#Tony Loki and Nebula 'time traveling' back to fix everything

[themculibrary]

AU - Time Travel Masterlist 2

Links Last Checked: May 23rd, 2024

part one

3 Steps Back (ao3) - RavenOfRao pepper/tony T, 135k (WIP)

Summary: In Peter’s professional opinion, the world had gone to shit.

When Tony had snapped, bringing back half of all life and stopping Thanos, everyone thought that the world would go back to the way it was. But nothing ever works out so nicely, does it?

————

When Peter is given the chance to go back and save everyone, he is sent back to before Civil War. All alone, Peter must find a way to save the avengers, and the world. Shit.

all the ways in which we won (ao3) - jbsforever T, 13k

Summary: Four months after Tony’s funeral, Peter comes home to find a mysterious box on his desk. The universe, it seems, is done waiting for him to move on.

It gives him another option instead.

Ásgarðrian Galdr (ao3) - Valerie_Vancollie T, 479k

Summary: What if Loki was able to warn his past self, so he did not lose control during his regency and was able to act as he normally would? What if he had been able to remain calm and in control of himself, and the situation? “How?” Loki demanded. “Betrayal,” his future self stated simply, rage clear in every syllable. “But you must control your reaction and come to see me, or you will repeat my mistakes and we will miss an opportunity to take control and alter things in our favor.” It would have changed everything.

Been There, Blown That Up (ao3) - GwendolynStacy T, 68k

Summary: After Loki’s defeat and his fall from the portal, Tony starts preaching about a murderous purple titan out to get them in the depths of space.

Wait. What?

On the other side of the universe, Nebula loses her cool approximately two seconds after laying eyes on Thanos and finds herself on a wild chase through the galaxy. Now, where exactly was that pathetic piece of rock Terra again?

Born Of The Same Impulse (ao3) - GwendolynStacy T, 82k

Summary: Barely five minutes into the past and Tony has already taken care of Ultron, thus prevented Sokovia, thus – hopefully – made sure that the Civil War would never happen. All things considered, he was doing pretty well!

Then he just had to look up his fellow superhero turned time traveller on the internet.

Iron Through Time (ao3) - Genuka tony/stephen T, 44k (WIP)

Summary: Waking up in the middle of the Expo battle because the Infinity Stones thought it would be a good laugh was not how one Tony Stark thought his day was going to go. He had just snapped his fingers and expected it to kill him. Being tossed right back into combat with outdated armor, panicked civilians, and Jarvis sounding in his ears was disorienting. At least he had Rhodey and a baby Spiderling who would believe him?

Oh who was he kidding, this was a disaster! But Tony Stark would be damned if he wouldn't take advantage of this latest weird twist to his life!

Hi ho Silver away!

Look to the Past to Find Your Future (ao3) - Stuckonstuckony (adoctoraday) bucky/tony E, 46k

Summary: Tony takes a detour to the 40’s after defeating Thanos thinking it’ll just be a quick stop before returning to the future. And then he runs into Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes and everything changes.

Never odd or even (ao3) - memoriaeterna T, 80k

Summary: Time. Space. Reality. It’s more than a linear path. When faced with the impossible, magic does the unthinkable. Now bearing the words of their worst enemies and greatest allies as the markers in pursuit of three different ends, the question is whether they can accomplish what they came back for without jeopardizing each other?

Or: A group of time travelers unintentionally ending up in the same past to fix three separate future problems is a recipe for disaster.

Peter and Morgan’s 40-Year-Long-Day (ao3) - thisMarvelousLife T, 26k

Summary: Morgan is far too clever for her own good. She knows that the infinity stones can do anything, so surely they’d let her see her dad again.

Peter never planned on using the stones, he just wanted to keep Morgan out of trouble.

(The time-travel fix-it fic in which Tony lived his life with his kids from the future showing up at random intervals thanks to time stone shenanigans)

phoenix (ao3) - OnlyForward pepper/tony, tony/stephen G, 39k

Summary: tony stark comes back to life after everyone’s memory of peter parker disappears in the battle at the statue of liberty. he’s the only one who remembers peter, is decidedly not happy about the fact he’s the only one, and promptly vows to fix it

yeah it’s a no way home fix it fic ft. irondad and spiderson okay

the reactions of a dead man (ao3) - agloeian T, 67k

Summary: Loki wakes up in the past with all the knowledge he needs to stop Thanos ever coming to power in the first place. This somehow doesn’t stop him from getting into trouble.

A Post-Infinity War Time Travel Fix-it Fic.

Time Falls Away (ao3) - NotEvenCloseToStraight bucky/tony, steve/peggy M, 79k

Summary: The Battle of New York: Tony flies himself and the nuke through the wormhole and when his suit shuts down and he starts to fall, he knows he's going to die.

But then he wakes up in an alley in Brooklyn, two strangers staring down at him in confusion and Tony is sure he is dreaming when he shakes hands first with pre-serum Steve Rogers, and then Bucky Barnes.

Trapped in 1942, Tony befriends Steve, and falls in love with Bucky but America is at war, and Bucky and Steve ship out to join the cause.

Tony knows all the stories about the Howling Commandos and knows what’s coming for the soldiers, and has to live through history as first Bucky falls, and then Steve disappears.

Tony is left alone in the 40's, crying himself to sleep in the house he had shared with his best friend and his lover.

But then he wakes up on the pavement in New York, the Hulk roaring in his face, Steve staring down at him, and he has to wonder if it was all a hallucination. When Tony fell through the sky, did he fall through time as well? Why does Steve act so cold towards him? Were he and Bucky really that happy together?

Did it all really happen, or is Tony in love with a life he can only have in his dreams?

to memory now I can’t recall (ao3) - Etharei steve/bucky E, 102k

Summary: While on a mission storming a HYDRA facility, James Buchanan Barnes touches one of the many strange alien devices collected by the Red Skull. He does this, in fact, twice— in the past, and in the future.

Next thing he knows, Bucky Barnes is opening his eyes in the 21st century, which is full of great gadgets and coffee, and at least includes his old pal Steve. (And, inexplicably, a different Stark.) Meanwhile, the Winter Soldier finds himself in the middle of World War Two, helping Captain America hunt down HYDRA (which is at least familiar), pretending to be Bucky Barnes (which is not), and figuring out the very noisy group of soldiers who call themselves the Howling Commandos.

Try, Try Again (ao3) - mak5258 pepper/tony, mj/peter N/R, 89k

Summary: Peter fell asleep headed to orbit in 2039 and woke up fourteen again the summer of 2015, given a chance to try to change the future. (Basically my spin on the time travel fix-it. Forewarning that there are character deaths, but they mostly come back.)

We Will Foresee Obstacles (ao3) - blackwatchandromeda (avenris) T, 11k

Summary: Post-Endgame fix-it fic because I refuse to accept that part. Contains plenty of Ironfam, with a healthy dose of May, Ned and fake time travel science.

Whatever it Takes (ao3) - StarryKnight09 T, 89k

Summary: Peter’s struggling to cope after the loss of Mr. Stark. Everyone keeps telling him it’ll get better and that he needs to move on, but Peter doesn’t want to. He can’t envision a life without his mentor. So when an idea comes to him, he doesn’t hesitate, no matter how crazy it is. He’s going to get Mr. Stark back.

“What exactly are we going to do?” Ned asked. “Whatever it takes.” Peter answered.

Wish We Could Turn Back Time (ao3) - Girlinpink44 pepper/tony T, 64k

Summary: With a snap of his fingers, Tony Stark finds himself with the chance to change everything. Armed with foreknowledge and his found family, can he figure out a way to stop Thanos before he snaps? They say hindsight is 20/20 and Tony is about to find out how true that really is.

Z to A (ao3) - memoriaeterna wanda/vision, pepper/tony T, 88k

Summary: The moment of disorientation was nothing compared to the next thing he saw. He was standing in the midst of an airport, looking directly at a girl with the familiar red leather coat. The mutual recognition was instant. Leipzig. Or, Peter and Wanda sent back in time to stop the inevitable. Good news: they are not alone. Bad news: who and from when.

[bumblesimagines]

Green Thumb

Part 20

Request: Yes or No

~

"Time travel sounds fun until you see how cringy you used to be." You said, watching Nebula fix some things on the suit Scott had on.

"I've never been cringy." Scott said. You stayed silent in response, glancing at Rhodes. Scott blinked, scoffing softly as you giggled.

"You're great, Scott." You gave a tired smile. Bruce went to put in the red capsules.

"Hey- Hey, be careful!"

"I'm being very careful." Bruce replied.

"No, you're being very Hulky." Scott put in the capsules himself. Even if Bruce was careful, he could still crush whatever was in there without even thinking about it. It was weird seeing Bruce in Hulks body but you supposed it helped end the beef they had. Scott and Bruce went back and forth until he turned small and big in a second.

"Alright, one test run." Scott gave a sheepish smile, glancing at everyone in the room. "I'm not ready for this."

"I'm game." You turned your head, looking at Clint. You crossed your arms, a soft sigh leaving you.

"I'll do it." Clint shrugged. Scott licked his lips, looking at Bruce. Bruce gave him a small nod so Scott walked out of the room to change out of the suit. Clint followed.

"So.. He got a new tattoo." Rhodes glanced at you. You licked your lips, shrugging lightly. Rhodes sighed, leaving the room momentarily before returning with some twizzlers. He offered one to you, giving a small smile. You took it, taking a small bite from it as Clint walked into the room with the suit on. Nebula made sure everything was good with the suit.

"Clint, you're gonna feel a little discombobulated from the shift. Don't worry about it." Bruce told him.

"Wait, wait.. Let me ask you something. If we can do this, you know go back in time, why don't we just find baby Thanos and just.." Rhodes made a wrapping and squeezing motion.

"I mean, it's a solid idea. Baby Thanos was probably real ugly anyways." You said, chewing on the candy. Bruce stared at you and Rhodes in disbelief.

"First of all, that's horrible-"

"It's Thanos."

"And secondly, time doesn't work that way. Changing the past doesn't change the future."

"We go back and get the stones before Thanos gets them.. Thanos doesn't get the stones!" Scott said, shrugging. Rhodes nodded, motioning to him.

"Problem solved!"

"Bingo." Clint nodded as Nebula glanced at them, giving a small shake of her head.

"That's not how it works." She muttered.

"Anyways, who told you that?"

"Star Trek, Terminator, Time Cop, Time After Time, Wrinkle in Time, Hot Tub Time Machine-"

"So, any movie with time in the name." You said with a chuckle.

"Well, it doesn't work like that. If you travel to the past, that past becomes your future and your former present becomes your past." Bruce explained. You hummed, continuing to munch on the twizzler.

"If time travel works.. That means there's different versions of ourselves in different.. Dimensions, right? Like living things we've lived and making decisions we'll eventually make?"

"Yes, actually." Bruce nodded, glad that at least someone was getting it.

"For example, my past self might be in Sokovia fighting Ultron right now while my future self might be relaxing on a beach." Bruce said with a shrug. You hummed, nodding.

"I wonder what my future self is doing.."

"Probably getting therapy instead of napping and drinking." Rhodes muttered, glancing at you. You scoffed softly.

"You drink?" Clint questioned, brows furrowing as a frown tugged at his lips. You shifted your gaze back to the man you used to call dad and shrugged.

"Occasionally." Once the suit was good to go and Bruce had told Clint everything he needed to do, you followed the guys and Nebula to the platform Rocket had built. It was surprising how much a raccoon could built. You glanced at Thor, giving him a small nod. Bruce walked up to the controls, the others standing behind him as they watched Clint stand in the center.

"Alright, Clint.. We're going in three.. Two.." You could tell Clint was nervous, you were too. Despite everything, he had still been someone who took you in and loved you. You slowly chewed on the twizzler, gaze flickering around the platform. To Clint it could feel like hours but it would merely be seconds for you and the others. Clint suddenly appeared, falling on the ground. The helmet retracted as he panted. Natasha quickly rushed up onto the platform with you following incase he had injuries. Natasha helped him up, getting him grounded as Clint looked around.

"I saw her... I saw Lila again.." Clint panted. You stared at him, swallowing as your grip on the twizzler tightened. Clint tossed a baseball glove at Tony, nodding.

"It worked." Clint said. A sense of relief filled you along with everyone. There was a chance at getting everyone back. The team turned, heading to an office in order to talk more and come up with a game plan. You finished your twizzler, taking a seat and watching Tony pull up pictures of the stones.

"We gotta find out the when and the where." Steve said, looking over all of the stones.

"Almost everyone in this room has had at least one encounter with an infinity stone." Steve turned his attention onto everyone. You supposed Vision counted as an encounter.

"Or substitute encounter by being damn near killed by one of the stones." Tony added, shrugging as he sipped on his coffee.

"I haven't." Scott piped in. "I have no clue what the hell you're talking about."

"Regardless, we only have enough pinparticles for one trip each and these stones have been in a lot of different places throughout history." Bruce said, slowly walking around the office.

"Our history." Tony reminded him. "So, not alot of convenient spots to drop in."

"Which means we'll have to pick our targets." Clint muttered. Tony nodded, shooting him the side eye. You cocked a brow when you made eye contact with Tony. Tony simply patted your shoulder.

"Let's start with the ether. Thor, what do you know?" Steve asked, everyones' attention shifting onto the god of lighting. Thor sat in a corner, coke bottle in hand and sunglasses on.

"Is he asleep?" Natasha asked after Thor didn't answer. You stared at him. The last five years had definitely been rough for him.

"Pretty sure he's dead." Rhodes mumbled. You sighed, reaching forward and grabbing a cup of water. You made it turn ice cold before tossing it at the god. Thor jolted awake, looking down at his wet shirt.

"Thor, the reality stone. What do you know about it?" Steve asked again, watching him stand and approach the picture of the reality stone. You listened to Thors' rambling, turning to look at Tony. Scott was the only one interested in what he had to say. Tony approached him, urging him to sit.

"Alright.. Who's next?"

~~~~~~~~~~

You stared at the pictures. Three stones in New York, one in Asgard, and the other two in Morag. You looked at Steve as he approached the hologram.

"Alright, we have a plan. Six stones, three teams. One shot." Steve said. You swallowed, glancing at Rocket and Thor. You had been assigned on their team. Just in case. You stood up with the others, going off to change. You stared at the two pictures in your locker. One of the Barton family and the other of the Stark family. You headed towards the platform after changing, standing beside Thor and Rocket.

"Stay safe." Natasha said softly, giving your arm a squeeze. Steve gave a pep talk before you put your helmet on. You absolutely hated the feeling as you went through what looked like a blue tunnel. When you blinked, you were in Asgard. Thor held a finger up to his lips, passing by a room. You followed, glancing back and seeing his brother. You had never officially met Loki but he was an odd dude. You reached a hall, standing besides Thor. You listened to the women talk in the hall. You shared a look with Rocket.

"There's Jane." Thor whimpered, shaking his head. Rocket sighed.

"Alright.." Rocket hopped off the stone block, looking at you and Thor.

"You're gonna charm her, (Y/N) will be our lookout, and I'll poke her with this thing, get the stone, and we'll be gone." Rocket said, watching Thor. You gave a nod but Thor sniffled.

"I'll be right back. The wine cellar is just down here. My father used to have this huge barrel of ale." You stared at Thor, letting out a sigh as you scratched your forehead. You heard a door opening and quickly ducked besides Rocket.

"Yes, and could you also let me know when Gaia plans on visiting again?" You blinked, feeling your body freeze. You slowly stood, glancing at Thor as he slowly walked down the hall, gaze on the woman.

"Who's the fancy woman?" Rocket asked, hopping onto the stone. You swallowed, turning your head and looking at the woman.

"That's my mother..." Thor answered. Your eyes slightly widened, turning to face Thor. You opened your mouth to ask him a question.

"She dies today." Thor whispered. You shut your mouth, frowning. You licked your lips, gaze flickering around.

"How.. How does she know Gaia?" You asked softly. Thor glanced at you with furrowed brows.

"She was a friend of my mothers'." Thor answered. He looked back at where his mother had been, shaking his head.

"I can't do this." He breathed out, beginning to pant softly. You and Rocket faced him. Rocket told Thor to get closer as Thor rambled. You blinked as Rocket slapped him, almost laughing at the sight of a raccoon slapping a god.

"You think you're the only one who lost people? What do you think we're doing here? I lost the only family I ever had. Same with nature boy over here. I get you miss your mom, but she's gone. Really gone and there are plenty of people who are kind of gone. You can help them. So is it too much to ask that you brush the crumbs out of your beard, talk to the girl, and when she's not looking, suck the infinity stone and help us get our families back?" Rocket stared at him. Thor nodded, a small whimper leaving him as his eyes watered.

"Thor, calm down." You said softly, placing a gentle hand on his arm. "You're the god of lighting, Thor. You can do this."

"Yeah, yeah, I can." Thor nodded. You gave him a small smile, following Raccoon towards the door. You turned, hearing footsteps rushing away. You sighed.

"He's gone." You muttered. Rocket groaned softly.

"You go after him. I'll go get the stone." Rocket said, turning around and walking towards the room.

"I don't know this place." You huffed, looking at the talking raccoon. Rocket let out an exasperated sigh.

"Be my lookout." He mumbled. You walked towards the room Jane was in, watching Rocket enter. You stood infront of the doors, gaze flickering around. You had no idea what you were gonna do if somebody asked you what you were doing. You swallowed, glancing in the direction Thors' mother had gone in.

"He'll be fine." You assured yourself, speedwalking in the direction. You spotted Thor, quietly walking towards him.

"Thor-"

"Shh." He brought up a finger to his lips. Thor grabbed you, keeping you hidden behind the pillar as his mother passed by. She dismissed her girls. You and Thor peeked around the corner.

"What are you doing?" You flinched, letting out a yelp as a woman yelped as well. You turned and faced her, watching her look at Thor. Thor suddenly grabbed you, covering you with his jacket.

"You're better off leaving the sneaking to your brother." The woman said, head tilting.

"What are you wearing? Who is this?" She asked, stepping forward. You swatted Thor's arm away, clearing your throat.

"Uhm, I'm- I'm (Y/N)." You said. Rocket was gonna kill you.

"Frigga." She gave a polite smile. "What are you wearing?" Friggas' brows furrowed, looking Thor over. Frigga slowly approached her son, placing a hand on his cheek. Thor rambled slightly. Frigga smiled softly.

"You're not the Thor I know, are you?" She asked softly.

"Yes I am."

"The future hasn't been kind to you, has it?" She gently brushed some hair out of his face. You watched her, gaze softening. You could see why Thor loved his mother so much. They shared a tight hug, something Thor had desperately needed.

"Let's talk." Frigga smiled. You tuned out as Thor spoke to his mother. You walked around her room, looking over the glass. You licked your lips, looking over at them.

"How do you know Gaia?" You asked softly. Frigga turned to look you curiously.

"Like, uhm, Thor told me but I.. I wanna know more." You said, facing her. Frigga tilted her head, slowly approaching you.

"Gaia? What would you want with her?"

"She's my mother and she.. She kind of abandonded me." You shrugged lightly, letting out a small awkward laugh. Frigga hummed, gaze softening.

"Gaia's in.. It's hard to explain. She's in The Garden. She lives there and it's how she watches over her creations." Frigga explained.

"How do I get there?"

"Fairy rings. Only certain people have access to her portals." Frigga said. You nodded, keeping it in mind. Thor stood, approaching you and his mom.

"Mother, I must tell you something-"

"No, Thor." Frigga turned to face her son, pressing a finger to his lips.

"Mother-"

"Guys!" Rocket shouted, running towards you. "You were supposed to watch the door!"

"I know." You gave an apologetic smile. Rocket shook his head, showing the stone.

"I got it." He breathed out. "Oh, hey, you must be mom."

"I wish we had more time." Thor said softly. Frigga smiled gently, grabbing his hands.

"This was a gift. Now you go and be the man you were meant to be." Frigga said softly. Thor gave her a sad smile.

"I love you, mom."

"I love you." Frigga hugged Thor tightly. She pulled back and smiled. Rocket began to count but Thor stopped him. He extended his hand towards the balcony area. You and Rocket shared a look.

"W-What are we looking at?" He asked.

"It takes a second." Frigga chuckled softly. Thors hammer returned to him, making him beam. You smiled softly as the suit returned.

"Nice meeting you." You said.

"Same here." Frigga smiled, giving a small wave. The helmet came on and you went back through the nauseating blue tunnel. You grunted, shutting your eyes tightly.

"Yeah, fuck that." You muttered, rubbing your forehead. You looked around, noticing Clint fall to his knees with teary eyes.

"Where's Nat?"

