unlike Tony, who’s got the man with grey skin and red accents.

“I’m gonna ask you this one time.” He points the gun out in Tony’s direction. “Where is Gamora?”

Tony holds his other hand out to the man in retaliation. “Yeah. I’ll do you one better. Who’s Gamora?” The helmet falls away from his face.

“I’ll do you one better.” The grey man on the floor says. “Why is Gamora?”

You stop next to Stephen, hand wrapped around your ribs. He notices this immediately, eyebrows drawing in.

“Tell me where the girl is or I swear to you I’m gonna french fry this little freak.” He presses the gun to Peter’s head.

Peter’s eyes narrow, and then return back to normal. Tony doesn’t like this. “Let’s do it. You shoot my guy and I’ll blast him. Let’s go!” His hand turns into a large blaster, mere inches away from the grey man’s face.

“Do it, Quill! I can take it.” He says, staring into the barrel.

“No, he can’t take it!” The alien girl says.

“She’s right. You can’t.” Stephen says.

“Oh, yeah? You don’t wanna tell me where she is? That’s fine. I’ll kill all three of you and I’ll beat it out of Thanos myself.” Quill says, pressing the gun further against Peter’s head. “Starting with you.”

Your face twists, Stephen squints. “Wait, what, Thanos? All right, let me ask you this one time. What master do you serve?”

“What master do I serve?” Quill repeats. “What am I supposed to say, ‘Jesus’?”

Tony deadpans, looking over at you and Stephen. He then looks at Quill again. “You’re from Earth.”

“I’m not from Earth, I’m from Missouri.” Quill says.

“Yeah, that’s on Earth, dipshit.” Tony shoots back. “What are you hassling us for?”

“So you’re not with Thanos?” Peter asks.

“With Thanos?” Quill’s face is twisted. “No, I’m here to kill Thanos. He took my girl. Wait, who are you?” He pulls the gun away from Peter’s head.

Peter’s mask falls away. “We’re the Avengers, man.”

“Oh.” Quill takes his arm off of Peter.

You allow the mask to fall from your face, too.

“You’re the ones Thor told us about.” The girl says.

Tony looks over. “You know Thor?”

“Yeah.” Quill says. “Tall guy, not that good-looking, needed saving.”

“Where is he now?” Stephen asks.

“He’s going to Nidavellir to get some weapon.” Quill says.

Tony removes his hand from the grey man’s face, allowing him to get up. “What kind of weapon?”

“He said it would be able to kill Thanos.” Quill shrugs, “That’s all.”

“Maybe another hammer.” You suggest, the suit begins to fade away, taking the original with it too. It leaves you in the clothes you’d been in before Bruce fell through the ceiling. “I’m (Y/n).”

“Star Lord, but my real name is Peter Quill.” Quill says.

“Oh, hey. I’m Peter too.” Peter backs away, “But I’m Peter Parker.”

“Enough, kid.” Tony points at him. “Tony Stark.”

“Doctor Strange.” Stephen says from beside you.

The alien girl wrapped in web hops forward. “I am Mantis.”

“That’s Drax.” Quill says, motioning to the grey man.

Tony nods, starting for the door, “We should step out, get a feel for the planet.”

“There’s not much out there.” Quill says, but he doesn’t argue.

Peter walks over to Mantis to free her from the webbing. Stephen goes to follow, but you place a hand on his chest to stop him, he looks down at you. You give him a pained smile, waiting for the others to leave the ship first.

“Are you coming?” Peter asks, stopping at the exit, looking back at you and Stephen.

“We’ll be out there in a minute.” You tell him.

He nods, going to join the group. Your hand falls from Stephen’s chest, going to take a deep breath, and wincing when a sharp pain stabs through your ribs. He doesn’t miss this, grabbing your elbow to keep it up.

“What happened?”

“It’s my ribs.” You tell him.

His fingers reach for the hem of your shirt, he meets your eyes. “Can I?”

“Yeah.”

“Put your hand on my shoulder.” He tells you. You follow his direction, looking down to watch what he does.

He pulls your shirt all the way up to your chest, where you bunch it up to make it easier to see. He tilts his head, face smoothing briefly, before his eyebrows draw in. Stephen’s fingers brush against the skin over your right side.

