1999
INSIDE THE Q-SHIP
Athena whistled a low tune. "Bloody Hell, I forgot about Thanos destroying Titan and stuff... Bummer as well, this place used to look so beautiful."
"You've been here before?" Peter asked, bewildered.
Athena shook her head. "No. I took Astronomy until my sixth year. You'd think that Professor Sinistra would've stopped me from taking the class cause I slept too much in it. We would look at different planets, stars, constellations, anything in space, and study them."
"-Alright. We're here." Tony declared, uncrossing his arms as he began to walk to the station with the metal devices. "I don't think this has its own self-park function. Kid help me out-get your hand inside the steering gimbal..."
As Peter and Tony had tried to steer the ship into a proper landing, Athena and Strange stood in front of them. Strange had placed a shield around them, whilst Athena had used her powers to try and stabilise the ships landing.
"Uh, turn the ship- turn- turn!" Athena voiced, panic in her tone as the part of their vehicle crashed onto one of the standing ruins that remained on the planet. A harsh rumble caused by the separation of the one part of the ship to another alerted the girl, the blue aura intensifying as Athena had tried to keep the ship from collapsing altogether.
"Black, can you hold the ship longer?" Strange asked, eyes darted towards the large window in front of them, seeing that they were close to receiving a tough landing.
"Yeah, but not any longer- I've never used my powers to hold a ship this big before and I'm afraid it's going to wear off soon!" She yelled, using majority of her energy to hold up the ship.
It wasn't long until they all felt the floor rumbling, most likely being the ship making contact against the ruined ground of the planet. Once feeling all the movement stop, Athena had let go, collapsing onto her knees as she tried to catch her breath.
"That was close, are you alright Black?" Strange asked, helping her up then leading her towards the metal pillar - which connected to a part which allowed her to sit there.
"Yeah... Just drained." She answered, leaning her body fully against the pillar.
Strange then proceeded to go to her uncle, helping him stand straight as he seemed to be dizzy. "That was close. I owe you one." Tony stated, patting the man on the arm as he was holding him.
Tony then continued to walk towards Athena, checking to see if the girl was alright.
"Let me just say, if aliens wind up planting eggs in my chest or something, and I eat one of you, I'm sorry." Peter stated, hanging from one of his webs upside down.
"I do not want a single pop culture reference out of you from the rest of this trip, you understand that?" Tony warned him, pointing a finger.
"I'm trying to say that something is coming." Peter reasoned.
As if it was the right timing, a sphere rolled towards the middle of them, blowing up which caused to to be thrown back away from each other. Athena groaned upon the impact, though immediately reacting back up once she heard a gruff voice yell out "THANOS!!"
Somewhat lucky for her, she was blasted back somewhere the intruders wouldn't be able to see her. Though what was unlucky was that the place was an area with a bunch of metal boxes that were less then a meter apart. So you can pretty much imagine the luck and pain she had when she landed back first against the metal box directly, then falling within the gap after.
"Stupid, fucking, rat." She muttered unknowingly, placing a hand on her back to see if there were any bleeding. To her relief there wasn't, but there was still a striking pain back there when she'd try to get up. Pulling her wand out, she muttered a short Reparifors, followed by casting a non-verbal spell which allowed her to boost her stamina easily.
Getting up, she could see in the distance that everyone was cornered in some way. Peter was held by the throat by one of the intruders, Tony was pointing his hand- which turned into some advanced blast gun, pointing it down- most likely towards another one of the intruders. Strange had his glowing fists ready, and there was another girl who was standing- tied together by webs.
"I'm gonna ask you one more time, where is Gamora?" She heard.
"Yeah, I'll do you one better. Who is Gamora?" Tony retorted.
"Oh yeah?! I'll do you one better! Why is Gamora!?" Another voice said.
"Tell me where the girl is or I'll blast this little french fry." She heard the same voice at the start say.
Somewhat confused by the previous conversation, and in pain, Athena teleported herself behind the man holding Peter, pointing her wand behind his head. "Let him go or I'll blast your head off."
"What the fuck- where'd you come from?" The man asked, somewhat panicked, somewhat not.
"It's okay Quill! She just has a stick behind your head." The man on the floor yelled.
"Don't listen to him! She's a witch! She can blast your head off!" The girl webbed up yelled.
The man who was called 'Quill' ignored Athena's presence, continuing to keep Peter on hold. "Fine, you don't want to tell me where she is- I'll kill all four of you and beat it out of Thanos myself. Starting with you-" Quill pushed his weapon towards Peters head further, causing Athena to push her wand further into the mans nape.
"Thanos-? Alright let me ask you this one time, which master do you serve?" Strange declared, looking towards Quill.