~~~~~

Tags: @geek-and-proud @wolfelocksley @babyvisionisamenace @jjk-is-my-shit

[chirpingtiger]

HOLY SHIT, HOLY SHIT, GUYS WE’RE ALL SO STUPID!

Here we are all standing around like "Steve would never just sit in the background while people are being hurt" "he would never ditch his friends" “he wouldn’t vanish on everyone he’s spent 5 years trying to get back like that!”

We all missed the most obvious fucking reason that Steve wouldn't come right back after dropping off the stones!

HE STAYED TO FIX ALL THE ALTERNATE TIMELINES!

And not just in the “we accidentally let Loki escape with the tesseract and should probably try to get him back” sense.

I mean in the “I can weed HYDRA out of SHIELD from the very beginning” sense.

It's only HIS timeline that he can't alter without dire consequences - we already SAW that they can alter the others without losing anyone back home!

HELL NO he's not going to let HYDRA take over SHIELD or control Bucky for 70 years in the 1940 timeline! He's going to stick around and save it! He might even go get his OWN frozen ass out of the ocean and send 1940 timeline Steve back to Peggy!

Yes, Loki escapes with the tesseract in the 2012 timeline, so someone has to hunt his dumb ass down again, but Steve's not going to sit idly by as the Maximoff twins lose their family so Strucker can kidnap them and give them powers. He’s not going to let Project Insight get as far as it did. He's not going to let Tony make the Ultron mistake this time around.

The 2014 timeline doesn't have Thanos to deal with anymore, but what about the other timelines? What if he goes and deals with Thanos in each of them, and gives Gamora and Nebula a chance at a life of their own?

What if he prevents the snap from happening in all of the other timelines by pre-emptively wiping out Thanos in each of them?

We’ve already seen that the serum makes 90 years look like nothing as far as aging is concerned, for both Steve AND Bucky - so how the hell old is Cap when he gets back??? 400? 1000?! 5000?!?!

What if he's so damn old by the time he returns because he spent SO MANY YEARS FIXING EVERYTHING IN THE ALTERNATE WORLDS FROM BEHIND THE SCENES!

Steve Rogers is going to make sure that everyone, in EVERY universe, gets their happy ending.

My other theory about Natasha could even still hold - he returns the stone, a soul for a soul, and gets her back. Now they have the ultimate undercover team to help set everything straight.

They both have different directions to go when they return to the Alpha timeline, so they make the jump back a bit early.

They jump back to Scott's van while it's still in storage.

Maybe that's how the rat gets in, if we want to play with time-travel tropes.

Natasha makes her way to Clint's farm so she can meet them when the un-snap happens, and Steve makes his way to meet Sam and Bucky by the lake to hand off the shield.

GUYS, IT ALL MAKES SENSE NOW!

[fairyhaven13]

Just had to walk away from a conversation with my dad before it turned into an argument; he thinks that Marvel’s Infinity War and Endgame were great movies, and I think they’re crap. They tick me off, and because I can’t go on a rant about it to my dad without making him sad, I’m going to rant on here instead.

Spoilers. Under the cut if you’re interested.

First of all, after the first Avengers movie, we were given a distinct impression. This was a group of people who had their differences, who may never become good friends, but who would stick it together anyways to be a team. The classic “quirky characters bond out of fighting for the greater good.” This is what is known as a Found Family trope. It doesn’t mean that the characters would have seen eye to eye, or even necessarily liked each other, but they would have cared, because they’re family. Them eating shawarma together at the end was a good example of a stereotypical Found Family scene. 

I tried to explain this to my dad and brother, but they don’t understand. They think I mean we should get lots of Slice of Life scenes with them doing chores and playing hopscotch and “boring things.” They don’t understand that a good superhero team movie necessitates a sense of Found Family by the end of it, and doesn’t need “boring” Slice of Life in it at all. It just requires the team to want to stay a team, to want to defend each other and in general have that baseline of care towards each other. A funny quip in a fight scene, a moment of “No one picks on him but me!” 

Age of Ultron implied this even more strongly, with Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch hitting the team where it hurt: in the way they cared for each other, and made them afraid to lose one another. When the kids reformed, they were told that this heroic action was what it meant to be a team, to understand each other and fight for what’s right. This was emphasized with the team once again quipping and joking with each other during the fights, and showing how each one provides a specific strength to save the day.

After that, it was like the directors stopped caring. Team? What team? What Found Family? They all hate each other! What communication, what compromise? Steve goes hunting for his friend without telling his new family what he’s doing, and then leaves the team entirely when push comes to shove, also without talking it out with his new family. Tony is understandably hurt because, A) Steve knew Bucky killed his parents and never even bothered to talk this out with Tony, to give the guy time to mourn and decide what would be the right thing to do, and B) Tony wanted the Avengers initiative to work, he wanted to make it work, and seeing Steve leave tells him that Steve doesn’t care, that Steve wants to give up. And, Steve doesn’t bother to explain why this isn’t true, he just takes half the team and breaks Tony’s heart.

This is never fixed, never given any closure. The most we get is Steve and Tony going back in time to work together and get the Dragon Ball stone, and they don’t at all talk about what happened between them. Steve, the self-righteous hypocrite that he is, will never say sorry.

Steve goes on being selfish in Endgame, when he decides that, instead of stepping up to the plate when the team needed it--when Tony is literally dead--he’s going to abandon these people he’s worked with for years and be with the woman he knew for less than half that time. Dad thought this was sweet. I thought it was ridiculous. Steve was supposed to learn how to move on, how to be a part of this new world, and just like he did with the team before, he quit. He gave up and said it wasn’t worth it.

Second, we have the stupid plot of Endgame entirely. Time travel via Ant Man’s shrink machine. This. Is. Not. How. Quantum. Physics. Works.

You can’t just staple the word “quantum” onto something and go, “oh, it’s related to space displacement, but because it says quantum, it’s also tiiiime displacement!” That doesn’t work! Just because the darn machine can shrink and grow you, doesn’t mean it can magically shunt you through time! After Infinity War, this was the biggest theory everyone had, was that Scott was going to bring time travel into the mix in this exact way. I said, no, there’s no way they would be that stupid. Turns out, yeah. They were that stupid. They said “oooo quantum this, quantum that, poof, time travel!”

It would be one thing if this was a precedent for the series. If they used that sort of crappy, unbelievable reasoning all the time. But, they didn’t. They used much more understandable pseudoscience for everything else, and then they just... didn’t here. They pounded the idea of time travel into our heads because they couldn’t handle the idea that literally any other explanation might be better.

They don’t even bother to try making it make sense. Not at all. “Oh, we have to put the stones back so we don’t change the past!” What about Loki escaping? What about past Thanos and past Nebula being actually dead? And, you know, all of past Thanos’s other kids? His whole army? There’s a GIGANTIC paradox there and the directors do. not. care.

Third, we had so many characters that were cared for, developed carefully, just slaughtered. The worst offense was Loki. He had a whole movie dedicated to his reforming--yes, reforming, dad, stop trying to say he didn’t reform! He freaking reformed! He went from “BOW TO ME” with his fancy helmet and scepter, to “Asgard will rise again, brother!” and using that dumb, fancy helmet as a weapon because he didn’t care about how he looked anymore! That whole movie--Ragnarok--was specifically dedicated to finding Hulk, and reforming Loki to the point where he’d healed from so much of his madness in the previous movies. And, then what do they do?

They kill him like a dog. In about five seconds, with no attempt to defend himself with any of his large array of magical powers. All he does is poof up a knife. A knife. And, then he’s dead. No, I don’t care about the Loki show they’re making, that Loki show is using old Loki, the hurt one who didn’t get that chance to heal. They used an entire movie to heal the new Loki, and then they killed him.

The same goes for Vision and Gomorrah. Vision gets a whole movie where he’s born, and another movie where a chunk establishes his relationship with the Scarlet Witch, and then they kill him. Gomorrah gets two movies showing her growth and learning to love Peter, and then they kill her. What’s worse, is they bring her past version back and act like that’s okay! The past version, who doesn’t know Peter, who doesn’t even like Peter, who didn’t have a whole movie to teach Nebula how to love and be a sister again. The past version, who, according to their reasoning, should have stayed in the past to prevent a paradox! But, who cares about any of that??

Captain Marvel I can kind of get, the actor was only able to be there in the last few weeks of Engame’s production, and this was before her debut movie was made. But, it’s still very annoying how a character with so much buildup ended up with a measly couple punches on past Thanos, and it barely touches him. Why is past Thanos so much stronger than his older, wiser, supposedly more well prepared counterpart, huh?

The only thing this movie did well was Black Widow’s death. That scene was in direct contrast to Gomorrah’s death, and it was to show how, in reality, Thanos didn’t love Gomorrah at all. Clint fights Natasha viciously to stop her, tries to die in her stead, exactly the opposite of what Thanos does to his “daughter.” It was a scene made to show how horribly abusive Thanos was.

That’s it, that’s the only thing I appreciate about this movie. Well, that and squealing when Steve finally said, “Avengers, Assemble” again, when the portals all opened. That was nice.

All the rest of it sucks. I hate it, and I hate that this is where the MCU ended up after I had so much hope for it and its characters. It used to be so good. 

This is why I’m writing a gigantic freaking Fix-It Fic where Found Family happens and nobody dies and everyone is happy. This is why fanfiction even exists.

[enchantedlokii]

If You Were Here

Rating: PG-13

Warnings: mentions of death, implied/referenced alcoholism, depression, implied/referenced suicidal tendencies, language

Characters: Thor Odinson, Loki Odinson, Steve Rogers, Sam Wilson, Bucky Barnes, Clint Barton, Natasha Romanoff, Wanda Maximoff, Peter Parker, Tony Stark, Pepper Potts, James Rhodes, Stephen Strange, Wong, Peter Quill, Gamora, Drax, Rocket, Groot, Mantis, Nebula, Bruce Banner

Mentioned: Thanos, Scott Lang, Amora, Eitri, Frigga, Odin, Vision, Heimdall, Brunnhilde, Korg, Miek, Jane Foster, Hela Odindottir

Thor sat on a rock, glancing around at everyone around him. Now that the battle was over, those who had lost their friends and family finally had the chance to reunite. He saw Steve with Sam and — what was his name again? Bucky? They never really met, but Steve had mentioned him from time to time. Clint, Natasha, and Wanda were standing nearby, Clint talking on his phone with a small smile on his face.

A little farther away the young boy — he called himself Spider-Man? He looked far too young to be called a man, but Thor wasn’t going to judge. — was talking excitedly in front of Tony, Pepper, and Rhodey. Dr. Strange was watching nearby with a small smile, a short, round man standing next to him.

The Guardians were crowded a few feet from them, laughing at a joke or some funny story. Rocket had said that Thor could come with them when they leave Midgard, but he wasn’t so sure he would join them yet. He knew that they were already a family. While him and Rocket had become good friends since the Snap, he didn’t want to intrude.

Thor felt something hit the back of his head and let out a growl, bringing his hand up to rub it. From the dust, he guessed it must have been a rock. A surge of anger flowed through him, because who would dare throw something at him while he was mourning? Couldn’t they see that he wasn’t in the mood to jest right now?

He picked up Stormbreaker and started to stand, turning to face whoever had bothered him. He didn’t realize that everyone around him had fallen silent. Maybe if he had, he would have realized who his provoker was sooner. Instead, he didn’t realize until he saw long, black hair. His eyes widened at the sight and he dropped his weapon. “Loki?”

“Hello, Brother.” Loki looked the same as he had on the Statesman. Down to the fact that his skin was pale and bloody and his eyes shone with pain. His hair was messy and knotted and his clothes were dirty. “I’m here.”

Thor looked him over for a moment before running forward and wrapping around him tightly. He noticed his brother flinch a bit, grunting with pain, but he still relaxed slightly, letting his own arms wrap around Thor hesitantly. “I thought you were dead.”

“I, um, I was. Seriously this time.” Thor pulled him away to look at him. He remembered watching his brother die. He had watched Thanos snap his neck. He had said there was no resurrections this time. He was really dead. “You know I’m telling the truth, Thor.”

“I don’t understand. . .”

“Maybe I can help with that.” The two looked up to see Dr. Strange coming closer. “He speaks the truth. I came after the Statesman exploded. I still had the Time Stone at the time, and was able to use it to reverse his death.”

“Hold up, hold up.” A new voice cut in. Bruce — BruceHulk? — was coming from where he had been helping Scott with the Quantum Portal. He looked shocked and slightly offended as he glared at Dr. Strange. “You acted like you didn’t know who Thanos was.”

“I had to do what I had to do.”

“Can someone please explain what is going on here?” Loki asked, looking from Thor, to Bruce, then to Stephen. “All the sorcerer told me was I was needed for another time. I am extremely confused.”

“I still find it ironic you call me a sorcerer when you once learned from an apprentice sorceress,” Stephen grunted, smirking as Loki’s eyes widened with surprise. “Yes, I know about her. I know everything.”

“We don’t speak of Amora,” Thor murmured, noticing the hurt look in Loki’s eyes. “Come, Brother, let’s go somewhere private and I will explain all that has happened.”

Thor summoned Stormbreaker again and Loki gave him a look of confusion. “Where did that come from?”

“Eitri,” Thor shrugged, raising the axe and watching the amazement in Loki’s eyes as the Bifrost appeared. He seemed almost dizzy as they reappeared in Norway, not far from New Asgard. He swayed a bit an Thor grabbed his arm to steady him. “You okay?”

“Just give me a second,” Loki huffed, leaning against Thor slightly. “Apologies, it’s only been a few minutes since this fight for me.”

“Sit down,” Thor insisted, lowering his brother to sit on a rock. Loki didn’t protest. He sat down and slowly let go of Thor. “Do you need anything? We’re not far from New Asgard.”

“New Asgard?” Loki murmured, raising an eyebrow. Thor took the moment to switch to more comfortable clothes and saw Loki’s eyes widen again at his appearance. He looked in his eyes and must have noticed the distant look that always haunted his eyes now. “Brother. . . You’re not okay, are you?”

“Not now, Loki,” Thor sighed, shaking his head. “You’re hurt. You’re basically half-dead right now. You were dead. We’re going to take care of you first.”

“No, Thor.” Loki stood, still a bit shaky, and looked his brother in the eyes. For a moment he was silent, but Thor could tell that he was on the brink of losing his temper. “Thor, I know that d*mn look and I’m not going to let it slide. I am not going to live on a planet that hates my existence without my f*cking brother.”

Thor was surprised to see tears starting to shine in Loki’s eyes. He had seen them there many times before, but it was never for him. He never thought that Loki could cry for him. “I’m here, lillebror,” Thor told him softly. He held out an arm and let Loki fall against his chest. “I’m not going anywhere.”

Loki balled up a fist and weakly hit Thor’s chest. “I know that look,” Loki cried. “I know that look, storebror. Please. You’re hurting. I know. I can see it.”

“Loki, look at me.” Loki pulled away and looked at him. “You’re right. I’m not okay. I am hurting. But you have to listen to why before you freak out on me, okay? Let’s sit down and talk.”

Thor waited for Loki to nod before leading him back to the rock and sitting next to him. Memories of them talking like this when they were younger flooded his memories. There was a time that whenever either of them were upset, they would sit and talk it out. It was something Frigga encouraged, and it usually did help. But that stopped after what Odin saw in the Godseye Mirror.

“After. . . After what happened on the Statesman, I went to Eitri to craft Stormbreaker,” he started. He might as well get the whole story out of the way while Loki was listening to him. “Thanos was heading to Earth to take the Time Stone and the Mind Stone, and I knew that I needed to get to Midgard to help Bruce and the others. I got there in time. I was relieved. Vision was still fighting. Thanos wasn’t there yet. . . But he ended up taking the Stone anyway. He had it. He had all of them. And I stabbed him with Stormbreaker, but it didn’t kill him. He used the Stones. He wiped out half of all creatures. Told me I should have gone for the head.”