You press your lips together, letting out a noise.

“When did this happen?” He asks, applying more pressure.

You suck in a shaky breath. “When the alien had sideswiped me, I hit the car that was parked on the side of the street.” You tell him. “And when Quill threw that bomb—”

“You landed on the same side.” Stephen says. He pulls away, you let go of your shirt. It falls back into place, wrinkled. “I think they’re just bruised, but you’ve got to take it easy.”

“I figured as much.” You tell him, turning to start at the door.

He walks by your side. “I thought you said you could take care of yourself.”

“I can.” You say, “I know when to ask for help.”

“That’s not what I had in mind.”

“Well, that’s a shame.” You glance at him, going down the ramp.

He doesn’t look very amused. “(Y/n), if you think you’re unable to fight Thanos—”

“I’ll let you know.” You say, stepping onto the dirt.

A shock goes through your body, as you freeze where you stand.

Death. The word echoes in your mind loudly. You can’t help the way your body reacts, goosebumps covering every inch of your body, until you’re shivering as if you’re freezing.

“(Y/n)?” Stephen grabs your shoulder.

“I’m fine.” You chatter out, hugging yourself. “We’re just walking on a graveyard, is all.”

You force your legs to work, moving forward. The coldness leaves your body the further you travel, warmth returning. No matter where you step, the dark feeling clings on.

“The hell happened to this planet?” You hear Quill ask, he’s holding up a glowing yellow pod. “It’s eight degrees off its axis. Gravitational pull is all over the place.”

“Must’ve been a massacre.” You say, Tony turns to see you and Stephen joining. “I can feel it.”

He makes a face. “Feeling dark?”

“It’s hard not to.” You come to a stop, crossing your arms.

“We’ve got one advantage. He’s coming to us.” He says, moving around. “We’ll use it. All right, I have a plan. Or at least the beginnings of one.” You gather in with Quill. “It’s pretty simple. We draw him in, pin him down, get what we need. Definitely don’t wanna dance with this guy. We just want the gauntlet.”

Drax yawns loudly.

“Are you yawning?”

You glance away, eyes landing on Stephen, floating in the air in a sitting position. He must be using the Time Stone, because there’s a ring of green around his forearms.

“In the middle of this, while I’m breaking it down? Huh?” Tony says, Drax and Mantis look over. “Did you hear what I said?”

Drax briefly looks at Mantis before he looks back at Tony. “I stopped listening after you said, ‘We need a plan’.”

“Okay, Mr. Clean is on his own page.”

“See, ‘not winging it’ isn’t really what they do.” Quill says back.

Peter raises his hand. “Uh, what exactly is it that they do?”

“Kick names, take ass.” Mantis says proudly.

Drax nods. “Yeah, that’s right.”

Your face twists, you let out a loud sigh. “There goes my hope that we had a working team.”

Tony stares at them blankly. “All right, just get over here, please.” When they don’t move, he addresses Quill. “Mr. Lord, can you get your folks to circle up?”

Quill nods. “‘Mr. Lord’,” he lets out a laugh. “Star-Lord is fine.” He cocks his head to the side, Drax and Mantis come closer.

“We gotta coalesce. Cause if all we come at him with is a plucky attitude—”

“Dude, don’t call us plucky. We don’t know what that means. All right, we’re optimistic, yes. I like your plan.” Quill says, Tony and you make eye contact. “Except it sucks, so let me do the plan and that way it might be really good.”

Tony closes his eyes.

“Tell him about the dance-off to save the universe.” Drax says.

“What dance-off?” Tony asks.

Quill makes a face, stuttering, “It’s not a—it’s nothing.”

“Like in Footloose, the movie?” Peter asks.

“Exactly like Footloose.” Quill leans forward. “Is it still the greatest movie in history?”

“It never was.” Peter says.

Quill squints at him, smile dropping.

“Don’t encourage this, all right?” Tony says, placing a hand on Peter’s shoulder. “We’re getting no help from Flash Gordon here.”

“Flash Gordon?” Quill takes a step after him. “By the way, that’s a compliment. Don’t forget, I’m half human.”

Your attention has diverted back to Stephen, who’s snapping his neck from side to side, still floating. “Honey?”

“So that fifty-perfect of me that’s stupid,” He pauses, “That’s one hundred percent you.”