"What master do I serve- what am I supposed to say, Jesus?" He retorted.
Tony created a deadpanned look on his face, then looked to Quill. "You're from Earth."
"I'm not from Earth, I'm from Missouri."
"Yeah that's on Earth, dipshit." Tony said. "Than what are you hassling us for?"
"So, you're not with Thanos?" Peter softly asked.
"With, Thanos?" Quill spat the name out with disgust. "No, we're here to kill Thanos- wait who are you?"
"We're the Avengers, man."
Athena watched as Quill and her Uncle talked about something she didn't really care about, as she and the girl - who she learned that her name was Mantis - were jumping around the planet due to it not having much gravity.
"Um, Athena, I think we should listen in on the plan- instead of jumping around!" Mantis said, loud enough for the girl to here. Athena then stopped.
"Right! Okay! I forgot I was here on a mission." She said, watching as Mantis smiled at her before walking down towards her comrades. Athena decided not to do that though, staying in her spot as she decided to look around the place.
It honestly made her sad. She'd seen this planet in her textbooks, even projections that Professor Sinistra had casted for them, just to see the many planets in the galaxy. Titan was one of them. She didn't know when this place was destroyed, but she knew for a fact that this planet was once livable.
Shaking her head from the thought, her eyes continued wandering around, until they landed on a particular person. Walking towards Strange, she was somewhat worried for the man as he was using the Time Stone, his head was phasing here and there, as if it was lagging or glitching.
She wasn't the only one apparently, as the others began to near him as well. Snapping out of his head space, Strange landed abruptly onto the floor, letting out a short scream, trying to find his balance as Athena and her Uncle held him. "You're back. You're alright."
"I went forward in time to view different alternate futures. To see all the outcomes of the upcoming conflict." Strange stated.
"How many did you see?"
"14,000,605."
"How many did we win?"
"..."
"One."
AFTER THE CONNECTION WAS LOST
BETWEEN THE TWO-WAY MIRRORS,
THAT SAME DAY, 1999
MACUSA, NEW YORK, EARTH
Jericho let out a frustrated sigh, putting the mirror in his pocket. He then entered the meeting room, the ministry executives talking already talking amongst each other.
"Where's the girl? Is she coming?" One of the MACUSA executives asked.
Jericho shook his head, sighing as he took his spot. "She's on the ship."
"What! Why is she on that ship? Her mission didn't include leaving the bloody planet!" Another one of the MACUSA members.
"No, but her mission is to prevent the threat from becoming bigger, or try to find a way to stop it. This includes her gathering information about the threat." A Ministry member explained, defending.
"No limits were given on her mission. If she chooses to go to space to get more data, then she should do so." Another ministry member backed up.
"But that doesn't explain why she would go there-"
"Did she mention any important information while you were talking to her?" One of the members of the British Ministry asked, looking towards Jericho.
"We were right. They want the stones, and its for the Thanos titan." Jericho answered.
"That was easy to figure out-"
"However, according to what she said, we mustn't let this Thanos titan retrieve all the stones. If he's going from planet to planet, destroying everything in his way just to get the stones, then we know that it will not only affect our world, but the whole universe. Similar to mass genocide I'm guessing."
Small gasps were heard, as well as the sound of a sharp inhale, though no one spoke up.
Jericho looked at the members around him, watching their still expressions. He took this as a sign to continue. "The reason why she's on that ship right now is because the enemy has taken hold of the sorcerer who possesses the Time Stone. Our seers may have future-seeing powers, but that Time Stone can not only see our future, but multiple alternate ones as well."
"So what are you saying? That we need to go up there and retrieve the Time Stone?" A man from the British Ministry suggested, pointing a finger towards the ceiling.
Jericho shook his head. "As of right now, there's only one stone left on Earth. And according to Athena, it resides on the head of a synthezoid. I'm not a hundred percent sure on his whereabouts now, however I know for a fact that they haven't left Earth."
"What do you suggest we do?" Someone from the MACUSA spoke.
"It's not going to be long before one of Thanos' men return to Earth, hell maybe even the big man himself might come." A sigh then left his mouth. "The synthezoid is most likely going to be protected by other heroes. The Avengers, if I'm correct. Not only them, but a whole 'nother lot of soldiers. Thanos would bring an army down here, and- I'm not underestimating the muggles and all that, but we can't risk them losing and Thanos retrieving the stone."
"You're still not answering the question, Travers." One of the people from British MInistry inquired, saying the following question serious and sternly. "What do you suggest we do."
As if glaring at the Ministry Member who just said that, Jericho huffed. "I suggest, we get a group of Aurors and Hit-Officers to fight alongside them."