Thor felt a hand on his knee and sighed, closing his eyes. “I felt like I had failed. I was meant to avenge you and Heimdall and all the Asgardians he killed that day, but I failed. Not only that, but it was my fault that humanity was destroyed.”

“Thor. . .”

Thor shook his head. “We went back and found him. He had used the Stones again, and we thought that now that we were all together. . . All of us that were left, anyway. . . We thought we could overpower him and use the Stones to bring everyone back.”

“He destroyed them,” Loki murmured. Thor nodded, glancing over at him. He had forgot that his brother worked for Thanos at one point.

“He destroyed them,” Thor confirmed. “I. . . And I killed him. I killed him even though it meant nothing. Because everyone that I loved was gone.

“Val and Korg and Miek. . . They helped me set up New Asgard here, but it wasn’t enough. I locked myself away. They were the only ones who were allowed to see me unless I came out for supplies.”

“Supplies?” Loki questioned, raising an eyebrow.

“Alcohol. Food. . . That was about it,” Thor admitted. “Spent most of the day playing Fortnite with Korg and Miek. I just kept drinking, hoping that I would finally reach my limit, but it never happened. Five years and it never happened.”

“Hold up — five years?!” Loki asked. “It’s been five years?”

Thor nodded slowly. “About a month or so ago, Bruce and Rabbit came and found me. Told me they thought they had found a way to bring everyone back. I didn’t feel like I should come back with them. I. . . I didn’t feel like I should be considered an Avenger anymore, but they convinced me to come back.”

“And how, exactly, did you bring everyone back?” Loki asked. “The Infinity Stones are gone. That shouldn’t be possible.”

“Stark figures out time travel,” Thor shrugged. He saw Loki’s eyes widen a bit. “We split up and went to collect the Stones from different times. Rabbit and I. . . We traveled to Asgard. When the Aether was in Jane.”

Loki thought for a minute, and Thor guessed he was trying to place the time in his mind. Then a dark look clouded his eyes. “That would have been when I was imprisoned,” he murmured.

Thor nodded sadly. “I. . . It was the day mother died,” he admitted, lowering his head to his hands. “I spoke to her. I tried to hide, but you know there’s no hiding from mother. She told me to leave the sneaking to you.”

Thor smiled over at Loki and saw him return it sadly. “I wanted to warn her, but she told me that I was there to fix my future, not save hers. I. . . I think she knew she was going to die, Loki.”

“She visited me earlier that day,” Loki said quietly, his voice sad. Thor looked over at him again, curious. Their mother was not meant to visit Loki. No one was meant to. “The last thing I told her was that she wasn’t my mother.”

“I’m sure she knows you didn’t mean that,” Thor assured him. “She knows everything.”

Loki chuckled, the laugh wet from the tears that were gathering in his eyes. “Odin said that she would be proud of me,” he recalled. Thor remembered their father saying this after they found him in this spot. Loki had cast a spell on him that took him years to break. “I don’t know how she could be, though. I was never the son she wanted me to be.”

“She loved you, Loki,” Thor pressed. “And I believe she would be proud. Maybe you weren’t perfect, but neither was I. What matters is that we learn from our mistakes. That’s what she always said, remember?”

“Yeah. . . Yeah, I remember. I just. . .” Loki trailed off, glancing out at the water. “I fulfilled the prophecy.”

Thor realized what he meant immediately. He remembered the feast. He remembered the terror on Odin’s face. He remembered finding Loki listening to his and Frigga’s conversation through a goblet. He had immediately known that it was Loki that Odin had seen in the vision. Of course it was Loki. He was the secret sorcerer. The god of mischief.

They always knew that Loki would bring Ragnarok to Asgard, but something about it seemed off to Thor. “I don’t think that the prophecy was what Odin thought it to be,” Thor told him.

“The Godseye Mirror was never wrong, storebror,” Loki muttered. He was looking at his hands, and Thor guessed he was remembering how he and Amora broke the mirror trying to see the vision that was given to Odin.

“But Father was many times.”

Loki’s eyebrows knitted together as he thought. Thor saw the change immediately as Loki realized what he meant. “You think Odin was confused?”

“Odin saw one of his children leading an army of the dead,” Thor reminded him. “You didn’t do that, Hela did.”

“He saw one of his sons, Thor. Not just one of his children,” Loki reminded him.

“He thought he did,” Thor countered. “No offense, but you and Hela resemble each other quite a bit. If I didn’t know better, I would think I was the adopted one. Perhaps he saw her and thought it was you.”

There was a flicker of hope and desperation in Loki’s eyes. Thor smiled at it, letting his muscles relax as he saw the change in his expression. “That. . . That actually makes sense.”

Thor nodded in agreement, standing up. At first he just stared out at the water, then he turned and reached out a hand to help Loki up. “Let’s go into the city and have your wounds checked. Then you can rest,” Thor insisted. “You have living quarters in my home place.”

Loki froze, his face reflecting a mixture of emotions that Thor didn’t automatically recognize. For a moment he was worried his brother might deny the request, but when he spoke, his voice shook with emotion. “You have a room for me? Even. . . Even though you thought I was dead.”

“Of course,” Thor smiled weakly. “I. . . I wanted you to have a place if you ever came back. I thought I knew it was final this time, but I couldn’t push past the thought that it might have not been. And I’m glad now that I listened to myself.”

Loki looked lost for words. He looked around, his eyes darting here and there as he processed what Thor was saying. Then, before Thor understood what was happening, he felt arms wrap around him and a face pressed into his shoulder. Loki was hugging him. “Thank you, Brother.”

Thor returned the hug tightly, lowering his head until his face was in Loki’s tangled hair. “Of course,” he whispered. “I love you.”

“I. . . I love you too, Thor,” Loki breathed. Thor couldn’t remember the last time he heard his brother say that. It must have been before he was cast out of Asgard so many years ago. “Always, more than anyone else.”

[ao3feed-frigga]

A Million Pieces

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3t5fIvg

by GoldenEyedFury

They say that in the seven seconds before you die, your brain replays your life. Giving you a chance to live it again, exactly as it happened. Tony didn’t want to relive it. Once was more than enough. Instead he thought of his kids. Vision, Darcy, Harley, Peter, Nebula, Morgan. Seven seconds is nothing and everything all at once. Pepper is talking to him. He blinks and tries to focus on her voice. At least his boys made it back. Peter is crying but he can’t lift his hand to comfort him. His kids will have each other. He just wished he could be there, too. Wished for a moment that he could go back and change it all. Stop Thanos before he can gather all the infinity stones and snap away half the universe and half of Tony’s family. Power rushes over his hand, up his ruined arm and hovers in his mind for a moment. Granting him absolute clarity. What would you change? The Stones ask him.

Everything.

Words: 5240, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Iron Man (Movies), Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Captain America (Movies), Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Thor (Movies), Doctor Strange (2016)

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death

Categories: Multi

Characters: Tony Stark, Pepper Potts, James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Darcy Lewis, Jarvis (Iron Man movies), Vision (Marvel), Harley Keener, Peter Parker, Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Nebula (Marvel), DUM-E, U - Character, Happy Hogan, Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes, Nick Fury, Clint Barton, Natasha Romanov (Marvel), Wanda Maximoff, Pietro Maximoff, Loki (Marvel), Thor (Marvel), Frigga | Freyja (Marvel), Odin (Marvel), Hela (Marvel), Fenrir (Marvel), Jane Foster (Marvel), Erik Selvig, Gamora (Marvel), Phil Coulson, Bruce Banner, Laura Barton, Cooper Barton, Lila Barton, Nathaniel Pietro Barton, Sam Wilson (Marvel), Thanos (Marvel), Stephen Strange

Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark

Additional Tags: Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Time Travel Fix-It, Time Travel, Sentient Infinity Stones (Marvel), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Darcy Lewis is Tony Stark's Daughter, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Acting as Harley Keener's Parental Figure, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, Adopted Children, Tony Adopts Everyone, Nebula is Tony Starks adopted daughter, BAMF Tony Stark, Parent Tony Stark, Parent Pepper Potts, Irondad, werewolf Darcy Lewis, BAMF Darcy Lewis, BAMF Nebula (Marvel), Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Full Shift Werewolves, Avengers Tower, Avengers Family, Not Canon Compliant, Science Bros, Domestic Avengers, Planned Pregnancy, Pregnancy, Hydra (Marvel), Clint Barton adopts Wand and Pietro Maximoff, Deaf Clint Barton, Magical Pregnancy, Original Child Characters, Past Child Abuse, I don't like the guardians of the Galaxy so they wont feature much, References to Norse Religion & Lore, Marvel Norse Lore, Magic, Blood and Gore, Violence, Kidnapping, Aftermath of Torture, Forced Pregnancy, Test-tube babies, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Bucky Barnes Has PTSD, Steve Rogers Has PTSD, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Protective Tony Stark, Tony Stark-centric, Anxiety Attacks, Mental Health Issues, Injury Recovery

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3t5fIvg

[ironfidus]

Quid Pro Quo - Part III

Summary: Peter survives the Snap, and now it's up to him to bring the Vanished back to life.

Main Pairings: Peter Parker & Tony Stark, Peter Parker/Shuri

Read here on AO3 (@a_matter_of_loyalty)

:::

Chapter 3: Assembling the Team

Chapter Summary: Peter and Shuri meet up with the rest of the Avengers, time travel device in hand. They work a few details out.

Peter tries (and fails) not to freak out.

:::

Earth-199999: October 10, 2023

New Avengers Facility, New York

The next day, armed with a fully-functional Time Travel GPS and a newly improved shield for the good captain himself, Peter and Shuri boarded a quinjet and flew to the Avengers’ compound.

As soon as they landed, Peter hopped off the quinjet and headed towards Steve, standing alone outside the compound. “Well, don’t you look awfully cheerful,” he quipped sarcastically as he neared the soldier. “Feeling stuck yet?”

Steve turned to him with a wry smile. “Please tell me you came as reinforcement.”

“Let me guess,”—Peter rolled his eyes—“someone turned into a baby.”

Steve nodded helplessly.

Peter snorted. “Luckily for you, I have just what you need.” He tossed Steve the working GPS, waited for Shuri to come to a stop beside him and hand him the shield, and then promptly held it out for Steve’s inspection. “Let’s get started, shall we?”

Steve stared.

“He means, we’re here to save your collective asses,” Shuri added with a smirk. “Speaking of ‘collective’, we should start rounding up the others. We’ve got Clint Barton’s coordinates loaded up on the quinjet’s navigation system. Where’s everyone else?”

:::

It turned out that Steve had already gathered Bruce, Rhodey, Nebula and Rocket together along with Natasha and Scott Lang.

With Natasha flying off to recruit Clint, that only left Thor and Carol in the wind. Bruce gulped, stepped forward, and volunteered to call in Thor with Rocket while everyone else started brainstorming ideas.

“Good luck.” Shuri waved at them. “We’re going to need everyone on deck for this.”

“Yeah,” Bruce agreed distractedly as he boarded Rocket’s spaceship, ignoring Rocket’s holler of hey, watch your step, man! I just got this upgraded, okay? “We’ll bring Thor back.”

Shuri nodded, staying outside to watch them depart. When she walked back into the compound, Peter flashed her a grim, determined smile. 

“I left a message for Danvers,” he informed her. “I’m not sure when she’ll receive it, or if we’ll even need her, but it never hurts to be prepared—and, well, if we want to be prepared then the strongest superhero alive is definitely a useful person to have at our back.”

“Good call,” Shuri agreed. “Where are we at now?”

“We’ve pinpointed the general locations of the time, mind and space stones so far. We’re waiting for everyone else to arrive,” Steve reported. “We’re hoping Thor will be able to shed some light on the whereabouts of the reality stone.”

“As for the other two...” Natasha started.

“Rocket has more information on the power stone than I do, but I might be able to help with the soul stone,” Nebula spoke up.

Peter and Shuri exchanged a glance before Shuri nodded. “Tell us everything you know.”

:::

Eventually, the elusive Clint Barton and Thor Odinson were returned to the compound with Natasha, Bruce and Rocket at the lead. Peter and Shuri called them over, having set up the device for a test-run.

One test-run later, Clint was heaving on the floor, a baseball glove clutched desperately to his chest. He looked up at them, tears and awe in his eyes, and nodded.

Natasha was instantly at his side, kneeling and rubbing his back comfortingly. “You’re okay,” she soothed. “We’re here.”

“I could hear her voice,” he said to Natasha, breathless. “I heard Lila.”

Natasha’s breath hitched.

Clint didn’t have to elaborate for the rest of them. They knew, at once, what that meant.

The Time Travel GPS worked. 

Hopes reaffirmed, Peter choked out a hysterical laugh and pulled Shuri into a one-armed hug. Aunt May, he thought, Mr. Stark. We’re going to bring you back.

Just you wait.

:::

Test-run over and done with, they all regrouped in the common room.

Putting their heads together, they managed to locate the remaining stones and work out a timeline. Once they were done pinpointing the most opportune location of each infinity stone, they assigned tasks:

Thor, accompanied by Rocket (much to the latter’s apparent chagrin), would be responsible for procuring the reality stone from his home planet. Thor frowned, deep and conflicted, but did not complain. 

(“He lost everything, you know,” Bruce had told Peter, long ago. The explanation had come shortly after Peter returned to Earth, on the brink of death, having drifted aimlessly through space for weeks on end with depleting resources. He remembered spotting Thor, sitting quietly off to himself, head bowed under the weight of their failure. When he'd quietly asked Bruce if Thor was okay—barely managing to contain his boundless excitement, because that was Dr. Bruce Banner, legendary scientist, he was talking to—Bruce had looked unfathomably sad. “He'd just lost his planet—his home—too, to a different enemy, mere moments before we encountered Thanos. As if that wasn't enough, Thanos took... everything from him. Thor had to watch his brother die, strangled to death at the Mad Titan's hand. His last living family member.”

At Bruce's solemn pronouncement, Peter's excitement at finally meeting his greatest heroes had quickly died down. They were all in mourning, after all. And losing the last of your family? That, Peter could relate to.)

(But Loki didn't die in the Snap. He won't be able to come back, Peter realized now, his heart sinking to his feet. No matter how this plays out, Thor won't get his brother back. He glanced back at Thor, who was still frowning, and fought the urge to stalk over and engulf Thor in a crushing hug. Thor deserved better. 

But we rarely get what we deserve in life, and there won't be any gleeful family reunions in Thor's future, Peter thought with second-hand despair. If Thor stumbles across Loki in the past... it won't be with the hope that he'll get to have Loki in his life again. It'll be as a final goodbye.)

Nebula and Rhodey formed another pair; they would head to Morag to do a little thieving and steal the power stone from the older Peter—Nebula was, evidently, thrilled by this; she grinned and said, barely audible, “I can’t wait to give Quill a taste of his own medicine. He was an outlaw once, you know.” 

Meanwhile, Natasha and Clint were entrusted with the safe retrieval of the soul stone. Destination: Vormir. Of everyone, they were perhaps the most excited about the process of the time heist itself, practically bouncing with anticipation. Well, Clint was bouncing, at least. Natasha would never be caught dead bouncing giddily. Still, if one looked closely enough—and Peter did—they would be able to see the faintest hint of a smile curling Natasha’s lips. As dangerous as Vormir was according to Nebula’s warnings, Clint and Natasha were almost eager to go; to them, this was just another mission, and as long as they were partnered together, they were satisfied. 

(Natasha would never admit it aloud, of course, but Clint was her best friend. They were thick as thieves, in every sense of the saying. They had each other’s backs.)

In fact, when they heard their task, the two immediately shared a conspiratorial smirk and a fist-bump. “What do you think, Nat?” Clint nudged her, and Peter saw his world-weary look soften slightly for the first time since he’d arrived, hair half-shaved and eyes haunted. “Like old times?”

Peter clearly wasn’t the only one to notice Clint’s lightened demeanor, because Natasha smiled softly back at him, relief swarming in her eyes. “Just like old times,” she agreed, voice a mixture of fond and indulgent in the way she only ever was with Clint. 

Peter thought back to Natasha’s intermittent voicemails over the last five years, interspersed over a few months at a time and ranging in topics from what if I’m too late, what if he gave up, what if he’s already dead to there was another incident on the news: twelve dead, all with bounties on their head for the murder of a sixteen year old girl. I saw her obituary—she looked like Lila Barton would today, if Lila had been given the chance to grow up. It… it has to be him.

Peter shook his head and looked away. Natasha had finally found her best friend after five years of missing him, of looking for him in every nook and cranny of New York and then the rest of the states. He was happy for her, he was, but at the same time… it was hard not to envy her for it.

(He’d get to see Ned again. He would. And the second he did, he’d wrap Ned up in a hug and never let go.)

(He’d see all of them again.)

“That just leaves the space, time and mind stones for the rest of us, then,” Steve concluded, and Peter shoved the memory of Ned’s ear-splitting grin into a locked vault. This wasn’t the time. “There’s five of us remaining—Peter, Bruce, Shuri and Scott, you guys are coming with me to New York. Right after Loki invades in 2012.”

“What’s the plan, Cap?” Peter asked seriously. 

Steve gave them all an appraising look. “Bruce,” he decided, “you’re the calmest and most rational of all of us. You’ll speak with the wizard and try to persuade him into giving up the time stone willingly—hopefully, you’ll be able to get it without resorting to violence.”

Bruce looked strained. You’re the calmest and most rational of all of us, Steve had said—and he’d been right. But it was only true because Bruce had forced himself to learn how to be calm, at all times; he’d needed to be calm, lest he wanted to turn into a giant rage monster and obliterate everyone around him. He’d since fixed that issue, of course, melding his two personalities into one comfortable compromise, but he hadn’t forgotten how much he’d struggled with self-control. He hadn’t forgotten the conflict that had plagued him for a large part of his life.

“Actually,” Peter interjected, catching the unease in Bruce’s expression, “they don’t answer to ‘wizards’ anymore. Apparently, the comparison to fake magicians of legends and fairy tales is a major insult. Who would’ve guessed, right? Anyway, they prefer to go by Masters of the Mystic Arts, or so Wong tells me.”