“Your math is blowing my mind.” Tony says back.

You step up to Stephen, “Hey, Tony!”

You glance over your shoulder to see Tony coming in your direction, seeing the problem. “Strange, we all right?”

You want to touch him, but you’re afraid of what’ll happen if you do. His head is still moving from side to side, eyes closed, as if he’s seeking something. “Stephen.” The Time Stone is glowing, a green haze is encircling his upper torso.

His head begins to move faster, letting out a grunt. A shout then leaves him, gasping as he falls to the rock below, eyes open and looking around. You crouch in front of Stephen, hands on his knees. He grabs one of them immediately, squeezing.

“You’re back.” You murmur.

“Hi.” he breathes.

“Hey, what was that?” Peter asks.

“I went forward in time to view alternate futures.” He says, looking between you and Tony, who stands behind you now. He’s breathing heavily as he talks. The Time Stone glows brightly against his chest. “To see all the possible outcomes of the coming conflict.”

“How many did you see?” Quill asks.

“Fourteen million, six hundred and five.”

“How many did we win?” Tony asks.

Stephen presses his lips together for a second. “One.”

You push to get to your feet, “How soon will he be here?”

He shakes his head, “Thirty minutes.”

You look at Tony, “We need to flesh that plan out.”

Tony nods, “Will my initial one work?”

Stephen takes in a breath. “Yes, actually.”

—

A storm cloud of grey and blue appears in the rubble, a boot being the first thing to come out of it. You adjust your footing, keeping your eyes on the giant, purple man that comes through it. The cloud is gone, and the air returns to normal.

Your eyes find the gauntlet, which takes up the entirety of Thanos’s forearm, stopping at the elbow. When he turns his wrist the right way, you can see the stones he has, glint in the setting sun. He stops to look at the spaceship you’d come out of.

“Oh, yeah.” Stephen says, he’s sitting at the top of the steps on a rock. He’d volunteered to be the distraction, so the rest of you could prepare to fight. Thanos looks over at him, not worried. “You’re much more of a Thanos.”

Thanos looks away. “I take it the Maw is dead.” Stephen leans forward on his knees, nodding. “This day extracts a heavy toll.” He begins to walk. “Still, he accomplished his mission.”

“You may regret that.” Stephen tells him. “He brought you face-to-face with the Master of the Mystic Arts.”

“And where do you think he brought you?”

“Let me guess. Your home?” Stephen asks.

Thanos stops, foot resting on top of a rock, gauntlet on his thigh. The Space, Reality and Power Stones displayed. You can’t tell if he has the Soul Stone or not.

“It was.” Thanos says. He lifts the gauntlet, and the Reality Stone begins to glow brightly when he closes his fist. “It was beautiful.”

The world around you begins to change, as he manipulates the area around you to make it look like it had before. A bright blue sky, green grass, a fountain in the middle of the plaza. There are people just like him, conversing around the park. And the giant building that’s falling apart, stands sturdy and clean.

“Titan was like most planets. Too many mouths, not enough to go around. And when we faced extinction, I offered a solution.”

“Genocide.” Stephen says.

You duck behind the spacecraft, slapping a hand over your mouth, eyes squeezed shut as your body shakes.

“But random, dispassionate, fair to rich and poor alike.” Thanos continues. “They called me a madman.” You sigh, not bothering to move from where you are. “And what I predicted came to pass.”

The scene fades away, bringing you back to reality. No wonder you can’t stay in control, here. You are literally on top of a graveyard, with so many undead beneath you that haven't risen since the day they died. They must be eager to get out, breathe the air above again.

What they don’t know is that it won’t taste the same as it did before.

“Congratulations, you’re a prophet.” Stephen says.

The good news is that if the dead haven’t been brought back before, there’ll be more power to it. They’re going to be decayed, sure. But they’re going to be stronger than the ones in New York, because these are new toys to play with. Besides, you can’t wait to see the look on Thanos’s face when he realizes that his own people are fighting against him.

“I’m a survivor.” Thanos says.

“Who wants to murder trillions.”

“With all six stones, I could simply snap my fingers.” He says, the noise filling the air. “They would all cease to exist. I call that mercy.”

You lift your head to see Stephen, finding him on his feet. “And then what?” He takes a step down.

