CHAPTER EIGHT: WHATEVER IT TAKES.
"OKAY. SO, THE HOW works," Steve started as he stood in front of the group beside the holographic screens that showed pictures of all of the six infinity stones.
All the Avengers were gathered in a room to hold the meeting, "Now, we gotta figure out the when and the where. Almost everyone in this room 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 retorted as he walked across the room with a cup of coffee in his hand.
"Well, I haven't," Scott piped as he sat beside Rocket. "But I don't even know what the hell you're talking about."
"Regardless, we only have enough Pym Particles for one round-trip each. And these stones have been in a lot of different places throughout history," Bruce walked across the room. "Our history," Tony quipped, "So, not a lot of convenient spots to just drop in, yeah?"
"Which means we have to pick our targets," Clint stated with crossed arms and Tony nodded at him.
"Correct."
"So, let's start with the Aether. Thor, what do you know?" As soon as Steve asked, everyone turned to look at him. He was leaning back on his chair lazily, almost motionless. His chest rose and fell slowly and he was wearing his sunglasses, which made it hard for them to decide whether he's asleep or not.
"Is he even still alive? Or is he asleep?" Natasha wondered beside Y/N who was seated between her and Thor. "No, no. I'm pretty sure he's dead," Rhodey deadpanned from her other side.
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"Uh, where to start? Uhm..." Thor now stood in front of the group as the others went to the back to listen to what he has to say. On the holographic screen, showed a red infinity stone: the Reality Stone.
Thor took of his sunglasses to use it to point on the picture, "The Aether, firstly, is not a stone. Someone called it a stone before," He pointed at Steve who frowned in confusion in return, "Uhm, it's more of an angry sludge sort of thing, so someone's gonna need to amend that and stop saying that," Thor added as he put a few eyedrops on his eyes.
Clint and Rhodey slowly turned to each other and exchanged a look.
Y/N was now seated between Natasha and Scott. She crossed her arms as she leaned her back on her chair, her legs were crossed on top of each as well while she closed her eyes and heaved a small sigh, nodding blindly to whatever Thor says as if she understood well.
Thor proceeds to the story, "Here's an interesting story, though, about the Aether. My grandfather many years ago had to hide the stone from the Dark Elves. Ooh," He gave a jazz hands, "Scary beings. So, Jane, actually..." He swiped on the screen and it showed a brown haired woman, "Oh, there she is."
"Yeah, so, Jane was an old flame of mine," Tony had his arms crossed as he stared at him. "You know, she stuck her hand inside a rock this one time and... 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..."
Scott seemed to be so invested with and enjoying Thor's story, nodding along with what he says while the others just blankly stared at him, "And we had to try and fix her."
"We were dating at the time, you see, and I got to introduce her to my mother..." Thor's cheery tone dropped and turned darker, "Who's dead, and um," He sounded like he was close to crying and Y/N sighed as she shook her head in disbelief, "Oh. You know, Jane and I aren't even dating anymore, so... Yes, these things happen, though?"
Y/N motioned her hand in front of her neck in a cut it out' motion to Bruce and Tony and the latter stepped forward.
"Nothing lasts forever," Tony stepped close to Thor and gently tried to coax him down, "Why don't you sit down?" Thor waved him off, "I'm not done yet. The only thing that is permanent in life is impermanence," Thor chuckled and Y/N and Natasha exchanged concerned looks.
Tony gave a quick clap of his hands. "Awesome. Eggs? Breakfast?" He offered and Thor shook his head, "No. I'd like a Bloody Mary."
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Once Thor had went back to his seat, Rocket went next and stood on the table in front of everyone. "Quill said he stole the Power Stone from Morag," He said while a picture of the Power Stone is on the screen.
"Is that a person?" Bruce questioned while everyone else are eating their ordered Chinese food in a cup.
"No, Morag's a planet. Quill was a person," Rocket explained. "Like a planet?" Scott asked with his mouth full and wide eyes, "Like in outer space?"
Rocket walked towards him and ruffled his hair, "Oh, look. It's like a little puppy, all happy and everything. Do you wanna go to space? You wanna go to space, puppy? I'll take you to space."
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After Rocket explained his known knowledge about the Power Stone to the others, Tony to the floor again spoke up, "Y/N, why don't we move on to you?" Y/N looked at him in surprise while wiping her lips with a tissue. "Anything we need to know about the Mind Stone?"
"Uh," Y/N thought for a moment, clearing her throat as she stood up once a picture of the Mind Stone popped up on the screen.
"Well, I think everyone knows about it. Wanda and I actually got our powers from it, not a lot of people survived during the experimentation. The Mind Stone can be used to control people's mind. That same stone was in Loki's scepter."
"But it's blue?" Scott and Rhodey squinted at the image of Loki's scepter in the screen, "Isn't it supposed to be yellow? Like on the screen?"