Bruce smiled gratefully at Peter for the distraction, his discomfort fading by the second. Peter only winked at him. Having regained his composure during Peter’s nonsense blabbering—which nearly everyone had learned to tune out by now, save perhaps Lang going by the confusion on his face—he turned to Steve and cleared his throat, agreeing, “I’ll reason with him.”

(Peter snorted. “Not to be a killjoy, but the guy I met was way beyond reasoning when it came to that stone,” he muttered under his breath. Everyone else ignored him.)

“At the same time,” Steve continued, expertly side-stepping and sweeping a rug over Peter’s commentary, “Peter, Shuri, Scott and I will secure the space and mind stones. We’ll have to extract both before the Avengers from 2012 can hand them over to SHIELD—that would be disastrous for obvious reasons.”

Scott nodded enthusiastically, eager to prove himself. “I won’t let you down, Cap,” he swore, lacking the bitterness and cynicism of the other heroes. He might not have had to live five years without Hope—not like the rest of them had lived five years without the people they loved—but he could imagine their pain, and right now, it was enough. 

“I’m sure you won’t,” Steve said with a smile. Scott beamed back at him, and Steve turned to Peter and Shuri. “What about you two? You guys got it?”

Shuri hesitated. She understood what had to be done, but… “Is this really the only plan you could come up with?” she bit out protectively, chancing a glance at her boyfriend. Peter was staring at Steve shell-shocked, face pale and drawn with fear. “Shoving Peter directly into the path of Tony Stark? Have you already forgotten that Peter had to watch him die?”

Peter stumbled backwards as if struck, and Shuri shot him an apologetic look. He didn’t even notice, too caught up in the echo of Peter had to watch him die. 

I’ve had to watch him die a thousand times in the last five years, Peter thought, numbly. I’ve watched him die again and again and again. And each time, there’s nothing I can do. Each time, I can’t save him. 

What good was it, being Spider-Man, when he couldn’t even save the people he cared about? The people he loved? What good was it, if he just froze up uselessly when he was needed?

What good was he?

(Don’t do this to yourself, kid, he heard Mr. Stark’s voice in the back of his head, an illusion of the man he’d tried to save. Don’t do this. 

Peter gritted his teeth. I deserve this, he thought. Because he did. No matter what anyone else said, no matter what anyone else tried to convince him of, he did deserve it. He deserved it because Mr. Stark had trusted him, had counted on him, had stared at him with hope burning brightly in his eyes and said you’re an Avenger now, kid with all the solemnity in the world, as if he was knighting Peter. Mr. Stark had put his faith in Peter, and Peter had failed him so utterly and completely.

Peter had failed, and it was Mr. Stark that paid the price for it. It was Mr. Stark that died because of it.

I deserve this, he told himself again.

No, you don’t, that voice inside his head that sounded suspiciously like Tony Stark on three hours of sleep, like Aunt May when she caught him blaming himself for Uncle Ben’s death, like Shuri when she found him huddled into a ball in one corner of the lab, argued. It sounded like solace. Don’t you dare blame yourself for this, kid.

Yes, I do. He deserved to be punished. Maybe Spider-Man believed in second chances, maybe Spider-Man gave out second chances, but Peter Parker didn’t deserve a second chance. 

Except. Except, except, except.

He’d been given one anyway. He had a second chance in his grasp, and he’d never forgive himself if he let the universe down a second time because he was too much of a coward to face the hero he’d already let down once before.

He had to do it.)

Steve grimaced, his face settling into a horrified expression. Admittedly, he hadn’t thought of that, too blinded by the thought of getting his friends back to realize how this would affect Peter. It brought him immeasurable shame, now, to realize what he’d done. He was supposed to be Captain America—he was supposed to embody morality and righteousness. Where was his virtue now? “Shuri—”

“Peter still hasn’t gotten over his death, Cap,” Shuri snapped, and her voice was indignant yet sad at the same time. Regretful, Steve realized. “Surely, there has to be something else Peter can do. A job that doesn’t put him face-to-face with the mentor he lost. Because I know I sure as hell wouldn’t be able to handle seeing my brother in the past, not when—” she faltered, stumbling to an abrupt halt as she realized what she’d been about to say: not when our success isn’t certain yet. She swallowed down the doubts—saying it would make it real—and finished, instead, “Not when he hasn’t become the brother I remember yet.”

Steve nodded, chastised. “You’re right,” he sighed. “Peter, what do you want to—”

“I’ll do it,” Peter interrupted, stopping Steve in his tracks. Behind his back, out of sight from everyone else, his hands were clenched into fists, fingernails digging so deep into his skin that his palm bled. “It’s fine. I can take it. I can face Mr. Stark. I can.” I have to. 

He was Spider-Man, after all. He was an Avenger, now. A hero. He couldn’t freeze up again.

Steve frowned. “But you don’t have to,” he insisted. “I shouldn’t have assigned you to the Battle of New York, I—”

“I can do it,” Peter repeated, pleaded. 

“Peter…” Shuri whispered.

Peter bit his lip and gave her a small, firm nod. “It’s okay, Shuri,” he reassured, but the quiver in his voice belied his words. He spoke of conviction, but none of that selfsame conviction was reflected in his appearance. “I’ll be okay. It’s been five years.”

Yeah, Shuri thought. Five years, and I haven’t gotten over my brother’s death. ‘Five years’ doesn’t mean you’re obligated to be fine about it. None of us have moved on. But…

“Are you sure?” she asked, in lieu of protesting further. Peter, after all, was the strongest person she knew. If anyone could handle facing their long-lost mentor with elegance, it was Peter Parker. And if he can’t, I’ll be there to hold him up above the water. I won’t let him fall. 

“I’m sure,” he insisted firmly. He focused on Steve Rogers—on Captain America, who he’d once looked up to as an idol before he’d finally met him and realized he was just as flawed and human as the rest of them. After that, Peter had stopped idolizing him and started seeing him as a teammate, a friend. “Let me do it, Cap,” he implored.

Peter wasn’t surprised when Steve gave in. As much as he was sure Steve was worried about him, he was even more sure that Steve wanted his friends back most of all. Steve had been forced to live without Bucky Barnes once before, after all. It was clear to anyone that he wasn’t willing to go through that again, for any longer.

They all had their priorities. Bucky was Steve’s.

“Fine,” Steve allowed. “But you need to stick to the plan, got it? No surprises.”

“Surprises? Me?” Peter smiled cheekily, jumping at the opportunity to bring them all back to more lighthearted topics. “Never.”

Steve just snorted disbelievingly and pointed an accusing finger at him. “I know you, Queens,” he simply said, which was code for: you’re a rebellious little shit. Which, okay, fair.

Peter rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, fine. I get it. No surprises. I swear.” When Steve looked unconvinced, Peter held up three fingers and reaffirmed, “Relax, I won’t cause you any problems. Scout’s honor.”

“Nice try. I know you were never a boy scout,” Steve pointed out, deadpan.

“Anyhoo!” Peter swiftly changed subject, ignoring Steve’s indignant spluttering as he moved on. “We all have our assignments. We all know what we have to do, and we all know the stakes,” Peter carried on, rubbing his hands together, and Steve let it go as the team dutifully gathered into a loose huddle. “We have one chance to make this work. One. Let’s make it count.”

“We will,” Steve said, confidently. It was all he said—all he had to say—but Peter heard the unspoken words nonetheless: We have to.

Peter caught Steve’s eye amidst the rest of the team and nodded, once, in acknowledgement. They had too much on the line to fail now. The universe was counting on them.

:::

“Peter,”—Natasha’s quiet voice drew his attention away from Shuri and Bruce as they prepped the time travel device, and he glanced back to find her approaching him with swift, purposeful steps—“I just wanted to say…” she started, her voice sinfully rich. (Like the blood she’d worked so hard to scrub off her ledger over all these years, Peter couldn’t help but think.) “Thank you. For taking a chance. For doing all of this.” 

There was something heart-stopping, Peter mused, about being thanked by a former master assassin. He’d never once doubted, of course, that the Snap took from everyone—that the Snap stopped everyone’s world. But it was different, witnessing Natasha’s gratitude. She was Natasha Romanoff, after all; the infamous Black Widow, peerless and unparalleled in her line of work. 

Untouchable.

He’d never heard her say “thank you” before.

(He didn’t want to hear it now, not for this.)

“Don’t mention it,” he brushed off with a small but genuine smile. He hesitated, considered her carefully, and then smiled wider. “You were right. We have to make a stand.”

Quietly, beautifully, Natasha Romanoff smiled at him. Her smile was breathtaking and heartbreaking all at once—her smile, Peter thought, marked her expression like a jagged scar, hopeful but cautious, wary.

Peter swallowed a flare of pity (he knew Natasha Romanoff would balk at the thought of anyone pitying her) and adamantly did not ask which wound left it behind.

:::

Peter jumped in surprise, and Natasha silently slunk off, when Bruce announced that they were ready. He calmed himself down – breathe in, breathe out, you’ve got this, this is going to work – and rejoined the rest of his teammates.

He was numb as he listened to Steve take center-stage and deliver one of his infamous pep-talks with an ease Peter could only dream of possessing. Shuri came up beside him, eyes hard and determined, and Peter felt the nerves stirring in his gut settle slightly.

“You ready?” Shuri whispered out of the corner of her mouth, even as her eyes never left Steve.

Peter managed a faint smile for her. Not in the slightest, he thought privately to himself. And then, because he knew Shuri would get it—get him—he shook his head and repeated the same thing aloud.

Shuri only nodded in understanding, demeanor void of any judgement. “Me, too,” she whispered, and when Peter looked at her closer—really looked at her—he could see a hint of trepidation beneath the layer of confidence. Before he could say anything, Shuri slipped her hand into his and squeezed tightly. “But it’ll be fine, right? We’re in this together.”

The truth was, Peter had no idea if it would be fine. Who could tell if this would all work out for the better? But he thought of Mr. Stark’s eyes locked on his as he faded away into nothing, and of Shuri’s desperation and guilt, and he pushed away the unsettling uncertainty. Shuri needed him to be strong—they all did.

“Of course,” he said, squeezing back. And despite his residual fear, he found that he meant it. “Together. I’ve got your back.” There was no one else he’d rather traverse the space-time continuum with.

“Likewise,” she murmured, and the promise in her voice rang loud and clear in Peter’s ears, beyond even Steve’s reassurances a few feet away. 

Eventually, Steve’s voice died down as his motivational speech came to its conclusion. Peter and Shuri stepped forward, closing the gap in the circle of heroes, and Bruce began his countdown.

“Three…”

Peter looked down at Shuri’s fingers interlocked with his, as if they were each other’s lifelines, and closed his eyes. Please don’t let me lose anything else, he begged, a whispered prayer. Whether he was praying to some deity in the heavens, or to his own strength and will, he wasn’t sure. Please let me have what it takes to keep her safe.

“Two…”

He opened his eyes when he felt her gaze on him. She stared at him intently, as if aware of his train of thought, and mouthed one more time: Together.

Together, their commitment echoed in his mind. Always together.

They’d get through this together. They’d protect each other.

Together, they’d get the stones and reverse the worst moment of both their lives. They’d restore the universe to its rightful balance—they’d restore their universe. They’d come out on the other side of this victorious, with Mr. Stark, with Aunt May, with T’Challa—with everyone—back.

They’d win. (Together.)

“One.”

(We’re in this together.)

Peter gulped in a sharp breath as his world burst into color, his vision tunneling as he felt the floor drop out from beneath his feet. The real world melted away around him, and Peter felt himself fly. 

(And all the while, Peter held on tight to Shuri.)

:::

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3

[keenerordeath]

Endgame Timelines

(except I don’t cry at the end)

Disclaimer: I have never read the comics, I am basing everything off of what I've seen in the MCU films and fans online that know more about the stones than I do. Add in my limitless optimism and you get this monstrosity!

What would happen if Tony hadn't been the one to snap away Thanos and his army? Would Peter Parker, the only other avenger with a Stark original nanotech suit, be the one to snap instead?

Let me show you what I think would have happened if Tony survived Endgame and Peter Parker saved the universe.

Below the cut:

what could happen to peter parker

how tony fixes everything

how I think the stones should all be returned after endgame

Peter Parker and the Gauntlet

Of course, something to address immediately would be Peter's probability of survival. We've seen Tom Holland's Peter Parker lift a fallen building's debris from himself and swing away afterwards. Since Peter hasn't been shot, or severely impaled, I don't have much of a reference to go by in terms of healing and regeneration, and he's certainly not on par with Deadpool in that department. BUT, I do have reference of Infinity Snaps from the Hulk, Tony, and Thanos himself. Hulk is strong, sure, and isn't all that fazed by radiation, since that was what created him. However, he was easily beaten by Thanos, and was injured just by wearing a gauntlet that held all six stones. The snap completely destroyed his arm. For Thanos, wielding the full gauntlet only caused a surge in energy but his body was intact. The snap itself left his arm injured but not completely immobile. The arm doesn't reach that point until snapping a second time to destroy the stones. To an average human like Tony, the snap cost his life. But we KNOW all this. What we don't know is how it translates to anyone other than these three.

 As a mutant, where does that leave Peter on the spectrum? Does using the stones leave a wound that will never heal, destined to be that way by the rules of the stones? Nothing is for free, right? My theory is that Peter would have a different experience. Do I want to see him in pain? Hell no. While our reality is that Spider-Man must move on in a universe without Tony Stark, I can't help but dream up endings a little more happy. So, what if? What if the one who will recover the easiest from using the stones is our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man?

 I would venture that the kid would be in intensive care under Helen Cho's watch. This woman has worked with super soldiers like Steve Rogers, created the cradle from Avengers: Age of Ultron. The avengers trust her with their lives. Tony wouldn't want anyone else to take care of Peter, because she would be the one to keep him alive. Not to mention, Peter heals quickly. The biggest issue may be understanding his metabolism well enough to administer antibiotics, pain killers, and other nutrients that his body would need to support his mutated healing abilities.

 Peter is in the hospital and Tony needs something to keep himself occupied while waiting for his kid to wake up.

Tony Stark and the Plan to Return the Stones

Anthony Edward Stark is not going to sit on his ass if there is a problem that needs solving. With everyone back besides Vision and Natasha, he's got a team that can execute the return of the stones perfectly. Even one thing out of place and alternate timelines are created.

Tony gets Dr. Strange to rewind time on the compound. It would be great if that could go back to not being rubble, you know?

Then he gets to work, getting the rundown from everyone.

What state were all the stones in when they were taken from the past?

What was Steve doing in 2012 after he left Loki and the others in the tower?

Where did he get the Pym particles from at the base?

When did Clint wake up with the soul stone in his hand?

Where was Natasha's body after she became the sacrifice?

Where did Rhodey and Nebula leave Quill?

Would it be so bad to leave the power stone on Morag now that Thanos cannot reach it there?

Will Gamora of 2014 want to go back to her own time or stay here?

Will Gamora want to stay if they manage to get her back alive from Vormir? Two Gamora's?

Where was the hammer before Thor summoned it?

What do they have to do to get the Aether back into Jane?

 He has a lot of questions, a lot of witnesses and resources, and a need for a distraction.

First thing he needs to do? Get as much information about the stones from Dr. Strange as possible.

any theories involving the actual powers and abilities of the stones are suuuuper yada yada-ed in some places because I have a very basic understanding of biology, atomic composition, time travel, neurological functions, artificial intelligence, etc. - they're flimsy in some places and I'm not sure how to fix that

Can the pocket universe in the Soul stone be accessed? Does it hold only Nat and Gamora's souls? Would they need their bodies to return the souls to? Would it just be easier to collect their bodies from Vormir and turn back time on them, too? Would their souls even be in their bodies anymore, or would they just be husks? Would taking their bodies back to the present create an alternate timeline that prevents their new alternate selves to be able to retrieve Nat or Gamora? Is it important enough to them to screw with another timeline like that? Will they have their bodies restored once they're puled from the stone?

Now, my understanding of the stones stems from the movies and an explanation I came across on Quora while researching the stones.

"To combat [their] weaknesses they all feed into each other and make each other more powerful. Also as a general weakness they will destroy most mortals without the use of a vessel (Infinity gauntlet, Ronan's hammer Etc) The Time stone makes each stone's effects permanent as well as permeate time. The Reality stone makes the others affect the world itself as opposed to just an aspect of the universe. The Power stone's raw power acts as a battery for the rest of them and amplifies their power. The Soul stone gives power over the souls of everyone the user comes across. The Space stone makes the effects of the other stones universe wide. The Mind stone allows the user complete control of the minds of everyone in the universe."

Another tidbit about the Soul stone that I found was this:

"Allows the user to steal, control, manipulate, and alter living and dead souls; as well as animate the motionless. The Soul Gem also acts as a gateway to an idyllic pocket universe. At full potential, when backed by the Power Gem, the Soul Gem grants the user control over all life in the universe."

Can't make an omelet without cracking a few eggs. With the combination of the Power, Time, Space, and Reality stones they get Natasha and Gamora out of the Soul stone. It is a stretch, considering Hulk said he had tried to get Natasha back. I think maybe using the Soul stone puts up a bit of a roadblock. How well can the Soul stone resist the effects of the other stones when it isn't being used, then? Say you use the Space stone to move the women out of the pocket universe? (Maybe it is possible to rebuild or reshape them to how they used to be by using the Space stone, same concept as Thanos changing the Aether to the Reality stone using the Space and Time stones). Using the Reality and Time stones to solidify their existence in that time and space in the universe, they could bend reality to make it so. The Power stone will juice up the other three, surely allowing them to push past boundaries they couldn't on their own. And if it takes a little tinkering with a juiced-up Soul stone to get them both fully restored, then so be it. Whatever it takes to get them back.

