chapter xxviii of the death season :
" WHATEVER IT TAKES . "
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" We're family. We leave no one behind. "
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january 26th, 2023
avengers compound
" OKAY , SO THE HOW WORKS . "
Lisa pushes a loose strand of hair behind her ear, gnawing on her bottom lip as she finishes typing out the title of their mission: /operation: Time Heist - Brainstorming Session. After giving a thumbs-up towards Laurie for coming up with the title, Lisa's fingers slide up and then the screens are showcasing each of the six Infinity Stones. The Avengers sit around the conference room, all turning to look at the colorful hologram displays on the walls.
"Now, we have to figure out the When and the Where." Giving a satisfied nod, Steve stands beside the display, "Almost everyone in this room has had an encounter with at least one of six Infinity Stones."
Tony passes along in front of the screens, "Or substitute the word 'encounter' for dang near been killed by one of the six Infinity Stones."
Lisa makes a face of disgruntled agreement. The amount of times she's almost been killed or has actually been killed by some crazy wannabe god for an Infinity Stone is sort of excessive.
"Well, I haven't..." Scott pipes up, "But I don't even know what the heck you're all talking about."
"A whole mood." Laurie nods, sitting in the middle of the table eating a defrosted chicken pot pie or some other random thing she found in the freezer.
For a bunch of superheroes, they really don't have a lot of fun options when it comes to the major dietary needs of Laurie LaRue Lang. She's decided to blame Tony Stark for that too.
All this to say, Iron Man wasn't thrilled to read the blue-haired girl's extensive list of complaints and recommendations for a better stay at the Hotel de la Avengers.
Bruce moves on, "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."
"Our history." Tony adds on, still pacing around the large conference room.
Lisa huffs with one ankle resting on her knee, "So knowing us, it's probably going to be a disaster wherever or whenever we go, is that what you're telling us?"
Tony pauses, blinking for a moment before shrugging, "Pretty much."
She drops back into her chair, "Cool."
Clint leans against the doorframe, "So, we have to pick our targets."
"Correct."
"So, let's start with the Aether." Steve regains focus towards the front of the room, concentrated blue eyes darting to the corner, "Thor. What do you know?"
Everyone quickly turns to look at the god of thunder with great expectations. They are, unfortunately, let down. The once majestic god now sits in what may be a lawn chair, bearded, hairy, a beer in hand, and wearing sunglasses to hide the fact that he is most definitely out cold.
When he doesn't answer, Natasha squints, "Is he asleep?"
"No, no." Rhodey tsks back, "I'm pretty sure he's dead."
Everyone quickly elects Lisa to be one to wake the big guy up, all very aware that she is the person he's least likely to rage at upon being woken up. So, once the former Red Raven manages to get the God of Thunder awake, Thor grumpily strides up to the large screen to begin his session in the flowing red Infinity Stone.
"Uh, where to start? Umm..." He peels off his sunglasses, squinting under the lighting, "The Aether, firstly, is not a Stone. Someone's called it a stone before." He points at Steve in mild accusation who just furrows his eyebrows, "Ahem... Um, it's more of a... an angry sludge, sort of thing. So, someone's gonna need to amend that, and stop saying that."
Rhodey sucks in a deep heavy breath and glances at Clint who's pursing his lips.
"Here's an interesting story, though. About the Aether. My grandfather, many years ago, had to hide the Stone from the Dark Elves." His eyes widen and he quickly wiggles thick fingers at the group, "Ooooo, scary beings! So, Jane actually..."
Just then, a photo of the scientist comes on the screen and Thor jumps a little.
"Oh, there she is! Yeah, so Jane was an old flame of mine."
Tony and Lisa slowly glance at each other, the familiar Stark look of immense concern radiating off each of their faces.
"Uh you know, she stuck her hand inside a rock this one time, and then the Aether stuck itself inside her!"
Steve and Svet simultaneously cock their heads to the side in confusion.
"And she became very, very sick. So I had to take her to Asgard, which is where I'm from."
Scott and Laurie giddily nod and smile up at the god, completely enthralled with his story.
"And we had to try and fix her. We were dating at the time, you see. I got to introduce her to my mother..." His face crumbles, "Who's dead, and umm..." He whimpers, "Ooooh, you know, Jane and I aren't even dating anymore, so..." He tries to pull himself together, "These things happen though, you know? Nothing lasts forever. The only thing that-,"
Tony quickly stands and tries to politely take him off the so-called stage, "Why don't you come sit down next to Lisa?"
The girl subtly tries to wave him over, awkwardly squinting and biting at her thumb nail.
"I'm not done yet!" Thor brushes him off, "The only thing that is permanent in life, is impermanence."
Laurie's mind is blown at this sage piece of wisdom.
"Awesome." Tony quickly claps, still trying to shut him up, "Eggs? Breakfast?"