Y/N shook her head, "Oh. No, no," She zoomed on the the scepter on the screen and showed a yellow stone, "It's just the casing of the scepter. Loki explained it to me once. The Mind Stone has always been yellow."
Since many of them already knew about the Mind Stone, Y/N didn't much explaining to do and only had to add a few points she knew from Loki and Natasha wrote them down. After another minutes of answering some questions about the stones, she turned to Scott and raised a questioning eyebrow upon seeing him staring at her.
She leaned slightly to him, "What is it?" Scott leaned to her as well, "Loki... He's a God, right?" He asked and Y/N nodded, frowning in confusion as Scott went on. "So, how does it feel to date a God? Does he, like... bless you or something?"
Y/N gave him a weird look, "No, he doesn't," She sighed as she leaned back away from Scott. "Oh, Sorry. I thought he does, since he's you know... a God." He paused, "Wait. Does he call you, "my child" as a pet name? Like, does he say, 'rest now, my child'?"
"Scott, please stop."
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"Thanos found the Soul Stone on Vormir," Nebula explained as she stood beside the screen that showed the Soul Stone. "What is Vormir?" Natasha questioned without looking up from her notes, writing down informations.
"A dominion of death at the very centre of celestial existence," Everyone in the room straightened up at the information and Nebula continued, "It's where Thanos murdered my sister."
Rocket, who was sitting beside Bruce while Y/N stood on his other side, looked down grimly on his hands. Y/N saw this and put a comforting hand on the raccoon's back. Everyone in the room looked at each other in silence and Scott muttered, "Not it."
After writing down informations about the Soul Stone, the Avengers took their turn to talk about the Time Stone. Tony, Natasha and Y/N were laying on the table while Bruce laid on the ground as they discussed about the remaining stone.
"That Time Stone," Natasha started and Bruce corrected her, "Doctor Strange." Y/N had her head laying on Natasha's stomach, watching her twirl the pen on her hand whilst listening, "Yeah, what kind of doctor was he?"
"Ear-nose-throat meets rabbit-from-hat."
"Nice place in the Village, though," Bruce quipped. "Yeah, on Sullivan Street?" Tony asked. Bruce pondered for a second, "Hmm... Bleecker Street," Still laying on Natasha's stomach, Y/N felt her eyes becoming heavy as tiredness slowly consumes her. "Wait, he lived in New York?"
"Uh, yeah, on Bleecker and Sullivan."
"No, he lived in New York."
"Have you been listening to anything? Y/N, you listening, too?" Tony called her out and she opened her eyes, frowning at him. "Of course, I've been listening to everything. Nat says he lived on New York," She says in as a matter-of-fact tone, earning a small pat on the head from the Widow.
"Guys. If you pick the right year, there are three stones in New York." Natasha simply stated in realization then Bruce and Y/N instantly perked up at this.
"Shut the front door."
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That evening, the team gathered in the conference room in front of the Time Heist hologram at the front of the room, showing all six of the Infinity stones in each separated columns.
Steve strode forward, "All right. We have a plan. Six stones, three teams, one shot."
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The Avengers walked the portal together in their white and red time travel suits. The sun shone over their figures, creating shadows on the ground each step.
Y/N walked between Tony and Natasha, face straight and eyebrows furrowed in determination as they stood on the glass of the portal in a circle.
"Five years ago, we lost. All of us. We lost friends. We lost family. We lost a part of ourselves," Y/N felt Natasha's hand gently squeezing her hand as they listened to Steve.
"Today, we have a chance to take it all back. You know your teams. You know your missions. Get the stones, get them back."
Steve looked at each of them, "One round-trip each. No mistakes... No do-overs. Most of us are going somewhere we know. That doesn't mean we should know what to expect. Be careful, look out for each other," Y/N and Tony glanced at each other and nodded.
"This is the fight for our lives, and we're gonna win. Whatever it takes. Good luck."
"He's pretty good at that," Rocket commeted as Steve finished his speech. Y/N jerked her head slightly in agreement and Scott soffed, "Right?"
"All right," Tony called to Bruce over the controls, "You heard the man. Stroke those keys, Jolly Green." After fixing the adjustments on the controls, Bruce stated, "Trackers engaged." Then he walked up to the portal to stand beside the others in the circle.
Natasha lightly bumped her elbow to Steve and Y/N with a grin, "See ya in a minute," They grinned back at her then braced themselves as the machine roared to life.
One by one, everyone's helmet closed around their heads and faces, the floor of the portal stretched downwards and oppened an orange portal, sucking down the Avengers in itself
Y/N shuts her eyes closed as her body shrunk and was sent down through the Quantum Realm. Microscopic living organisms and living specs floated across them and up ahead another portal was opening, her body shooting towards it along with here team.
Within a second, Y/N landed steadily on her feet with her team in their designated timeline.
END OF CHAPTER.
- 2k words
AUTHOR'S NOTE!
No because I'm not physically ready to write Natasha's death </3