Now… vision is an incredibly complicated puzzle to solve. What IS left after the stone is removed? If Shuri had been allowed enough time, what would have changed for Vision? My gut tells me that his best chance lies in the hands of Shuri and Dr. Strange. Vision has just been hooked up to Shuri's tech in Wakanda. Five years later she still has the scans she made, still remembers what she had to do. So Dr. Strange takes them back to right before Thanos' General attacks Shuri and her guard, taking Vision with him. Instead of letting that play through, Strange pauses time, leaving himself and Shuri to find what made Vision tick, remove the stone and see what is left, what they need to substitute in as replacement for the Mind stone. They gather all the information housed in Vision's body. Every piece that came from Jarvis, Stark, Banner, Thor, Ultron, the Mind stone. How can that be recreated to be able to house Vision's memories and consciousness, again? Restoring him to minutes before Thanos took the stone from his head is the end goal. Once Shuri has all the data she needs, they turn back time on Vision, leave him back on the table, and resume time before jumping back to their present. They'll need the cradle again, some more vibranium, some help from Helen Cho and Thor's lightning. Would complete reconstruction and an upload of consciousness work without the stone? Obviously, the flying and the strength and all his other powers from the stone would be gone, but is it really so bad to have a chance at being normal?

They have their lost family back now. But they cannot rest yet. What else do they need the stones for before they can send them back to where they came from?

Can they be used to heal Peter? Have they already weakened themselves from using them so much? Is there anyone else that can wield them and help to restore what was lost after half the population vanished and everything became overwhelming to maintain? The plan for returning them was set, they're left with a lot of time to use the stones for some good. Can Captain Marvel offer more help to others in the universe? Surely, Earth isn't the only place that desperately needed help in the aftermath. I assume she will do what she can, holding more hope than in canon, since losing Tony left most of them… less than motivated to get back into hero-ing.

Danvers did what she needed to with the stones. Time to start their return plan.

All the stones need to be returned to how they looked when they were taken.

Thanos used the Space and Power stones to change the Aether from its weird wiggly form into an actual stone. Great, let's undo that. Should we use the Time stone or the Space and Power stones? Either will work? Dope, done and done, moving on.

The scepter and its case are around the compound somewhere, Vision doesn’t need the stone anymore, let's pack it in there. Same with the weird orb thing Rhodey brought the Power stone back in. Let's get those packed and they'll be ready to go.

Mjolnir: check. Aether: check. Scepter: check. Power Orb: check. Space, Soul, and Time stones: check, check, check. (Dr. Strange will be hanging onto that Time stone until the last mission, though)

Now we know from Avengers: Endgame that each capsule of Pym Particles will give you two jumps. They can go from the present to the past, then the past to the present. After that they have to refuel. With that established, my estimate would be that they would need to use AT LEAST 19 capsules, not accounting for spares in case of an emergency.

So, Hank Pym, mind making those? We need them to fix our time travel mess. Thanks, pal.

Back in Time, Right on Time

Tony doesn't need everyone to make this go smoothly. He can work with a smaller pool of people.

Clint is not going back, not to Vormir, not to anywhere. He will stay in the present with Nat and his family.

His blue meanie, Nebula, is staying with him. He will not subject her to the pain of sharing her network with another Nebula from a different time, not again.

Tony himself will not be leaving. He will be right here, coordinating everything. Some of them will be leaving at the same time. Others have multiple trips they're going to make. No one makes a second jump until they have checked back in with him. They'll restock their suits, get some food and rest, gather the things they need to return, and venture back out.

No Avenger is going to be sent back to a time that will trigger bad memories from their pasts.

Many candidates and teams were dismissed pretty early. They're abilities may have been ideal, but if their personalities did not mix well, Tony could not risk the messes that incompatibility could cause.

 For this to work, the best chance of success for the return of every stone and avoiding any offshoot timelines will require these Avengers: Captain Rogers, Thor, Dr. Strange, The Wasp, Mantis, Scarlet Witch, and Ant-Man. Stay tuned because we're going to need one surprise extra along the way, but more on that later.

To know where to go first, Tony first had to figure out who messed up the worst, and needed the most stones to complete the mission.

 Loki's Vanishing Act

Let's start with Loki taking the Tesseract in NYC 2012. It is essentially a surefire way to change pretty much everything we know about the MCU. So how is Tony going to fix that Royal Whoops? Well, it's not going to be easy. To ensure that Loki and the Tesseract are sent back to Asgard with Thor, Tony will send the Wasp and Ant-Man to keep the Tesseract close to a collapsed Tony Stark and Thor, and away from Loki, Endgame Tony and Scott, and the slimy Alexander Pierce. If anyone besides Thor got the Tesseract then, Tony and Steve would never go to the army base even further in the past. Best not to mess with that.

 Really? Hail Hydra?

Now that Loki is once again in custody of the Avengers, we'll follow Captain America taking the Scepter from NYC in 2012.

(Enjoy the layout of this one, because there's so much to it I don't want to make this into more of a story than a presentation. You'll take all my bullet points and you'll like them, damn it.)

Triggers for alternate timelines:

Tricking Hydra into thinking he was their ally

Prematurely informing his 2012 self of Bucky being alive

Removing the Mind stone from the scepter (this one couldn't really be helped, you're okay Steve)

Conclusion: a seamless return without creating any alternate timelines will be enough to give me a migraine. (Tony probably had one, too, after learning everything Steve said to get his way to the scepter and out of the tower)

 So, how does he plan to fix it? By sending the Wasp, Scarlet Witch, and Mantis.

Elevator Mess

Upon arriving at Stark Tower in NYC 2012, Hope shrinks the scepter, along with Wanda and Mantis. Their job is to follow Steve Rogers and clean up after him.

One "Hail Hydra" later, Hope carries Wanda to where she can erase the memories of all those in the elevator. Captain America is not with Hydra, he never entered that elevator, and he never took the scepter.

Last step here is to take the scepter they've brought and leave it exactly where Cap took the original from.

America's Ass

The reason Cap even had to fight himself is because Loki escaping disrupted the timeline, pulling 2012 Cap from search and rescue and back to the tower to hunt down Loki.

With Loki secured, Wanda has to manipulate 2012 Cap into still believing that Loki got away. After disabling his communications, they send him on his way.

His "I have eyes on Loki," never reaches anyone, and once they've fallen and Steve has knocked 2012 Cap unconscious, Wanda goes about erasing his memory of learning about Bucky. (Does Wanda get a video of "that's America's ass," to make fun of him with later? It's a mystery, truly, we'll never know)

Search and Rescue

They leave after returning 2012 Cap to the ground floor and waking him up (Thanks Mantis, I love you), sending him to resume search and rescue as if nothing had happened.

 Ghosts of the Past

When Tony brings up Vormir, Steve volunteers. He won't let Clint, Banner, or Quill go. He was close to Natasha, spent the last five years with her. He wanted the chance to rid them of the stone that tried to take her from them. He knew that the other three didn't need the pain that would hit them should they see the place where the women they love had almost been lost to them.

What no one accounted for was Steve knowing who had been guiding people to the stone all this time. Facing Red Skull was not what Steve had expected. If it weren't so terrifying to see him again it would be almost comical. But there was nothing here to fix. He'd watched as Clint's craft took off, returning back to the others with the stone and without Nat. He handed the Soul stone off, tapped the device on his wrist twice, and went home.

 Frigga Knows All

Steve doesn't talk about the last mission, so they move on to the next one. Tony sends Wanda and Steve to Asgard with Mjolnir and the Aether. They can't change that Thor told his mother the truth, but they can stop the Asgardians chasing Rocket and erase their memories of the raccoon. Disruption handled, Wanda goes to return the Aether to where it resided inside Jane. A very unfortunate place for it to be, but she knew she couldn't make any changes. So she returned it and left to find Cap, who had found where Thor pulled the hammer from and put it back. Rocket and Thor had gone back, and now Cap and Wanda could, too.

 The God of Mischief

All of the Avengers were familiar with the Tesseract. Turns out it was just a cosmic cube used to contain the power of the Space stone. Interesting twist, for sure. But Thanos crushed the cube, and without it, they couldn't get the Tesseract back to Howard Stark's labs. At least the Pym Particles were a simple mission.

(Buckle up, I'm bringing back the bullet points)

Triggers to alternate timelines:

SHIELD suddenly having the Space stone rather than the Tesseract

Hank Pym losing important pieces of his research

 Army base employee reporting Tony and Steve to bunker security

Conclusion: only the best of the best could twist this situation back to where it needs to be.

Tony's plan went something like this:

Saving a god

Thor and Dr. Strange go to retrieve Loki from the wreckage of the Asgardian ship

They work together to gather all those lost onto a nearby planet.

Once all the Asgardians have been found, Dr. Strange turns back time on the ship and on those gathered, bringing them back.

Using the Time, Space, and Power stones, Dr. Strange opens a portal that takes the Asgardians and their ship to the present in Norway, where the rest of their people reside.

Thor returns to the present, knowing Valkyrie was already in Norway, prepared to receive everyone.

Fooling a King

Dr. Strange keeps Loki with him, being the only one they've known to be able to contain Loki and see through his tricks. Loki doesn't give him any reasons to contain him, though.

An extra quantum realm suit and some Pym Particles given to Loki, and they jump to a time well before Loki had even learned he was the stolen prince of Jotunheim.

Together, they take the Tesseract from Odin's vault and hide it away.

Loki disguises himself as a young Thor and "confesses" to breaking the Tesseract, presenting the Space stone to Odin.

The Space stone is soon contained once again in a cosmic cube, an exact replica of the Tesseract Thanos had crushed, and returned to the vault.

Not wanting to risk anything, they replace the hidden Tesseract, retrieve the repaired cube, and jump back in time once more.

Returning Particles

Dr. Strange opens a portal in the basement of the bunker, watching as Howard Stark and "Howard Potts" leave the room.

The Tesseract is returned to the container Tony took it from and they were quickly through the next portal

Steve Rogers was gone and Hank Pym had yet to return

The capsules of Pym Particles were placed in the empty space left by Cap.

Mission complete, Loki and Dr. Strange returned to the Avengers Compound.

  Can't Really Fix This One

There was one alternate timeline that Tony would never be able to fix, not that he would ever want to. The Thanos from 2014 brought his army and his daughters with him to end the Avengers of the present and take the stones for himself.

But once he and his armies were snapped away, there was no one to return back to 2014. They were gone. Nebula had no idea if Gamora had vanished along with all the others on the ships that brought her to a different time. Well, if they ever run into her, they'll offer her the chance to go back to the time she left, should she wish to return.

All that could really be done was send Wanda and Mantis to put the orb back in the temple, give Quill back his lockpick, toss him in front of the temple and wake him up. Maybe he would run into this Korath guy he mentioned, maybe he won't, considering he was a lackey to Ronan, one of those Thanos used to do his bidding. A Thanos that was no longer there. Either way, Quill wasn't just left for dead. He may never meet Gamora, but he still had other adventures to go on, other people to meet.

 It's Finally Over

The Ancient One was taking down Chitauri before Hulk showed up. Steve would follow her attack patterns and range, because once Hulk showed up to get the stone, she would be distracted, and the Chitauri she would have stopped would continue on into NYC.

After Hulk had left with the Time Stone, Steve immediately approached the Ancient One and handed her the stone. They shared a look of understanding, she turned to rejoin the fight, and Steve left the rooftop to return home for the last time.

and they all lived happily ever after, the end, happy hanukkah, goodnight - Rallow <3

[mrs-n-uzumaki]

How Engame should’ve been:

Okay so the beginning was great. We had the cold opening, Carol saves Tony after a three weeks, Tony rightfully yells at everyone for not believing him and then leaving.

But, this is where it changes.

Five years is a long time. Too long. We miss out on too much of watching our characters grow and as such we’ll feel disconnected to them, because we no longer know what kind of people they are.

My proposal is a few weeks. Two months at most after the snap. Two months of trying to come up with ways to fix things and failing. Scott then gets out of the van, tracks down his little girl and immediately seeks the Avengers to fix things.

This pretty much goes how it did in the movie. They look for Tony, who’s still in grief and trying to cope alongside Pepper. Since things are bleak right now they decide to hold off on the wedding until it feels like it’s the right time. Right now, the mourning is fresh.

Again, Tony can’t risk getting his hopes up and refuses to go back.

Until he sees a picture of Peter. We maybe get some muted flashback montages of the two of them working in labs, having fun, bonding, to the moment May breaks into tears in his arms.

And Tony realises that he at least owes the kid to try.

He drives to the compound and starts working with the team to solve the time travel issue and come up with a plan. It takes time, maybe another week. But they do it.

The plan is to reverse time before the war begins, track down the stones, and find a way to lure Thanos to them and get the gauntlet away.

They travel to find their past selves and warn them. Thor and Carol team up to get to the Asgard spaceship before the attack. Present Thor and Carol convince past Thor to get to earth, Wakanda specifically. Privately, present Thor asks Loki to hand him the stone.

Loki, surprised to learn all the events unfold, hands it over. Thor holds the back of his brother’s neck in compassion and says, “It’s good to see you brother. And you are right, the sun will shine on us again.”

Loki says, “I don’t remember saying that.”

“No, and hopefully you never will.”

Elsewhere in space, Rocket and Nebula find their team and warn them of the upcoming events. Nebula convinces Gamora to track down the soul stone before Thanos does. When they are guided by Red Skull and learn about the sacrifice, they all start arguing about who should be the one to do it. Every single one of them offering to take that jump, and in the midst of it all, present Nebula slowly starts walking towards the cliff, Gamora yells for her but it’s too late. Nebula jumps.

They get the stone. They’re all quiet and moved by the sacrifice, but present Rocket convinces them that she had done it for the better of the universe, and her sacrifice should not be wasted. He leads them to Wakanda to prepare for the battle.

Back on earth, present Steve and Nat track down their past team, and together find Wanda and Vision. They get Vision to Wakanda to get the stone out of his mind way before the attack.

Clint, Bruce, Rhodey and Scott (bringing along his team) all convince their past selves to fight. So now we have double the amount of Avengers.

While Tony brings his past self with him to explain everything to Stephen, Thanos has already made his way to earth and shit unfolds in New York similarly to the first time.

Enter Peter Parker. Stephen and Wong hold back Thanos while the two Tonys escape to Wakanda. Like before, Peter stows away with them.

They end up in Shuri’s lab where everyone is already waiting for them. Past Tony notices Peter had jumped in with them and the two exchange almost the same debate they did on the ship in Infinity War, except at the end of this, Peter notices a second Tony with surprise.

Past Tony begs his future self to talk some sense into Peter but all he could do was stare at the kid. Peter starts rambling in questions about time travel and Tony hugs him, shuts his eyes tightly to hold back his tears. Peter says, “Okay...this is nice.”

Not long after, the battle commences. With the amount by their side, they have an advantage.

Like Endgame, the gauntlet is passed around like a hot potato. Except this time, Carol takes a hold of it.

But wait, just when we think she’s about to put it on, it gets taken from her through a surprise attack.

And just when Thanos almosts indulges in the taste of his victory, he gets attacked by Wanda. She slowly rips his armour apart and with that the gauntlet flies off his hand. Quickly, it lands into the hands of past Nebula, who had just been tortured by Thanos on his ship and escaped during the battle. She puts it on and looks straight at her abuser.

The Guardians watch in shock, as is everyone else. The whole battle comes to a halt.

Thanos looks at her with pleading eyes. Tries to talk to her, tells her, “Perhaps, I have been too harsh.”

Nebula pauses, slowly smiling as if she was falling for it, “All my life I’ve wanted nothing but to make you proud.” Just when Thanos thinks he won her over, she says, “But I’ve come to see the truth. You never loved me.”

Thanos, angrily, yells, “How could you betray me? I called you a daughter.”

“No,” she smirks and says, “I call it mercy.” And snaps him and his army away.

In the end, when the dust settles everyone basks in the victory and say goodbyes to their future selves as they go back to their timeline.

It’s a bit tricky to explain this but because the Quantim Realm is another dimension entirely, the future selves are able to travel through it while the changes take place for a world without the post-snap and able to retain the memory of the old future that no longer exists. They reach the point of their time and suddenly they all get this massive migraine where new memories come to merge with their old. This is them merging with the new selves that would be in this new future. Memories of a new set of the past three months before they travelled. Memories of meetings about amending the accords and building a better future.

Steve and Tony are semi-tired (semi, because they could never entirely give up that life). Tony consults on SHIELD while continuing to mentor Peter as a future Avenger and perhaps someone to take over Stark Industries when he and Pepper retire together.

Steve finally settles and tries to balance a life of his own and helping the next generation of heroes, specifically Sam who he had passed on the torch to. He spends his time catching up with a now de-brainwashed Bucky and living out at the compound with the rest of the Avengers.

Nat continues to help train everyone, including Peter, and helps Fury to rebuild SHIELD.

Clint retires with his family.

Scott continues to work with Hank, strengthens his relationship with Hope and helps raise his daughter alongside his ex and her husband.

Carol sticks around for a while to get a catch-up of things and defends the Avengers with the senates regarding the accords. She heads back to space to continue her missions in the universe.

Thor and his people build a new life on earth. Loki stays out of trouble. Mostly.

The Guardians are already in space doing their thing with a “new” Nebula on their team.

Wanda and Vision are happy together.

Bruce starts teaching at a University.

Occasionally, they get together for dinner as a family.

It’s not perfect. The accords are still being reprised, the rogues are still under a watchful eye, but after everything, after living in a world of dust and blood...they wouldn’t have it any other way.

-

But yeah, I know time travel is difficult to swallow and even more difficult to tackle, but I hope I made more sense than whatever crap the movie shoved down our throats.

@kitcat992 @yellowdistress Thoughts on this?

[filiaromana]

ENDGAME was AWESOME but NOT PERFECT (Spoilers)

It was the shortest 3-hour movie I have seen next to Troy (2004) Let me break it down to the good/amazing stuff and the confusing/mediocre stuff. Confusing

1. The FIVE year time jump. We all know that time jumps are generally signs of weak and lazy writing, I know the producers and writers are trying to address every subplot but the fall from grace moments are as essential as the results we have seen our beloved characters in. Nat drowning herself with work, Steve trying to do emotional support for people and help them move on, Clint becoming an assassin (which could have a potential for more intricate scenes) and Tony finally building Pepper a house by the farm or lake, you get that point.  What we could have was Pepper building Tony back up, Steve dealing with his failures (which I thought they would do when they began the HQ scene with Tony saying I fucking told you). AND HULK-BANNER JOURNEY TO COOPERATE? (Like Naruto and Kurama finally becoming friends, we have had a whole anime series for that and here, we got nothing.) We could have had those hows, those things that made some of the OG Avengers to just wanna “move on”. 2. The VORMIR plothole. SO Nebula is basically their tour guide in space right? Aside from Rocket. So, why the fuck didn’t she say things about the SOUL STONE MANDATORY SACRIFICE? It’s not a detail you wanna hold back from the team? Logically this detail that killed Gamora, her beloved sister, shouldn’t have kept in the dark. “But it wouldn’t have the same, intensity and gravity if Nebula warned the OG team.” Yeah, so this is telling me, she just stomached everything, somehow arranged and assigned two best buds who mean the world to each other to get the soul stone. How convenient. How fucking convenient.