Thanos looks away. “I’d finally rest and watch the sun rise on a grateful universe. The hardest choices require the strongest wills.”

Your lip twitches.

“I think you’ll find our will equal to yours.” Stephen says, clapping his hands together, and pulling them apart to show his magic.

“Our?” Thanos asks, lifting his head, tilting it all the way back.

Tony’s coming down with a piece of the spaceship, aimed directly over Thanos. As the purple stone begins to glow, he’s crushed by the mass, sending out a cloud of dirt and dust on impact.

The mask crawls up your face, blocking it just in time to swarm you.

“Piece of cake, Quill.” Tony says, doing a lap through a structure.

Quill begins to run, pressing the button on his mask again, which covers his face. “Yeah, if your goal was to piss him off.” He jumps, flying to where Thanos is.

An explosion of purple sets off, chunks of metal flying out, revealing Thanos underneath. He lets out a war cry, the Reality Stone glowing as he swings his gauntlet arm, creating a mass of alien birds that swarm Tony, carrying him away.

Peter takes the opportunity to shoot his web, covering Thanos’s eyes, flying by to kick him in the face. Drax slices across the back of his knee. Stephen comes through a portal, Drax swings at Thanos, only to be blocked. Stephen pulls out his own weapon, a sword made from the orange magic.

They take turns, going back and forth swinging at Thanos. He’ll dodge, switch sides, taking another hit from the back. He then punches Drax’s chest, throwing him into a rock that crumbles.

Stephen swings, Thanos catches the sword. Quill jumps through the air, using the rocks as stepping stones. Thanos finally pulls the webbing from his face, Stephen makes the sword disappear, opting for a shield, which Thanos kicks in to.

Quill shoots at Thanos’s back, Stephen casts a spell to create more platforms for Quill to use, hopping from one to the next. He flips over Thanos, planting a bomb on his back, which beeps loudly. He backs away, middle finger raised. “Boom!” And then he falls through a portal.

The bomb explodes, Thanos stumbles forward, landing on his hands. Just as he’s straightening, the Cloak wraps itself around his hand tightly. Stephen casts another portal, one which Peter jumps out.

He slams his fist across Thanos’s face. “Magic.” Disappears through the portal on the other side, which spits him out a foot above. Peter swings down on Thanos’s head. “More magic.” And pops out on the other side, Thanos turns at the wrong moment, “Magic with a kick.” He says, foot right across his face. The next portal opens up, “Magic with a—!”

Thanos grabs Peter by the throat, slamming him down into the dirt, choking him. “Insect!” He shouts, before lifting the teenager and throwing him into Stephen.

The two of them disappear in the rubble, you rise from where you’re hiding, beginning to creep around to find a better place to be when you raise this army. Thanos rips off the Cloak, which flies away to get back to Stephen.

Another explosion is set off, a wave of heat hits you like a truck, warming you up on the inside and out. This is Tony’s doing, as he repeatedly sends his rockets down where Thanos is standing.

It doesn’t work. Thanos sucks the fire up through the Power Stone, shooting it back at Tony, which blasts him into one of the structures up in the air. He hits the floating middle piece, causing a different explosion.

“(Y/n), now's a good time!” Tony shouts through static.

You come out into the open, Thanos’s attention turning to you. You fall to your knees in front of him, intertwining your fingers, staring directly at him. “Ready to see your people?” You laugh coldly, raising your locked hands up in the air, before slamming them into the dirt. “Rise!”

The ground begins to tremble, a shiver runs through your body, feeling the cold, dark energy building in your body. The dirt breaks apart, purple hands sprouting out in claw positions. You watch in amazement as the bodies pull themselves out of the planet, in almost perfect condition.

You push to get on your feet, watching as Thanos takes several steps back, as his own people come to stand around you. All of them stand around the same height, taking away his advantage.

“You…” He trails off, voice accusatory.

With a finger pointed out in his direction, you tilt your head to the side. “Pin the survivor down.”

The undead move at him, coming in every direction. They’re strong, energy coursing through your body. You retreat the best you can while keeping your eyes on him. The confliction in his face is everything you were hoping for, as he looks between the people that he once knew.