"No." Thor drunkenly laughs, "I'd like a Bloody Mary."
"Uncle Steve?" Svet crinkles her eyebrows, looking up at the captain, "Does he do the drugs?"
Steve sighs.
NEXT , OVER LUNCH , IT ' S ROCKET ' S TURN .
Standing on the long conference table, Rocket looks at everybody like he owns the place, "Quill said he stole the Power Stone from Morag."
Pausing in the middle of her milkshake, Svet scrunches her nose, "Morag... Is this a person?"
"Morag's a planet!" Rocket snaps like they're all idiots, "Quill was a person."
"Chillax Meeko." Lisa huffs in defense of the younger girl, sitting between her uncle Rhodey and Nebula, "You're saying all this like we're supposed to know."
"A planet?" Scott's eyes are wide in wonder, "Like in outer space?"
"Oh, look! It's like a little puppy, all happy and everything." Rocket cooes and reaches forward for Scott's head, rubbing and petting his hair, "Do you wanna go to space? You wanna go to space, puppy? I'll take you to space!"
Putting up with it, Scott just rolls his eyes and looks back down at his food, irritatedly shaking his head. But Laurie is having none of it, looking up from her Chow Mein and pointing her chopsticks like a weapon.
"Ok-ay, if you call my dad 'puppy' one more time, I will flip-floppin' deck you and then turn you into a hat!"
Rocket stops for a long tense moment, and then he laughs, "I like her!"
AFTER LUNCH , NEBULA HAS A GO .
The blue woman stands before the group, pitch black eyes trained on the ground, voice raspy as she speaks, "Thanos found the Soul Stone on Vormir."
"What is Vormir?" Natasha asks in that no-nonsense tone of hers.
Svetlana nervously fiddles with her short braids as she leans tiredly against Natasha's legs, hands clammy and throat tight. Natasha has one arm around her daughter while she takes notes with her other hand, her own braid hanging over her shoulder. Steve stands behind his two girls, arms over his chest and head tilted to the side while Nebula takes in a deep breath to explain.
"A dominion of death... at the very center of Celestial existence. It's where..." The blue woman refuses to meet any of their questioning gazes, "Thanos murdered my sister."
Svet's eyes cautiously widen and Natasha slowly looks up while everyone goes terribly, deadly silent.
A deep mournful feeling fills the center of Svet's chest and she tries to extinguish it, tries to kill it, tries to feel nothing again. But the feeling doesn't go away.
And then Scott suddenly mumbles, "Not it."
Laurie flicks him in the ear.
A FEW MINUTES LATER , Tony, Natasha, and Lisa all lay on the conference table while Bruce lays on the floor beside them. The trio stares at the ceiling with books and papers scattered everywhere, mixed among coffee cups and old lunch plates that no one felt like cleaning up.
"So, that Time Stone guy-,"
"Doctor Strange." Bruce supplies Stephen's full title.
Resting her head on Tony's stomach, Lisa blows a raspberry, "Ehhh, I'm pretty sure it was Doctor Weird."
Tony snorts.
"Yeah..." Natasha taps her pen to her chin, letting her notebook rest on her stomach, "What-what kind of doctor was he?"
"Ear-nose-throat meets rabbit from a hat." Tony mumbles, rubbing his eyes tiredly.
Bruce shrugs, "Nice place in the Village, though."
"Yeah, on Sullivan Street?"
"Hmm... Bleecker." Bruce continues correcting.
"Wait." Nat cocks her head to the side, "He lived in New York?"
"Yeah-," Lisa barely gets to start before Tony is jabbing her sharply in the ribs.
"No!" He scoffs, "He lived in Toronto. Are you even listening?"
"That's so not right!" Lisa smacks a hand to her forehead in irritation.
Still, Bruce does his best to back the girl up, "Yeah, not Sullivan, it's Bleecker."
"Thank you, Bruce! God!"
The two happily high-five each other before sending dirty looks over their shoulders to Tony who just sits up and glares right back at them.
But Natasha cuts into their shenanigans with a simple realization, "Guys, if you pick the right year, there are three Stones in New York."
The group goes absolutely silent before Bruce gasps, "Shut the front door!"
" ALRIGHT . WE HAVE A PLAN . SIX STONES . THREE TEAMS . ONE SHOT . "
NEW YORK ;
Steve Rogers. Laurie Lang.
stones: mind stone
Tony Stark. Lisa Stark. Scott Lang.
stones: space stone
Bruce Banner.
stones: time stone
MORAG & VORMIR ;
Natasha Romanoff. Svetlana Barnes.