(for those who are saying Nebula didn’t understand the Soul stone sacrifice at the very first place)

3.  The RULES of TIME TRAVEL. I CAN’T ONLY BE THE ONE WHO IS FRUSTRATED by this. We have seen a lot of time travel movies, the ripple effect and the other rules of this shit. You don’t show yourself to people who directly know you, you don’t show yourself to your past self, and lastly, you don’t get to kill your fucking past self and still get to live. They even managed to bring it up themselves, referencing movies. But the only scapegoat they had was, they are gonna return the stones? Thor talking to Queen Frigga, so what do we think about this? Frigga is still going to die by the hands of the Dark Elves with the new experience and information she had by meeting Fluffy Thor from the future. Steve parring with himself? Tho he thinks of himself as Loki. Lastly, NEBULA SHOOTING HERSELF without affecting her future self? AND what would past Thor think of his lost hammer? The only unwrinkled detail here is Banner meeting with the Ancient One. That’s it. 4. STEVE LIVING HIS LIFE. Bitch, we could have closed our eyes with the previous item but this right here is MAJOR shit. HE returned the stones but stayed in his timeline? So, there is not Captain America during some key events for the Shield/dra and the past how many movies we have seen to lead up to this moment? Bitch what? WHAT? I DON’T BUY THIS SHIT. NOT AT ALL. The guy who saved the world just ruined its present timeline for himself. We can forgive you for telling your past self that Bucky is alive, but this part? This has to cause some CHANGES in the present future. I just really wish they have established some ground rules for time travel stuff. Mediocre 5. WHERE DID THAT PEGASUS COME FROM? 6. That rat. How convenient. What a great timing for that rat to sniff around the van, but it felt like the whole Quantum realm solution rested on a convenient rodent? Come on, we could have done better. We could have Tony studying past Stark-collaborations with the Pym particle. Something far more plausible. 7. No one conveniently died from that surprise airstrike? Somehow a lot of things about the plot was convenient.

8. What of Gamora now? Did you just purposely or accidentally erased Gamora’s character development that you would fix it in GotG vol3?

Good

1. Killing Thanos in the first ten fucking minutes. Whilst it gave us the impression of a time travel/parallel universe solution. It made sense, their plan made sense. Thanos was weakened, the gauntlet was damaged, and they have a powerful backup. Get the stones, reverse it boom. Then it was a detour so they just opted for another option with the same plan. Get the stones (from the past), reverse it. 2. Carol Danvers. Everything about Captain Marvel, from her haircut to the fact that she was even downplayed, making it about the OG team to fix it. And that part where she got teary eyed looking at her old friend Fury. We are yet to see her second movie. Her entrance tho, everybody cheered and whistled. Yas KWEEN. That’s our girl. She even carried a whole ship by herself. AND SHE IS GIVEN THE CHANCE TO HAVE A SHOWDOWN WITH THANOS. He only managed to overpower her by kinda cheating and literally using his other hand with the power stone. Given the premise from IW, with his fight with Tony. Carol could have just sealed the deal. 3. Wanda being a wonder. That callback. You’ve taken everything from me. Bitch could have crushed Thanos apart, I even got the sense of some Dark Phoenix schist. (No offense meant to XMEN fans) but then again, Thanos was that desperate, sacrificing his army to get away from Wanda’s grip. 4. New Asgard. A lot says that Thor’s development was erased in this movie, but personally, his depression only registered after a few years as it is different for everyone. He got a beer belly, and boy did he look like a typically mythological god with the dad bod. Valkyrie taking charge of everything is so noble of her. 5. Steve wielding the Mjolnir. Alright, this could have gone straight to the amazing list but then again. He was able to summon thunder? Odin said the power of Thor doesn't reside on the hammer but within himself in Thor Ragnarok. So why was Steve able to blast Thanos with some lightning? But nevertheless, it’s good. I’ll buy it. Maybe they went with “Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor."

6. Nat’s sacrifice. It was a very emotional moment, I honestly thought it was going to be Clint, to redeem his killing spree (which we didn't get to see much of) but it ended up with her. She deserved better tho, and Scarjo did an amazing performance.

Amazing (It’s many so I’ll put it in bullets)

Skinny Tony.

“I went for the head.”

Steve’s ass.

Thor’s Fortnite

Carol’s haircut.

Hail Hydra

Howard Potts.

Iron Woman

Ant Man and his tacos

Basically the whole climax

Stark Gauntlet

Hulk and the stairs

Morgan Stark

Spidey Instant Kill

Queen Valk

Captain Samerica

Peggy Rogers

The potato gun kid

“She’s got help.”

“I am inevitable.”

“I am Iron Man”

“It’s okay, you can rest now.”

peace out, I gotta get back to work

[dukereviewsmovies]

Duke Reviews: Avengers Endgame

Hello, I'm Andrew Leduc And Welcome To Duke Reviews Where Today We Are Continuing Our Look At The Marvel Cinematic Universe...

And Today We Are Looking At The Big One...Yep, We're Finally Here...Avengers Endgame...

This Film Sees The Grave Course Of Events Set In Motion By Thanos That Wiped Out Half Of The World And Fractured The Avengers And Guardians Of The Galaxy's Ranks Compels The Remaining Members To Take One Final Stand...

Will They Succeed?

Let's Find Out As We Watch Avengers Endgame...

The Film Starts On The Barton Family Farm As We See Clint Barton Still Under House Arrest, Training His Daughter, Lila To Maybe Become The Next Hawkeye...

Yeah Right, We Know That Kate Bishop Is Most Likely Going To Be In The Disney + Series...

While His 2 Sons Play A Game Of Catch And His Wife Velma Dinkley Prepares A Picnic But As He Talks To His Wife For A Second Barton Turns Back To Not Only Find His Daughter Gone But His Wife And Some Too As They're Now Casualties Of The Snap Heard Around The World...

3 Weeks Later On Board The Benatar, Tony And Nebula Start To Run Out Of Supplies On The Ship, So He Uses His Iron Man Helmet To Chronicle Their Final Days With The Hope It'll Be Found By Pepper...

However As Tony Goes To Sleep, They Are Saved By Captain Marvel Who Takes Them Back To Earth...

Reunited With Pepper And The Other Avengers, Steve Asks If He Knows Where Thanos Is Only To Erupt Into A Furious Rant Where He Mentions Thanos And Their Civil War Fight Before He Faints...

And Thank God For That, As Anymore Out Of Tony's Mouth And I Would Have Punched Him...

Locating Thanos On An Uninhabited Planet With Help From Nebula, They Discover That While He Has The Gauntlet The Stones Are Missing, Which Leads Him To Explain That They Would Have Been Nothing But A Temptation If He Had Kept Them So, After Serving Their Purpose He Had Them Destroyed...

They Believe Him To Be Lying At First But If There's One Thing Nebula Knows Her Father To Be It's Not A Liar, So Thor Decapitates Him...

Five Years Later, Earth's Remaining Population Attempts To Persevere Against Such Catastrophic Losses But Things Start To Change When Scott Lang Is Released From The Quantum Realm, Disoriented And Confused About What Has Happened...

Visiting A Wall With All The Names Of The People Who Vanished To See If His Daughter's Name Is Among It, Thankfully It Isn't, So Racing To His Ex's House, Scott Discovers That Cassie Has Aged From A Child To A Teenager...

Trying To Make Cassie Stinger A Little Fast There, Marvel?...

Arriving At The Avengers Facility Where He Talks With Cap And Widow, He Explains That He Experienced Five Hours And Not Five Years While Also Talking To Them About The Quantum Realm And How It Could Allow Time Travel...

The Three Visit Tony At His Lakeside Home Where He Lives Now With His Wife Pepper And His Daughter, Morgan Where They Ask Him To Help Them Retrieve The Stones From The Past In An Attempt To Reverse What Thanos Did, But Tony Refuses, Worrying About What Will Happen With His New Life If He Does...

So They Turn To Banner Who During Those Five Years Has Restarted His Research Into Gamma Radiation And Used It To Morph His Body To Have The Appearance And Strength Of The Hulk While Retaining The Intelligence And Control Of Banner Digivolving Into Professor Hulk!

But As For The Quantum Realm, Banner Says That Quantum Physics Is Outside Of His Area Of Expertise But He Agrees To Help Them Try..

Meanwhile At His Lakeside Home, Tony Does Dishes Only To Discover A Photo Of Peter Parker Which Makes Him Change His Mind And Look Into Time Travel And It Turns Out It Is Possible...

Returning To The Avengers Facility The Next Day, Tony Tells Steve That He's Agreeing On The Condition That In Trying To Reverse What Thanos Did It Won't Reset What Has Happened Since Then As He Doesn't Want To Lose His Daughter With Cap Agreeing The 2 Men Set Their Differences Aside And Get To Work...

Banner And Rocket Fly To New Asgard In Norway Which Is Home To The Asgardians That Are Left Including Valkyrie And Korg And Miek Who Survived...

But As For Thor (Who Has Put On A Considerable Amount Of Weight, Become An Alcoholic And Spending Most Of His Time Playing Fortnite)...

I Always Saw Thor As An Overwatch Guy But If That's His Game, Hey I'm For It!...

He Gets Upset At The Mention Of Thanos' Name To The Point That He Wont Go With Banner But When Rocket Mentions Beer, He's In...

Meanwhile In Tokyo...

Barton Who Now Goes By Ronin, Attacks A Group Of Yakuza Only To Be Confronted By Widow Who Wants To Bring Him In, But Wanting Nothing To Do With The Plan At First Barton Eventually Changes His Mind And Goes With Her...

Back At The Avengers Facility, Banner And Stark Complete Construction Of Their Own Quantum Tunnel And Advanced Tech Suits As The Team Prepares For Test Runs With Barton As The Test Subject...

And It Works, Barton Is Sent Back To A Time On His Farm Before The Snap Which Leads Them Into The Next Phase: Determining The Location Of Each Infinity Stone In The Past Which Proves To Be A Problem As They Only Have A Small Supply Of Pym Particles To Do So...

Deciding To Go After The Time, Mind And Space Stones During The Battle Of New York, The Reality Stone On Asgard With Jane Foster, The Power Stone On Morag With Star Lord And The Soul Stone On Vormir...

Their Destinations And Teams Are Set With Tony, Cap, Banner And Scott Going To The Battle Of New York, Nebula And Rhodey Going To Morag, Barton And Widow Going To Vormir And Thor And Rocket Going To Asgard...

Starting With Team 1 With Stark, Cap, Banner And Scott, Banner Visits The Sanctum Sanctorum Where He Meets The Ancient One Who Doesn't Want To Give Him The Stone At First But After Hearing That Strange Gave Thanos The Stone, She Gives It To Banner Realizing That It Must Have Been For A Reason...

Infiltrating Stark Tower In The Aftermath Of The Battle Of New York, Lang Plants Himself Onto The 2012 Tony Stark As Him And The Other 2012 Avengers Head Downstairs Only To Be Confronted By Alexander Pierce Who Wants The Tesseract And Loki...

But Scott Causes A Distraction By Sending 2012 Tony Into Cardiac Arrest Which Leads Our Tony Stark To Get The Tesseract But When 2012 Hulk Bursts In, Past Loki Manages To Get The Tesseract Which He Uses To Escape To His Disney + Series...

But As All That Happens, Cap Manages To Get The Loki's Scepter From Brock Rumlow And Jasper Sitwell Only To Be Confronted By 2012 Cap Who Believes He's Loki...

(Start At 0:16, End At 1:48)

Regrouping With Cap, Tony And Lang Tell Him That They Screwed Up But Tony Realizes That He Knows A Place Where He Can Not Only Get The Tesseract But Pym Particles Too, So Giving Scott The Scepter, Tony And Cap Travel To Camp Lehigh In 1970...

Arriving In 1970, We Get Our Last...Stan Lee Cameo..

Stan Lee Cameo!

A Moment Of Silence For A Great Man...

Splitting Up, Tony Gets The Tesseract In The Place Where Cap And Widow Found Arnim Zola In Winter Solider But While Down There He Runs Into His Father, Howard Who Is Looking For Arnim While Also Talking About The Birth Of His Son Which Is Expected Next Month...

While Talking With Howard, Tony Sees His Father In A Whole New Light And Now Understands What He Went Through Being A Father Himself Now But As Tony Makes Up With His Father, Cap Distracts A Young Hank Pym So He Can Get The Pym Particles Necessary To Return...

So With Everything In Hand Tony And Cap Leave 1970, Which Takes Us To Asgard With Thor And Rocket But As Rocket Gets The Reality Stone, Thor Runs Into His Mom, Frigga, Who Realizes That He's From The Future...

Attempting To Tell Her About Her Soon To Be Coming Death At The Hands Of Malekith, Frigga Doesn't Want To Listen Insisting That Thor Fix His Future Rather Than Hers, So With Rocket Having The Reality Stone In Hand, Thor Reclaims Mijolnir Before Saying Goodbye To His Mom And Leaving...

Now On Morag, Romanoff And Clint Use The Benatar To Fly To Vormir To Get The Soul Stone While Nebula And Rhodey Knock Out Star Lord In A Scene That Ruins One Of The Best Scenes In The Original Guardians Movie...

Thanks Alot Russo Brothers...

And They Get The Power Stone And Rhodey Returns To The Present However, Nebula Becomes Incapacitated When Her Cybernetic Implants Link With Her 2014 Self, Allowing The Thanos Of That Time To Learn About His Future Successes And The Avengers Attempt To Thwart It...

Determined To Rebuild The Universe So No One Will Remember What He Has Done, Thanos Replaces Present Day Nebula With 2014 Nebula As Barton And Widow Arrive On Vormir And Learn The Price That Must Be Paid Which Leads Them To Fight Over Who Will Make The Sacrifice...

Eventually It's Widow That Sacrifices Her Life For The Soul Stone...

Well, I Guess That Black Widow Movie's Not Happening...

O.....Kay...

With Everyone Reuniting In The Present They Are All Saddened At The Loss Of Black Widow But They Realize That They Must Not Let Her Sacrifice Be In Vain And Continue Their Plan...

Creating A Nano Gauntlet To Harness The Stones They All Have A Debate Over Who Will Unsnap Everything But Eventually It's Banner That Does It Because Of His Physical Form And His Relationship With Gamma Radiation...

But Despite Unsnapping Everything, 2014 Nebula Activities The Quantum Tunnel And Brings 2014 Thanos' Ship Into The Future Where It Blows Everything To Kingdom Come...

Yeah, They May As Well Have Done That...

Convincing 2014 Gamora To Help Her, Present Nebula And Her Kill 2014 Nebula After She Refuses To Help Them...

Ok, I Know They Made Their Own Time Travel Rules Here But Seriously, With 2014 Nebula Dead, Future Nebula Should Be Dead As Well...

With The Avengers Separated, With Thor, Tony And Cap Being Up Top So They Decide To Attack Thanos On Their Own But Thanos Outmatches Them And Summons His Army From His Warship, But Luckily They Have An Army Too...

Shortly After That, Captain Marvel Arrives On The Scene And Destroys Thanos' Warship, But Thanos Overpowers Her And Gets The Gauntlet...

And So, With Thanos Defeated, Tony Is Weakened By The Raw Power Of The Stones Before Succumbing To His Injuries After Being Comforted By Pepper...

After Tony's Funeral, Thor Appoints Valkyrie As The New Ruler Of New Asgard As He Joins The Guardians Of The Galaxy...

Only To Not Appear In Guardians Vol.3 But His Only Movie Which Chris Hemsworth Is Only Doing To Wrap Up The Character...

And Cap Returns The Infinity Stones And Mijolnir Back To Their Original Timelines Only To Decide To Stay In The Past With Peggy Carter While Back In The Present An Old Cap Passes On His Shield To Sam Wilson To Tie Into That Disney + Series As Our Film Ends...

While There's No Mid Credits Or End Credits Scene, That Was Avengers Endgame And What Can I Say About It?..

Despite Everyone Being Divided On It, I Absolutely Enjoyed It, The Story Was Interesting, The Characters Were Well Written, I Thought Thanos Was Equally Good Here As He Was In Infinity War. However, Some Of The Time Travel Logistics Kinda Had Me Questioning Things Still Though I Say See It...

Next Week We Finish Our Look At The Marvel Cinematic Universe By Looking At Spider-Man Far From Home, Till Then, This Is Duke, Signing Off...

[luninosity]

Okay! Time for a slightly longer Avengers: Endgame thoughts post!

First, I do really, really like the film overall, so let’s get that out of the way right now: I had moments of wanting to cheer, tearing up, all that, and I want to see it again immediately.

Having said that...I do have Some Thoughts, which are not 100% positive.

Spoiler warnings, obviously! Only read if you’ve seen/don’t mind spoilers!

First, the AWESOME. OH MY GOD SO MUCH AWESOME.

--STEVE IS WORTHY OH HELL YES *screams in delight* And Thor’s genuine excitement about this! So perfect!

--STEVE ROGERS STANDING ON THAT BATTLEFIELD FACING DOWN THANOS’S WHOLE ARMY. This is a brilliant Steve Rogers character moment, it’s a brilliant narrative moment, it’s a gorgeous shot visually, it’s EVERYTHING -

--AND THEN EVERYONE ELSE SHOWING UP AT HIS BACK, YES YES YES, I WANTED TO CHEER AND CRY, LOOK AT THEM ALL TOGETHER AND FORMING UP BEHIND STEVE AND “AVENGERS ASSEMBLE” AND *screams more*

--Valkyrie getting to be king! She already has ideas for change! It’s a small moment but so satisfying, seeing where she is now versus her introduction in Ragnarok.

--”AMERICA’S ASS”

--actually everything about that Steve-on-Steve fight scene, Chris Evans’ delivery of every single line, the name-drop of Bucky being what worked

--I actually really love pretty much all the time hops, and Tony going with “Howard Potts” as his alias is both hilarious and heartwarming

--Morgan! Tony being a Good Dad! 3000!