When he realizes that they’re not going to stop for him, he lets out a scream, swinging at them. They take the hits, springing back to life mere seconds later. You watch from the top of the stairs in amazement. You’ve never had an army act like this before, with such violence.

Maybe it’s their will to come back. Or maybe, some of their spirits are still here, unable to move on. His face brings bad memories, from when they were starving and beginning to fall from the inside out. Maybe they know about his slaughtering activities on other planets, carrying out his ideas on poor, unsuspecting people that can’t defend themselves against his power.

Maybe this is their way of getting revenge for you.

You let out a laugh.

Thanos throws his hand out, a sharp and warm pain explodes across your left shoulder, twisting you to the ground. You land on your hands and knees, coming face to face with the chunk of flesh that Thanos has just taken from your body. The blood spurts out of the wound.

Your breaths pick up at the sight of the amount of blood leaving your body, stars coming to the corners of your vision. You let out a scream through gritted teeth as the feeling hits you full-force, tears appearing in your eyes.

“(Y/n)!” Stephen shouts.

When you look over your shoulder, you see that Peter has webbed Thanos’s hand with the gauntlet, pulling it away from him. Thanos still fights with his open hand, knocking away the dead effortlessly. He pulls Peter toward him when there’s an opening, punching him across the face, and ripping the webbing from the gauntlet.

Suddenly, a spaceship comes out of the brown haze, belonging to none of you. It hits the planet, as well as Thanos, and the entire army of the dead. You struggle to your feet, stumbling down the steps.

Stephen is floating through the air, toward Thanos, when he sees that you’re alive. You follow after him the best you can, a burning sensation spreading over your missing shoulder when you see the nanotech forms over it. At least then, it’ll be covered.

A girl springs out of the rock to fight Thanos, one that you don’t recognize. Stephen uses his magic to lasso Thanos’s gauntlet, trying to pull it off of him. Drax comes up behind him, kicking the back of his knee to force him down. Quill shoots a triangular disc—the same one he’d used against Tony—underneath Thanos’s free hand to keep him from pulling at the gauntlet.

Peter uses his web, swinging around to pull Thanos with Quill. While Tony comes around, grabbing at the gauntlet. Thanos is strong, though, pulling at Peter’s web. The spider legs come out, digging into the rock to keep him from moving. Stephen retracts his spell, casting a new one for a portal, where Mantis falls onto Thanos’s shoulders.

She places her hands on both sides of his head, leaning over him. Stephen works with Quill and Peter to pull on the other hand. Thanos is screaming, eyes a milky white as he turns his head to the side.

You come to a stop a few feet away, the sound of dragging footsteps behind you. It’s a few of the dead that hadn’t died with the ship. “Get the gauntlet off of him.” You demand.

They move to help Tony, fingers digging underneath it to get better leverage. Thanos stops resisting so hard, as Mantis’s antennas begin to glow white.

“Is he under? Don’t let up.” Tony says, pulling.

“Be quick. He is very strong.” She says.

“Parker, help! Get over here.” Tony orders. “She can’t hold him much longer. Let’s go.”

They all pull at the gauntlet, seemingly making no progress. Quill flies over, landing a few feet away, tucking his gun back onto the hollister.

“We gotta open his fingers to get it off.” Peter says.

You move closer, “Do as he says.” The dead begin to work on his fingers, struggling against his strength.

“I thought you’d be hard to catch.” Quill taunts. “For the record, this was my plan.” Thanos doesn’t respond, mouth hanging open. “You’re not so strong now, huh?” He stops in front of him. “Where is Gamora?”

Thanos groans, “My Gamora.”

“No, bullshit!” Quill says, “Where is she?”

“He is in anguish.” Mantis says, Thanos’s face twists.

“Good.”

“He… he mourns.” Mantis pants, eyebrows drawn in, tears in her eyes.

You look over to see the same girl as earlier has now joined you. She doesn’t seem to be human, though. She’s robotic, and blue.

“What does this monster have to mourn?” Drax manages to get out.

“Gamora.” The girl says.

Quill turns to look at her. “What?”

“He took her to Vormir.” She says. “He came back with the Soul Stone. But she didn’t.”

The helmet disappears from Tony’s head. “Okay, Quill, you gotta cool it right now. You understand?” Quill is turning to look at Thanos. “Don’t, don’t—don’t engage. We almost got this off!” He shouts.