Clint Barton.
stones: soul stone
James Rhodes. Nebula.
stones: power stone
ASGARD ;
Thor Odinson. Rocket.
stones: reality stone
WITH THE AVENGERS ASSEMBLED , donned in matching red and white suits, the three teams slowly walk in a double-file line towards the Quantum Time Machine. As the sun sets over the horizon, over the last day of their failure, they slowly climb onto the platform and form a circle over the arc.
"Five years ago, we lost. All of us." Steve starts, his voice more serious than it's ever been, "We lost friends."
Laurie looks to her feet, standing between Scott and Bruce.
"We lost family."
Svetlana clenches her fists, straightening between Natasha and Clint.
"We lost a part of ourselves."
Lisa swallows hard, finding her place between Tony and 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. 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. This is the fight of our lives... And we're gonna win."
Tony smirks out the corner of Lisa's eye, glancing at Steve with a knowing look.
"Whatever it takes." Steve matches Tony's gaze, "Good luck."
The group stands in silence for a half a second, the weight of their missions bearing down upon them, the memory of what is at stake taking form within their minds. They think about those they have lost, those that they're fighting for.
They couldn't save the world.
But they can avenge it.
"He's pretty good at that," Rocket breaks the silence, subtly glancing up at the Langs while referring to Steve's speech.
"Wow..." Laurie looks absolutely in love and Scott doesn't look much different, "Right?!"
"Alright, you heard the man." Tony rolls his shoulders back, bumping sides with Lisa, "Stroke these keys, jolly green."
Hulk-Bruce nods from where he stands by the control board, "Trackers engaged."
Tony bounces on the balls of his feet, quickly shaking his head, "Last chance to back out, Lees..."
"You wish, old man." Lisa wears a smirk when he gives her an unamused look, "What? Worried you're gonna be shown up by your daughter?"
He scoffs, "As if anybody could show me up."
Lisa playfully rolls her eyes before her expression softens, "Dad... are you with me?"
His dark eyes meet her warm ones, and he smiles just a little, "I wouldn't have it any other way, Smalls."
On the other side of the platform Rocket has a look of concern, nodding to the shrunken Benatar in Clint's hand, "You promise to bring that back in one piece, right?"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, do my best!" Clint is not at all convincing, clearing his throat and awkwardly looking away.
Rocket purses his lips, arms over his chest, "As promises go, that was pretty lame."
"It was pretty lame." Svet agrees with a small smirk.
Client sends her a dirty look before he playfully ruffles her hair which is basically the uncle's way of telling her to be on his side or to shut it. Svet eagerly ducks and darts away, laughing a little before scooting closer to Natasha. The mother gives a happy smile, shifting her shoulders comfortably back and forth, getting ready for this.
"Ty Gotova, Svetka?" Ready, Svetka?
"Tak zhe, kak i vsegda budu." The daughter breathes back. As I will ever be.
"See ya in a minute," Natasha looks sharply at Steve, giving her brother her signature smirk.
Steve side eyes her, giving his two girls a soft small smile back, "Look out for each other."
"We'll be fine, Uncle Steve." Svet grins and nods, "I pinky promise it so."
Steve chuckles quietly back before his own smile slowly fades into a determined deep breath.
The atmosphere shifts.
The weight of the world settles upon their shoulders.
The momentum swells, the adrenaline kicks in, and then they're ready.
Svet reaches out a little, gloved fingers curling around her mother's. Laurie meets Scott's eyes, each sharing a nervous but steady look. Lisa snatches onto Tony's hand, holding it tightly as her eyes stare at the floor opening beneath their feet.
The rims begin to spin. The arc begins to glow. Their masks take form. They share one last glance.
And then, the Avengers shrink and they enter the Quantum Realm, and the final mission begins.
One last time.
[ This is our time, no turning back
We could live, we could live like legends
This is our time, no turning back
We could live, we could live like legends
Faith falls hard on our shoulders
But legends never die ]
xxviii. live like legends ruelle
IT'S HAPPENING, IT'S HAPPENING, EVERYBODY STAY CALM!
we literally only have a few more chapters until we lose certain characters and certain loved ones and i am honestly so stressed!! ahhh, bro, we have so much coming, laughter, tension, tears! who's ready to do this thing? me.
and now, the final mission is happening! i am so excited to show my babes' reactions to going back in time. we got lisa and laurie going back to 2012, and svet going back to 2014, it's gonan be absolutely wild. sidenote: i was unsure of where to send laurie but her connection with steve is just too good to get rid of. it's all written and i cannot handle them. laurie is chaotic and steve is not a fan, it's my fav. lisa is seeing her old self and sixteen year old lisa is a lisa we all should stan! and svet.... oh boy, oh boy, get ready for the pain, my dudes.
BUT ANYWAY, I'M BACK, AND I'M READY TO GO! wowowow i'm so ready to dive in! the next chapter should probably be up by the end of the week so i'm real excited about that. what are you all ready to see?