--cheeseburgers, oh god my heart, this moment actually made me tear up

--Tony’s death felt well-earned, satisfying, and in-character, and that “I am Iron Man” - oh god yes, see above about in-character and also heartwarming and heartwrenching simultaneously

--Sebastian Stan continues to be very pretty

--Thor doesn’t magically get his old pirate-angel body back - I have a LOT of other less positive thoughts about this representation, which we’ll get into in a sec - the thing is, I do like this one aspect of it, because he doesn’t need to be magically “healed” of his fatness or anything like that; he’s chubby and damn heroic and still good at being a hero, and speaking as someone who always struggles with weight, that was actually really lovely

--Paul Rudd continues to be weirdly superhumanly likeable

--Gamora’s reaction to Star-Lord

--Nebula! Karen Gillan is fantastic throughout, and so central to the storyline

--Sam taking the shield! I love this - Bucky’s tired of the fight, which Steve knows; Sam has the heart and the will, and he deserves it, and Bucky’s clearly fine with that, and I’m so excited to see Sam Wilson as Cap

--just everything overall felt so fulfilling, like, yes, this is good, thank you, MCU, thank you

The Ambivalent (sure, yeah, okay)

--Clint and Nat: I actually really like Nat’s choice and sacrifice, doing it knowingly, and it also feels in-character for her as a dedicated protector; I don’t quite get why we’re pushing Clint to the forefront so much in this movie when he’s been so absent, and I dislike the implication that he somehow has more to live for because he’s got a biological family, versus Nat’s found family

--Thor’s killing of Thanos and the “I went for the head” and also the arm - yeah, look, you learned something! But also...it really just makes you *not* doing that in Infinity War seem...even dumber. But at least you learned, I guess?

--the Girl Power(tm) moment in the final battle. You know, the super-unsubtle obvious shot. Like, part of me went YES!! and another part of me cringed because WOW, that felt...not at all organic and incredibly staged

--Steve Rogers part one: I don’t actually mind that he took a side trip and saw Peggy and got some closure. It’s a nice nod to the end of First Avenger. And I love Steve getting to retire - not die - as Cap: he can still do so much as himself, maybe art or activism or support groups or all of the above, and he deserves a chance to find out who Steve Rogers is when not Captain America. Having said that, this is ambivalent because I really don’t like how it was done. More on that later.

--I love that Harley showed up at Tony’s funeral, but at first neither I nor Awesome Husband knew who the random person even was. We figured it out, but if you don’t know, it’s really unclear

--Carol. She’s wonderful and amazing in every scene she’s in, but also...weirdly...underused. Were they afraid she was too powerful?

--maybe I’m just kinda over Chris Pratt, I don’t know, but a lot of his dialogue didn’t land right for me? Clunky. Trying too hard to be funny? Maybe.

--I don’t really understand how time travel works in the MCU, but whatever, let’s just roll with it

--Loki! Fantastic to see again, also underused, but I’m very curious to see what’s next

The Not So Positive

--ALL the Thor fat jokes. This is a big one, and it pulled me out of the movie as I was watching it, as this kept happening. It’s obviously a serious manifestation of his trauma and PTSD, and yet pretty much every single character cracks a joke, and no one actually tries to support him. I’m...not a fan of that. (Side note: having just rewatched Infinity War, there’re fat jokes there too, about Quill. Do the writers/directors have an issue with fatness?)

--after Nat dies, there’s a whole lot of scenes of Rooms Full of Only Dudes, and Primarily White Dudes, at that, directing the narrative

--speaking of, how about a memorial service for Nat?

--Steve Rogers part two. (We’ll get to Steve and Bucky in the next point; this one’s about the time travel.) Like I said above, I don’t mind him wanting to take a side trip and get closure; he deserves that. And if I’m understanding MCU time travel right, he created an alternate branch, so “our” reality still all happened and everything. So. My first problem here is that we can assume he spent that alternate reality still Being A Hero - fighting evil, saving Bucky, getting into a happy triad of Steve/Peggy/Bucky if you want to imagine that - but we’re not shown any of that. We’re shown him...suddenly pining a lot for Peggy, which feels odd anyway: part of Steve’s arc has been him finding his place in this new century and his new found family. And then we’re just shown the dance. SHOW US STEVE AS A HERO IN ALL TIMELINES, PLEASE. But I digress. If this is a branching timeline, the way Steve shows back up on the bench shouldn’t work. He shouldn’t just live through all the years and wander over to the bench at the right time, because he’s not in the right timeline for that. (Maybe there’s something we’re not shown, like him tinkering with his time travel GPS? If that’s the case it needed to be much clearer.) There’s also no particular reason he needs to get or stay old (maybe he wants to experience aging, idk?) - we’ve established that we can de-age, for example, Scott. And Steve Rogers is a stubborn kid who will always want to be able to fight whatever might be coming - even if he’s still retiring as Cap, doesn’t he want another few decades with his current family - Bucky, Sam, Clint, Morgan Stark, everybody? Now he’s...much older than everyone, physically and mentally, and I guess that can still work but...it’s going to be a whole strange adjustment for him and for everyone...but anyway, the time travel as it’s shown seems to...break their own rules, and also I don’t like how suddenly emphasized his desire for Peggy is in this film, and I don’t like having to just sort of...guess about what Steve does in that timeline. (Also, side note: why is *only* Steve returning all the stones? Wouldn’t having a partner be helpful? In case things go wrong, as things so often do? AS WE’VE SEEN IN THIS VERY MOVIE.)

--STEVE AND BUCKY. This is the other big one. We all know I am a Steve/Bucky fan, but honestly I’m not even factoring that in here. It’s not about shipping. It’s about the fact that Steve’s narrative arc, Steve’s character arc, has been so entwined with Bucky up to now - and here they barely interact. The person Steve lost - the person Steve keeps losing - is Bucky. The person Steve shares memories of couch cushions and moving in together and Sarah Rogers’ name with - is Bucky. We’ve had to the end of the line, we’ve had even when I had nothing I had Bucky, we’ve had (paraphrasing here, I know it’s not an exact quote) he said Bucky’s name and suddenly I was a kid in Brooklyn again, we’ve had all of Winter Soldier and the relevant parts of Civil War, we’ve established over and over, canonically, that Steve and Bucky save each other. Bucky knows Steve even through brainwashing. Steve fights to save and protect Bucky. They love each other. (Friends love each other. It’s okay to show that.) They sacrifice for each other. And that relationship - in a film that’s meant to be a culmination, a wrapping-up, and closure for Steve Rogers - is almost entirely absent. And I’m not okay with that, emotionally and also as a narrative choice for Steve’s arc - like, as a writer (and English professor!) myself, this legitimately bothers me. I don’t feel fulfilled and I don’t feel happy about it. Especially not - as in the article I reblogged a bit ago - when we’re given other reunions, like Tony’s joy at getting “the kid!” back, with real pathos. I know the film’s already over three hours, choices have to be made, etc. But we could’ve had fewer fat jokes and a few more seconds of Steve and Bucky interacting, y’know? I just...I don’t like it. It doesn’t feel good or right.

Okay! Those are my thoughts.

Once again, I really really like the movie overall, and overall I am left happy and wanting to watch it again. That’s true. There’re just...some things.

I may or may not attempt to write my fix-it fic. There are so many already and I’m not sure what I could add that’s new, and I think I still don’t understand MCU time travel. But I also really want to deal with some of these emotions. We’ll see.

[ninainthetardis]

AVENGERS ENDGAME SPOILERS + MY THEORIES & COMMENTS

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It's been a week since I saw Endgame and I think it's really the time for me to write some comments about it.

The First Part of the Movie

- It was kinda smart as in a couple of minutes it foiled almost every theory ever made about it.

- It was good as they showed us our heroes humanity, the way they struggled to move on after the snap and how alone, responsible and broken they felt.

- It was too long: they could've used half - or at least a third - of that time to cover some of the plot holes left at the end of the movie, or to show us something more interesting. For example, Imagine if there was no scene about Hulk taking pictures with his fans and instead of it we'd got Steve's meeting with Red Skull. Wouldn't it be amazing? Yes.

- Thor and Hulk were destroyed. Those characters went on a journey since we first met them, and starting from Ragnarok to finish with Endgame, they ended up going backwards instead of moving forward. They were hilarious in some moments, yes, but mostly they looked ridiculous and ooc. I mean... Hulk's dab dance? WTF?! Thor spending his days playing fortnite? It looked a little excessive to me honestly.

- I loved the way Natasha and Steve kept counting on each other like the family they were supposed to be. They give each other strength and support, and love. They were amazing. Truly.

- Tony's speech almost made me cry. Of course I knew that was not his end, - it was too soon -, but I almost cried anyway. Watching him suffering pained me. I was trying to figure out how they would manage to get out that situation when Carol showed up and I almost screamed. And CAN WE TALK ABOUT TONY LETTING NEBULA WIN, PLEASE?!

The Time Travel Thing

Basically, Ant man came back to our world to find out half of the population had been wiped away, and he has this idea of time traveling because why not? Let's mess with our minds a little more.

They explained that if they went back, their past would not change anyway, but at the same time Bruce says that when they remove an Infinity stone from its timeline, they create an alternative reality. Now, sure Steve put them back to where they belonged when they were not of use to the Avengers anymore, but still, there's a Loki who fled with the Tesseract in 2012 and I don't think that Steve faced him and fixed it on his own: I mean, it took the six of them to defeat him the first time! So, didn't that create a different reality? There is an Infinity stone out of place after all.

Still, I can't see how Thanos could do the snap if his 2014 version is dead. All I'm saying is that the timeline we saw remains unchanged, but we can't actually know whether there is an alternative timeline in which IW never happened or not. I like to think there is because this would mean that there is a reality where Nat, Tony and Steve are still alive, together and maybe happy. Just we'll never see it. Unfortunately.

Plus, the soul stone. A soul for a soul, right? Given that Steve returned the stone, couldn't he get Natasha back?

Tony. I expected Tony to die at the end of this movie but seriously guys that hurt too much, I was not ready at all. He finally had the family he deserved and wanted but could not sacrifice half of the living beings on earth just to keep his happiness. WHAT A CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. He started from fighting for himself to almost sacrifice himself in Avengers 1 and to actually do it in the end. Chapeau, Iron Man.

Steve. And here the thing gets complicated. I expected Steve to die as well,though his death would have broken me, - you know, favorite character and so on. We were ready for just one of them to die, so the only way to completely destroy our hearts was to kill both of them off. They didn't, and somehow this was even worse.

It's like we were robbed of our proper goodbye to Cap. I am, of course, happy he got the love of his life back (though I can't see how this will not affect the timeline tbh), but up to Endgame, things happened. First of all, Sharon Carter. And here everything gets weird. Secondly, he made a journey during which he changed and came to accept what had happened to him. In the end, it was all thrown away. It's kind of ooc for me that he just left Bucky in the present, friends who needed him, and went back to the past. And at the same time I can't actually see him just sitting there when he could prevent shit to happen. Though he promised Nat to move on, and maybe, after losing Nat and Tony, he realized that the only way for him to move on was to go back. Because yes, I think he wouldn't have come back if they had been alive. And Bucky followed his own path after CW, so they had already gone on separate ways.

As I said, it's tricky. A lot.

It's like Tony learnt from Cap to sacrifice himself and Cap learnt from Tony to put himself first for once.

"See you in a minute".

Natasha's death. That I didn't expect. Well, actually I did, being her my second favorite character and being used to watching my favorite characters die all the time. But you know, I thought that the soul stone required the soul of the one you love the most, and there was no way that Clint loved her more than his family. So I thought he was the one better suited for the sacrifice. And instead that wasn't the case and she died. But I didn't want any of them to die anyway. And it hurt because she said "see you in a minute" and then she didn't come back. And Steve's reaction when he realized she was gone forever. My poor heart.

This movie truly messed up with me.

Random comments

- Pepper was amazing and the scene of all women fighting side by side was MARVELOUS. I wish Natasha was there though.

- Poor Morgan lost his father, they were so cute and happy, my heart can't handle this.

- Thor giving away his throne was... I don't know, that's tricky as well. His whole path was about becoming worthy and gaining the awareness he needed to be a just king. So it makes sense he didn't feel like ruling at that moment, he lost himself and needed to find the right path again, but giving the throne away? Sounds too much to me imho. But I also don't think we've seen all of Thor, so... Maybe they'll fix it later on.

- Gamora. 2018 Gamora is dead, 2014 one is alive. What. About. Her? If the past remains unchanged, does it mean that she has only four years left to live (in perfect final destination style)? Or maybe she died when Tony snapped? Or she just run away to follow her own path again, as originally in 2014 she left Thanos and changed from a bad to a good guy, doing we don't know what exactly. Maybe she's meant to do it again, (just in the future) before meeting Quill again.

- The Scarlett Witch is FIRE. Can't wait to see her show! (Also, Loki's. I wonder if it will start from him fleeing with the Tesseract or if it will be a prequel like the movie about the Black Widow)

- Ronin. It was like Natasha and Clint's position were reversed and this time it was down to Natasha to save him and she did it. She's so loyal to her friends, her family, the family she found in the Avengers. She deserved so much better.

- I expected that they had to face either Loki (the one who fled with the Tesseract, after he did it), as a sort of coming back to the start, or Thanos from the past. It was Thanos and I was happy. I still hope we'll see Loki with his character development intact again.

- The final battle was INCREDIBLE. AMAZING.

- When I was at the cinema, I was 99% sure there was no scene after the credits. I waited anyway. And it was only when I saw that black screen that I realized it was really, really over. That was the moment I had to repress other tears.

- I'm gonna stop now. I just want to say that, in spite of all the plot holes and things I don't agree with and that were done, or things that I thought could've been done better, I loved this movie. It's the end to an era that meant - and still means - a lot to me and it was AMAZING. I will bring all those characters and those stories with me forever. Nat, Steve and Tony in a special way. One day I'll come to terms with the fact that this is all. But not today.

Love you 3000.

[thesaltofcarthage]

Avengers: Endgame: Did Marvel Pull It Off?

This is a followup to my (surprisingly popular!) post “The Stakes Are Too High.” (at least, it surprised the hell out of me that it got so popular; I wasn’t expecting it to resonate as widely as it did.)

FULL ENDGAME SPOILERS AHEAD. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. I’m putting it under a cut just in case.

Also, above the cut in case you’re still dodging spoilers, tagging @kryptaria @iamanartichoke @taurileonis @hjbender @chey-tips22 @wu-the-stoic @englishontheinside  @rennemichaels @alwida10 @ladylowkeyed @saltoftheearths @mizkit @thelightofthingshopedfor @essesnceofhappiness @theravenofwynter @pinetreeparadoxx @ironhammermagicshieldedgreenbow @philosopherking1887 @waywardkansasflower @lokeanrampant @maneth985 @ilovethemallsoimconfused @bengalaas @icyxmischief @yuuki-fandoms @snailchick  @fictions-stranger  @adhdasianaroace @artherra @missmaladicta @queerfictionwriter because you specifically commented/reblogged.

So having seen Endgame, the question becomes: Did Marvel pull it off? 

My answer is: yes and no.

Did we get an emotionally satisfying ending? Did Marvel understand that closure doesn’t have to come with corpses?

There were a lot of things I loved about Endgame. There were many, many of the “small character moments” we were begging for. Marvel didn’t forget that we fell in love with people and we need to see people and their choices and how they live with the consequences of those choices... mostly.

I loved how Marvel rewarded the audience for watching 11 years of movies. It was practically wall-to-wall Easter eggs and callbacks. I loved how the time travel allowed us to loop back through some of our favorite scenes and see them from other points of view, and the additional information. (Sitwell and Brumlow taking the scepter immediately after Loki’s capture: oh, so that’s how HYDRA got the Mind Stone!) I loved the cameos upon cameos (despite how silly it is for someone like Natalie Portman to show up for literally 15 seconds and not get any lines). I appreciated that Captain Marvel was used exactly the right amount: she saved Tony and Nebula, she was established as part of the post-Snap team, she came in at the end to lend some firepower, but she did not have any part in solving the problem nor was she the person who ultimately handed Thanos his raisin ass. I LOVED THE FINAL BATTLE, HOLY FUCK. (With the exception of Loki not being present, but I’ll get to that.) There were real laughs, and real tears. I cheered when Steve summoned Mjolnir (and laughed my head off at the Cap-on-Cap fight). I loved Morgan and Cassie, and the echoes of fathers and daughters throughout.

There were things I did not love, even before we got to the final or semi-final fates of some characters. I was genuinely offended with Thor’s treatment. I was not happy with Loki. I was confused about Vision, Gamora, and Black Widow, because they are due to return for future TV shows and movies, so leaving their statuses open or cloudy (or “dead,” which I put in quotes for a reason) was just disconcerting. The time travel opened up a lot of problems.

My original post was about endings, so let’s talk about those. In approximately descending order of Satisfying to WTF:

Stan Lee: Got his last cameo in the end of the arc so he didn’t miss any, driving along, clearly having the time of his life. Excelsior, Stan, and thank you for everything.

Clint: Got his happy ending. He was deeply bitter about losing his family, but got them restored to him. He did lose Nat, but I’ll cover her in her own section.

Steve: He did get his soft epilogue, albeit with Peggy Carter, and I can’t fault that. Marvel was never going to give us the Steve/Bucky romance no matter how obvious it was, and Steve/Peggy also works. (And really, I love Peggy, so for her to get a happy ending too is a bonus.) Steve gave so much of himself over the years. I can’t object to allowing him to be selfish and re-live his life quietly, to finally put down his shield and go home from the war. He got his reward.

It basically works with the existing timeline if you squint and assume that Peggy’s Alzheimer’s was messing with her at the beginning of Civil War, or if there’s another timeline altogether. I’m slightly annoyed that whatever he got to have with Bucky all happened offscreen between the stinger of Black Panther and the beginning of Infinity War, but apparently they did spend time together. And Steve clearly told Bucky was he was planning; that’s what “I’m gonna miss you” was foreshadowing.

STEVE IS WORTHY OF MJOLNIR. YESSSSSS!