“Tell me she’s lying.” Quill begins to shout. “Asshole, tell me you didn’t do it!”

“I had to.” Thanos hisses out.

“No, you didn’t.” Quill shakes his head, Thanos groans. “No, you didn’t.”

Quill draws back, gun in hand. You reach with your good arm to catch him before he ruins this, but it’s too late. He hits Thanos with the side of the gun, Mantis loses her grip on him. She tries to regain her grip, but he hits Thanos again.

“No, you didn’t!”

“Quill!” Tony shouts, abandoning the gauntlet to grab Quill. “Hey, stop! Hey, stop! Stop!”

Peter pulls, it begins to slip. You jump over, grabbing the bottom. The suit explodes over your body, heels digging into the ground. “Pull!” You shout.

“Hey, stop! Stop!”

“It’s coming, it’s coming.” Peter adjusts to get a better grip on it. “We got it, we got it!”

Thanos comes back at this moment, headbutting Mantis. The gauntlet is just slipping off his last finger, when he throws you, Peter and the few undead you have left. You land harshly, rolling once or twice before forcing yourself to get back on your feet. He then reaches up, grabbing Mantis by her foot, and flinging her off.

“Oh, god.” Peter says, jumping in the air to grab her. The spider legs come out, creating a case for them to roll in without touching the ground.

Thanos kicks Drax off his leg, straight into Quill and the blue robot. He grabs the lasso that Stephen has been holding onto him, whipping it forward and letting go. You watch your boyfriend come closer to you, and continue to fly over your head.

Tony tries to blast Thanos, but he’s pissed now. All he does is swing his arm, batting Tony away. Drax, Quill and the robot get to their feet to run at him, then Thanos uses the Power Stone to stop them where they are, forcing them back on the cement.

Tony comes back, swinging at him with a nanotech blade. Thanos grabs his arm, headbutting him too. Thanos hits the staircase on the other side, doing backwards somersaults until he lands on his knees.

Thanos reaches up in the direction of a nearby planet that you can see. His gauntlet glowing purple as he presumably breaks off parts of the surface. With a closed fist, he throws it down, bringing the pieces to you. You duck against a rock, covering your head as brown fiery smoke leaves a path.

Tony tries to fly away, but he’s caught by one of the giant pieces of rock, crushing him beneath. The impact fucks up the gravity, as Drax, the robot and Quill take off into the air.

“Peter!” You shout, “Grab them!”

“Got it, Miss (L/n)!” He calls back, slinging to his feet.

The ground quakes each time a chunk lands on the surface. You throw your head back, searching to find Stephen, on a floating rock, not too far from Thanos. He moves his arms, bands of orange appearing, hitting his hands against the ground. The orange electricity jumps from each rock, until it reaches Thanos, exploding the surface.

Thanos jumps off, using the Power stone to send purple lightning back at Stephen. He’s prepared for this, it hits a shield, flying back at Thanos. Who shatters it into pieces with one punch from the gauntlet. He sucks it all up with the Space Stone, creating a vortex, spiraling in Stephen’s direction.

Stephen casts another shield, the vortex becoming a flurry of green butterflies, which is merely a distraction, as the next trick comes. Multiple arms come from him, spreading out, until they move in sync to become one, bursting apart as replicas of him take over the air, surrounding Thanos.

They move together, hundreds of lassos wrapping around Thanos’s arms, which he quickly breaks with the Power Stone. Static electricity takes over the air, until it’s just your boyfriend.

Thanos reaches forward, beckoning Stephen to him. His gauntlet hand secures around his throat. “You’re full of tricks, wizard.” He reaches to grab the necklace, Stephen struggles to pull away. “Yet you never once used your greatest weapon.” He crushes the necklace in his hand. “A fake.”

He throws Stephen, and he rolls a few feet before stopping. When he doesn’t get up, you begin to move through the rock to get to him.

Tony sends nanotech to the gauntlet, keeping it from closing. He lands, breathing hard. “You throw another moon at me, and I’m gonna lose it.”

“Stark.” Thanos says.

“You know me?”

“I do. Just like how I know that necromancer is (Y/n).” He says, you stop in your tracks, head snapping in his direction. “You’re not the only one cursed with knowledge.”

