Back on the Avengers base...
"You guys really look like crap," Rhodey says. "Well, Mary looks amazing."
She winks at him.
"Must've been a rough couple of years," Rhodey adds.
"Yeah, well, the hotels weren't exactly five stars," Sam states.
"Uh, I think you look great," Bruce says and everyone turns to look at the surprise newcomer. "Yeah. I'm back."
"Oh, my God..." Mary runs over and Bruce catches her as she jumps on him. "You're back."
"Hi, Bruce," Natasha greets as Bruce hugs the girl he sees as a sister.
"Nat," Bruce greets.
Sam clears his throat. "This is awkward."
======
Mary, Natasha, Bruce, Steve, Rhodey, Wanda, and Vision are all now in another room.
"So we gotta assume they're coming back, right?" Bruce asks. "And they can clearly find us. We need all hands on deck. Where's Clint?"
"After the Accords, he and Scott took a deal," Mary says. "Clint is home with our kids, we have two now. Clark and Rosalie Barton."
"Happy for you," Bruce says. "But, uh, who's Scott?"
"Ant-Man," Steve replies.
"There's an Ant-Man and a Spider-Man?" Bruce frowns. "Okay, look... Thanks has the biggest army in the universe. And he is not gonna stop until he... he begs... Vision's stone."
"Well then, we have to protect it," Nat says.
"No, we have to destroy it," Vision says. "I've been giving a good deal to this entity in my head, about its nature. But also, its composition. I think if it were exp,owed to a sufficiently powerful energy source, something, very similar to its own signature, perhaps... it's molecular integrity could fail."
"And you, with it," Wanda says. "We're not having this conversation."
"Eliminating the stone is the only way to be certain that Thanos can't get it," Vision counters.
"That's too high a price," Wanda says.
"Only you have the power to pay it, or Mary's siren song," Vision says. "Thanks threatens ha,f he Universe. One life cannot stand in the way of defeating him."
"But it should," Steve speaks. "We don't trade lives, Vision."
Vision walks toward Steve. "Captain, 70 years ago, you laid down your life to save how many millions of people. Tell me, why is this different?"
Steve takes a breath, but before he can speak, Bruce does.
"Because you might have a choice," Bruce says. "Your mind is made up of a complex construct of overlays. Jarvis, Ultron, Tony, me, the Stone. All of them mixed together. All of them learning from one another."
"You're saying Vision isn't just the stone?" Wanda asks.
"I'm saying that... if we take out the stone, there still a lot of Vision left," Bruce says. "Perhaps the best part."
"Can we do that?" Natasha and Mary ask together.
"Not me. Not here," Bruce replies.
"You better find someone, and somewhere fast," Rhodey says. "Ross isn't exactly just gonna let you guys have your old rooms back."
Steve pauses. "I know somewhere."
"Can I check on Rosalie and Clark first?"
"Go ahead."
Mary walks away and she calls Clint to check on the kids and to check on Katie and Elijah since he's watching them while Laura and Henry have a date night; aka, a picnic by the lake.