“My only curse is you.” Tony says, more explosives coming out of his back.

“Come on!” Thanos growls, letting the gauntlet take the hit.

You begin to move faster, making it to Stephen. You land on your knees, ignoring the blossoming pain from doing it so many times today. You reach for his face with your only hand, moving his hair back.

“Stephen, babe.” You murmur, wincing when you use your other arm to rest on his chest. The technology in your ear tells you that he’s still breathing. You let out a breath.

You brush some of the debris from his face, forcing him on his back.

Tony’s feet slam into Thanos, he does a backflip, landing on his feet, arms turning into giant hammers with blasters on the bottom. He hits Thanos into a rock, and when Thanos gets back on his feet, he tears the helmet right from Tony’s head.

Another one forms in an instant, as he tries to block Thanos’s punch. It doesn’t work, Tony flattens on the rock.

“Stephen.” You whisper, “Come on.”

Thanos breaks the nanotech off of the gauntlet, using the Power stone to hit Tony with a powerful force, which Tony blocks in time with a shield. It comes around, like flames licking at a closed door. It forces Tony back, despite the pressure he’s putting to stay in place.

He throws the shield back when Thanos stops, nanotech transferring from a small space on his back, to his foot, which locks down Thanos’s gauntlet hand. Tony throws a powerful punch, landing it right across his face.

Thanos reaches up, brushing a part on his upper cheek, looking at his fingertips. “All that for a drop of blood.”

“(Y/n).” Stephen mutters.

You look back down at him, finding his eyes open, on you. You nod, cupping his face with both hands. “I’m here. Are you okay?”

“Your shoulder…” He trails off, reaching to touch it, but he knows better than to make contact.

“I know.”

Thanos gets out of the trap, throwing Tony onto the ground, and laying in with the punches, slowly destroying the nanotech with each one landed. He picks him up, throwing him away.

Tony focuses the tech to his hands, taking away from a part on his thigh and hip, but Thanos blocks the rays with the purple glowing gauntlet. He swings at Tony’s face, taking the rest of the helmet off. Tony tries to throw a punch, it’s grabbed. With his only free arm, the nanotech forms a blade, Tony tries to stab, but Thanos breaks it off.

You watch in horror as he stabs it through the missing armor in Tony’s abdomen.

“No!” You let out, Stephen moves to sit up, you don’t stop him.

You clasp your hands together, raising them above your head, going to hit the ground, when a hand grabs them before they do. You make eye contact with Stephen, who shakes his head at you.

“It won’t help.”

“We should kill him.” You tell him. “We need to kill him.”

Tony lets out a grunt, Thanos walks him back until he sits on a rock.

Stephen’s grip tightens. “This is how we win. This is the plan.”

“You have my respect, Stark.” Thanos says. “When I’m done, half of humanity will still be alive.”

You grit your teeth, “This isn’t right.”

“I hope they remember you.” Thanos holds his hand out, each stone glowing on his knuckles.

Stephen lets go of you, eyes on Thanos, “Stop.” He pants. “Spare his life and I will give you the stone.”

“Stephen.” You snap, “No!”

“No tricks.” Thanos says.

Stephen shakes his head, Thanos points the gauntlet at you two, instead.

“Don’t.” Tony groans, blood dripping out the corner of his mouth.

Stephen slowly lifts his hand, a green haze showing before the Time Stone appears out of thin air, between his forefinger and thumb. Thanos hold out his other hand, palm up.

“Don’t do this.” You tell him, pressure behind your eyes. “Don’t, Stephen, I don’t want those people to die.”

He looks at you for a long second, before releasing the stone. It floats through the air, straight to Thanos. He lowers the gauntlet, taking the green gem in his hand. Your head falls, you let out a sob between gritted teeth.

When you look, Thanos is dropping the Time Stone into the slot on the knuckle of his thumb. “One to go.”

A beam hits the gauntlet, as Quill comes out of the rock and rubble, flying straight at Thanos, repeatedly firing. The same storm cloud that brought Thanos here has now materialized to take him back. He takes one step backwards, and it swallows him whole.

Quill flies right through where he should have made contact with Thanos. He gets to his feet, waving his gun. “Where is he?”

Tony uses the nanotech to heal where he’d been stabbed, letting out a sigh.

“Did we just lose?” Quill asks.

You let out a sob, hand covering your mouth. Stephen reaches to touch you, but you jerk away, “Don’t, don’t do that.”

“(Y/n)---”

You stumble down the rock, putting a few feet between you two.

Tony looks over at him. “Why would you do that?”

“We’re in the endgame now.” He says.

You lace your fingers, resting your hands on the top of your head, ignoring the pain that stabs through your shoulder and ribs. You take several deep breaths in through your nose, letting it out through your mouth. Your throat is tightening, making it harder to breathe.

“Miss (L/n), I’ve got them!” Peter shouts, you glance over to see Mantis, Drax and the robot coming your way. “Oh no, Mr. Stark?”

“(Y/n), come here, please.” Stephen says, “I don’t want you to regret this moment.” Your bottom lip juts out as you turn around to face him, finding him on his feet. He’s got a hand out in your direction. “I’m sorry, honey.”

The suit falls away from your body at the same time Tony dismisses his. You shake your head at him, refusing to go toward him. “All those people…” You lower your arms to wipe the tears. “I can’t.”

“We haven’t lost yet.” He tells you.

Peter pulls Tony to his feet. Mantis stops walking with Quill, looking up. “Something’s happening.”

Mantis’s feet begin to disintegrate, eating up the rest of her legs, turning into flakes of dust that get blown away in the wind. Your face drops. At once, the rest of her is gone.

Drax’s left half of his body begins to follow suit, he looks up, “Quill?”

He’s gone too, Tony starts forward, “Steady, Quill.”

It works faster this time, “Oh, man.”

You turn with an open mouth to look at Stephen, “No, no, no!”

His legs are turning into dust, you rush through the rocks to get to him in time. Maybe if you touch him, he’ll stay. Maybe your abilities will work in reverse.

“There was no other way, my love.” He whispers, breathing shallow.

“No!” You scream, arms swiping through the dust where he had been a second ago. “Stephen, no!”

“Mr. Stark?” Peter’s voice is trembling.

“God damn it!” You cry, face pressing into the rock. “Bring him back!”

“I don’t feel so good.” Peter says.

“You’re all right.” Tony says.

“I don’t—I don’t know what’s happening. I don’t know…” He falls into Tony’s arms. “I don’t want to go. I don’t want to go, sir. Please. Please, I don’t want to go. I don’t want to go.” Tony carefully lowers him to the ground. “I’m sorry.”

You bury your face in your hands, silently sobbing as you struggle to breathe. “Stephen…” You whisper. “Come back to me.”

It dawns on you.

You scoot away from the rock, sitting up on your knees. You blink through blurry eyes, fingers laced, hands above your head. “Please, work.” You whisper, and then slam your hands into concrete, pressing hard. “Stephen, rise!”

The ground is still, not reacting to your words.

“I said,” You raise your hands, bringing them down again. “Rise! Bring me Stephen Strange!”

Finally, the rock begins to shake violently, you sit impatiently, waiting for him to sprout out of the ground where he’d turned to dust over. Instead, the planet settles, and you’re left with nothing.

“He did it.” The robot says.

Your labored breaths quickly turn into deep breaths that begin to even out, the more you think about her. You push to your feet, attentioning turning to her. This wouldn’t have happened if she didn’t come here.

“You.” You snarl out, Tony looks up at you. “This is your fault.”

She looks at you, eyes widening slightly, “Me?”

“Did you really have to be that honest?” You snap, going down the dirt. “You had to tell Quill that she was dead?”

Her face twists. “He was going to beat it out of Thanos whether or not I—”

“You don’t know that!” You shout, “Now they’re dead, and it’s your fault!” You stop a foot away from her. “This wouldn’t have happened if you weren’t here. We had him pinned down, we were right there! Peter had just gotten the gauntlet off of his arm!”

“(Y/n), this was always going to happen.” Tony interjects, “Stephen said it himself, this was the only way.”

“I don’t believe that.” You look down at him. “Stephen would never leave me on purpose. He’d never do that.”

“He would if it meant you’d be safe.”

this was part of my 3k celebration!! i am no longer accepting requests.

once again, i'm sorry it's long. i got carried away hehe. and i was determined to write the entire movie so i did.

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