Bruce: I was okay with the “Professor Hulk” storyline (which I was told by a sharp-eyed nephew is from the comics), although I wouldn’t have minded seeing that internal struggle onscreen, but I understand it’s an IP rights issue and there isn’t going to be another Marvel standalone Hulk film.

Tony: Augh. AUGH! I get it. I know why he died, on a meta level. But still.

This, at least, we can say is mostly “heartbreaking” and not “burn.” Tony got the five-year interval to make some kind of peace with his losses. He and Pepper got married and had Morgan. He got some kind of Happy For Now. He got some kind of reward, which RDJ brilliantly conveyed even in the few minutes we saw.  

@hjbender linked @starkysnarks’s excellent post about Tony’s arc. One important part:

That’s why I think that giving a better, more positive message is so important. While other characters have flaws, it’s only Tony who has this consistent, this carefully streamlined storyline of improvement, of redemption, of self-realization and self-betterment. It’s Tony who is most often referred to (by the aforementioned mainstream outlets AND within the fandom) as the most human of the characters, and his story – as the most humane. His happy ending with a new house and young family will not feel like an opt-out, it will not feel complacent, at least not to me. It will feel like hope. It will feel like achieving, at least partially, the goal of that endless internal struggle that we all go through daily. It will feel like it’s possible to be good and be happy and be content, to know that you have done you best and your best is good enough for you to live, and go forward, and be.

He ultimately got some of this, for a while. Tony’s fatal flaw is his fear about Thanos, or the threat that Thanos represents. Prior to Avengers, Tony was happy-go-lucky because he could, eventually, beat whatever the world threw at him. But Thanos was not of this world, and would have wiped everyone out if Tony hadn’t managed to get that nuke through the portal. That trauma, that guilt, that fear, is what drives him for the rest of the Infinity Stones storyline. He is desperate to protect everyone. It’s what makes him want to put “a suit of armor around the world” in Age of Ultron, and of course the way Ultron backfires compounds Tony’s PTSD and guilt, which is what leads to his position in Civil War and the fight he picks with Steve at the beginning of Endgame.

And the worst happens in Infinity War, and the Avengers lose. Everything Tony feared ultimately happened.

Five years later, he’s managed to move forward. He has his happy ending — as happy as he can be, given their losses. He’s accepted his failure, more or less. He wants to rest, which is why he rejects Steve and the others at first.

But his tinkerer’s brain won’t let him put their proposal aside. He needs to know intellectually that there’s no chance, that he can’t fix what he screwed up. Because that’s the other part of what drives him: they lost. He lost. “I lost the kid,” he tells Steve (meaning Peter). That fear of loss, of losing people, of failing people, of disappointing people, is what keeps pushing him. If he knows that there’s no possible way he can undo his mistake, he’ll figure out a way to cope, especially since he still has Pepper and then his daughter. But now there is a way, or there might be, and he can’t let that lie, he can’t rest, until he knows one way or the other. And when the way to fix things becomes possible, there is no other outcome for Tony to choose. He wouldn’t be a hero otherwise.

It is a terrible loss, but in the end I could accept it. Tony got a Happy For Now. He was able to enjoy his life for a little while. He got the genuine closure with his father which he couldn’t in the BARF hologram at the beginning of Civil War thanks to the time travel, and he got to see Peter restored and give him the hug which they weren’t at yet in Homecoming. Tony was triumphant. He defeated his greatest, most terrible adversary. He defeated his fear. Thanos is gone, and his minions with him. The echo of “I. Am. Iron Man.” was exquisite. (even more so knowing that line in the first movie was ad-libbed! it wasn’t in the script! It was RDJ’s idea!) So his death is sad, but it’s earned.

Natasha: Meh. Just meh. The scene where she and Clint fight over who is going to die was blackly hilarious. It made narrative sense for Nat to be the one who died — she has found family, but not children; she spent the interval trying to run the Avengers and SHIELD and trying to fix things, and this allowed her to contribute in a material way; she still has a lot of red in her moral ledger — but on a meta level, we know there’s a Black Widow movie in the works. It doesn’t make sense to have a spinoff series set before Endgame when you know how the character dies. It’s not a bad ending, all things considered, but the actress herself can’t get younger. Is it supposed to be her origin/backstory movie after the character has died? Is it Multiverse Branching Timelines? Was she restored when Steve returned all the Stones to their place in the timeline? Was she restored with Tony’s Snap, or Bruce’s? Not knowing how that’s going to work with the rest of the MCU timeline blunted the emotional effect of her death for me.

Although he’s not an original Avenger, I had similar issues with Vision. There will be a Scarlet Witch and Vision TV series. Vision is still dead, according to Wanda at Tony’s funeral. So was he restored with either Bruce’s Snap or Tony’s? Was 2018 Gamora? 

And the two which completely did not work for me, the ones where I think Marvel really missed:

Thor: Of the original Avengers, he was the one I was most upset about.

I really, really did not like how Thor’s very legitimate grief, depression, PTSD, and alcoholism were played for laughs. Thor is down to a “kingdom” of a few hundred people at best (we don’t know what Asgard’s population was to start with, but Hela killed quite a few, and then Thanos killed half of them on the Statesman, and it’s entirely possible that the Snappening dusted half of whomever remained). He’s living with the murders of Loki, Heimdall, and the Warriors Three (I can’t remember if Sif was supposed to have survived the Snappening, but she doesn’t appear in Endgame). He didn’t “go for the head” in Infinity War, which clearly haunts him despite the fact that Peter Quill is just as much to blame for interrupting Strange, Tony, Peter, and Mantis, or Wanda is just as much to blame for not getting the Stone out of Vision’s head faster, etc. etc. He cut off Thanos’s head after the fact and is clinging to that — “Who else here killed Thanos?” — as some kind of cold comfort. “Look, at least I did that in the end. At least I got revenge.”

Thor is a mess. His family is dead. His dearest friends are dead. He’s in a depressive spiral, self-medicating with food and alcohol, lost in video games because they are a consequence-free way to “win.” He’s holed up with Miek and Korg because they didn’t know him before Ragnarok and they have no real expectations of King Thor, God of Thunder, Avenger, Hero. He feels he has failed at everything which has ever been expected of him.

And the script... plays this... for laughs.

We are meant to laugh at his pot belly and flabby physique. We are meant to laugh at his unkempt matted hair and wild unbraided beard. We are meant to laugh at his drunkenness, at how he passes out, at how he blearily begs and whimpers to be the one to unSnap everyone ( “Please let me do something good, something right,” he pleads), at how he returns to Asgard on the day of Frigga’s murder and tries to frat-boy off to the cellars for some of Odin’s best ale because he cannot face his failure on this day too.

None of this is funny. It’s not funny at. all. It’s horrifying.

I do understand that this is likely more Hemsworth than Marvel. The actor vocally complained that he was bored with formal, upright Thor and would have been done with the character without Taika Waititi’s more comedic take in Ragnarok. He has said in interviews that Thor in Endgame is the closest to Hemsworth himself that the character has ever been, and clearly the actor loves doing comedy. He’s good at it — I enjoyed Kevin in Ghostbusters 2016.

I don’t object to loosening up Thor. I don’t object to showing Thor spiraling into alcoholism and depression and hiding from the world in food and games. I object to using depression and alcoholism for comedy.

Thor faces Frigga, reluctantly, and she counsels her son whom she loves, telling him not to worry about living up to expectations but to be his best true self. This is consistent with both characters; Thor has accepted how hard it is to be king. Then as Thor is quantumming out she adds “And eat a salad.” Really? You had to throw that in there? She sees the wreck her son has become and she nags? She gives him some kind and loving advice, she knows there’s some weirdness going on, but she has to cap it with fat-shaming?

We are meant to mock formerly ripped Thor for being “fat and ugly,” but let’s be clear: Thor’s appearance is an outward manifestation of deep emotional issues. Thor has not been able to cope with his failure. He and Tony faced similar terrible losses. Both characters originally had sunny dispositions. Tony, who still had Pepper at least, has managed to crawl out of his hole and build something with his wife and daughter. Thor lost his brother, his other half, and has mentally, emotionally, and physically collapsed. There really is no Thor without Loki.

And speaking of, I’m going to scream for a moment:

SERIOUSLY, MARVEL, WHAT EVEN THE FLAMING FUCK WAS THAT? YOU TEE UP A GODDAMN LINE LIKE “I ASSURE YOU, BROTHER, THE SUN WILL SHINE ON US AGAIN” AND THEN IT DOESN’T PAY OFF? I FUCKING WAVED THAT FLAG FOR A SOLID YEAR BECAUSE I WAS CONVINCED YOU WERE SMARTER THAN THAT AND THIS IS HOW YOU DO ME?

Loki: I am well aware that Loki started as an antagonist, and that my perspective is skewed from the fandoms I choose to participate in. I know that he’s not an Avenger.

But purely from a narrative point of view, Marvel, ya done fucked up. You dropped the ball.

From my previous post:

Loki’s death in Infinity War was so stupid and narratively pointless that a lot of fans, myself included, believe that there’s a plan behind the scenes (since we know Endgame involves time travel) which somehow explains it and gives it meaning. Because if not, then one of the most popular MCU characters — the only antagonist to keep returning, film after film, and primarily because audiences love him — died for nothing.

And there you have it. Explaining it after the fact in Loki’s TV show doesn’t count (and we don’t know that they will). Yes, Loki grabs the Tesseract in 2012 and disappears, so you can argue that “he doesn’t die,” but all that really does is screw up the timeline. It creates another timeline branch which isn’t resolved.

Is everything now a branched universe? If Loki took off with the Tesseract, does that mean The Dark World and Ragnarok never happened? If Loki didn’t go back to Asgard in chains at the end of Avengers, that means TDW couldn’t have happened the way it did. It means that Loki didn’t sacrifice himself, but does that also mean that Malekith would have gotten the Aether/Reality Stone from Jane and killed her? (It was Loki’s plan which saved Jane, let’s recall. And killed Kurse.) Does that mean Odin is still alive and on Asgard? And Hela was never unleashed? And therefore Loki and Thor never ended up on Sakaar and Hulk and Valkyrie Brunnhilde are still there? Or worse, that Odin died and Hela was unleashed but Thor wasn’t able to stop her because he didn’t have Hulk, Valkyrie, and Loki to help him? So she’s now loose and rampaging across the realms murdering at will?

It was appropriate for the larger arc for Carol to be part of the cavalry swooping in during the final battle to pummel Thanos for a while, but I kept waiting for Loki to show up. Loki was tortured by Thanos and Ebony Maw, which is what kicked off the plot of Avengers. If 2014 Thor was willing to break Loki out of prison to get revenge for Frigga’s death, why wouldn’t either 2014 Thor or 2023 Thor be willing to tell 2012 Loki “We have an opportunity for you to get back at Thanos. Wanna help?” Because as strung out and as still cocky as he was, jauntily waving in the elevator at the beast who just beat the shit out of him, I bet Loki would have been delighted to take a few swings at Giant Purple Nutsack Face. Yes, he probably would have escaped at some point during the final battle, because that’s who he was at the time, and still is — he’s “very comfortable with chaos,” as Hiddleston notes. And that would have been consistent. Help others if it also helps him, he’s not really a hero at that point in his arc, check out after Thanos is dead because he doesn’t want to go back to prison. That all would have worked. Even if he had no more to do than Shuri or Okoye, just to show him shooting a few blasts of seidr and showing that he is in fact just as powerful a sorcerer as Doctor “I’ve only been doing this for a year” Strange.

But Loki’s death in Infinity War is for nothing. Even if I wasn’t as invested in the character as I am, from a storytelling standpoint, it was pointless. The entire heavy foreshadowing of that line was utterly whiffed. You can’t even argue that “Loki sacrificed himself for Thor” because Thanos disappeared with the Space Stone, leaving Thor behind, and Thor crawled over to his brother’s dead, broken body and crumpled there to die. Thor gave up and never recovered. The last word he expected he would ever say was “Loki....” 

Thor didn’t choose in that moment to use Loki’s sacrifice to stand up and claim revenge. Even Clint did more than that after Natasha’s death. Thor only continued on to forge Stormbreaker because the Guardians happened to pick him up in the vacuum of space after the Statesman exploded. That wasn’t a choice by the character, which is what moves a character arc forward. It was happenstance. Thor’s heart was destroyed with Loki’s death. It’s a shell of a man who eventually beheads Thanos.

Loki got an “Avenge the Fallen” poster, but he wasn’t avenged. The 2012 version of him escaped and branched off a new timeline, according to the Ancient One’s explanation of how time travel works in the MCU.

We don’t know if either Tony’s or Bruce’s Snap restored 2018 Loki. Endgame is the end of this arc. Marvel can’t patch stuff up later and claim a do-over. 

AND FOR FUCK’S SAKE MARVEL WE NEVER GOT THOR AND LOKI’S HUG.

So: did Marvel hurt us?

Not as badly as I feared. There was a ton of fanservice and moments which were so go-for-broke that I felt like we were watching wish-fulfillment fanfic. (So many jokes about Steve’s ass. Steve joking about Steve’s ass.) The script didn’t stop to explain who people were or give context; it assumed the audience knew everything and was keeping up. And that last battle, have mercy, Helm’s Deep and Pelennor Fields look like playground skirmishes in comparison.

BUT: The loose ends are deeply frustrating, and I think the Loki fandom is going to blow a collective gasket. Grotty Drunk Thor having constant My Dick Is Bigger fights with Peter Quill is not going to make me want to watch Guardians 3. (Although if Loki comes back and sneers at Quill, and Thor follows his brother off into the wild yonder with stars in his eyes, okay, call me.)  

I will watch the Marvel TV shows because I’m a masochist, but I don’t know how much I’m going to allow myself to get emotionally involved. My expectations are far lower than before IW/EG. I don’t know how the shows and movies involving “dead” characters are going to explain things. Wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey handwaving is kind of a cheat, and it doesn’t excuse the shit storytelling which was allowed to happen in the first place.

Do I regret the journey? I don’t. It’s been a hell of a ride, and I’m so glad to have met these characters. I could wish for some things to be better, and hoo boy is there going to be a lot of corrective fanfic, but I’m not sorry I came along. 

(and P.S.: Loki lives. :P)

[ohmygoodnessgraciouss]

Heist (Loki x Reader) Pt. VII - END

Masterlist

Let’s celebrate the release of Endgame on digital tonight with the final chapter to Heist. 

Taglist: 

@angelofasgard16 @it-jinxed-us @dark-night-sky-99 @pyrowolfgirl1408 @heartsxhoney @twhgirl @xavierwoodsxkofikingston @panda-duuu @nonsensicalobsessions @marisayouass

Loki jumped out of the way, hiding behind some parts from the ship.  You took this as your chance to run over to him while everyone was distracted.  "Loki!" You yelled at him.  

He turned around, shocked to see you.  He had millions of questions about all of this.  "Y/N!  How are you here?"

"It's a long story,  and you're in big trouble, so listen.  You can make illusions talk, right?"

He was confused by your question but answered anyway. "Yes, of course.  I've learned to make them feel as real as possible.  Why?"

Your eyes darted to where Thanos was quickly defeating Hulk.  You didn't have a lot of time left.  "Make an illusion of yourself.  I'm not letting you face Thanos.  Your illusion will delay him enough.  Heimdall can get Hulk back to Earth so he can alert the Avengers."

It was like you were reading his mind.  He knew Heimdall would at least try to get Banner back to Earth.  He was planning on sacrificing himself so the others would stand a fighting chance.  "What if it doesn't work?"

"Listen, do you trust me?"

"I trust you."

"Great.  I know what happens.  We don't win.  Thanos snaps, and everyone you know dies.  Everyone.  So make the illusion and come with me if you want them to stand a fighting chance." You held your hand out for him to grab.  Out of the corner of your eye, you could see Ebony Maw grabbing the Tesseract and handing it to Thanos.

Loki's eyes widened as you finished your final sentence.  He couldn't believe it.  Could he trust you?  The way you talked made him assume you were from the future.  He wanted to trust you on this.  Knowing it wouldn't end well for him anyway, he made his decision.

He took your hand in his, creating an illusion quickly.  You pressed buttons on what looked like a watch to him.  Lights lit up as a year was presented on it.  2023.  Before he could even yell out, he was sent into a realm he did not know.  "If I might interject," Would be the last thing the god would hear from 2018.

When you arrived back in 2023 with Loki, Bruce immediately turned to yell at you.  "Where have you been?!"  

"What do you mean where have I been?  I was gone for maybe ten minutes," You calmly responded.  

"You were supposed to return two and a half minutes ago."  

"What?!"

"And Steve never made it back.  He decided to stay in the past," He motioned towards where Sam and Steve were talking.  It looked like Sam was holding the shield.

"It must've been because I brought Loki here." Loki was examining his surroundings.  He didn't know what to make of it all.  Bruce was the Hulk, but at the same time not the Hulk, and he was on Earth now.  Captain America looked much older than he probably should, and who was the guy standing next to him?

"Where am I?" Loki decided to ask.

"Loki, welcome to the year 2023.  Five years ago Thanos was able to find all six infinity stones and took out half of the universe.   We killed him only a couple days after that.  About a month ago we found a way to reverse the effects of the snap.  Time travel.  We brought back everyone and had to kill Thanos again." You shortly summarized it all.

Needless to say, the god had a lot of questions.

~

When you explained it all in detail to him, you had tears in your eyes.  Recounting it all in great detail from the first snap to watching everyone take a knee as you lost Tony made it all real.  Five years without Loki and having to admit everyone that you've lost was hard.   Loki gripped your hand tightly as you told him the story, squeezing it every once in a while to try and comfort you.

"So, that's basically what you've missed," Your voice was shaky as you finished, "Or, what you wouldn't have seen if you stayed there."

Loki nodded, still trying to come to terms with all that happened. "What if this is how it was supposed to be all along?" He asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I remember seeing you, five years ago.  Well, now it would be ten years ago.  You approached me the day my mother died.  It was you from 2023.  I wrote a letter to you that I gave to Thor.  I remember seeing Thor back in 2013 as well.  What if... what if in the other timelines, this same exact thing happens?  In this timeline we're in right now, I didn't die."

"But that's not what Bruce said.  His calculations and science was all correct, and it showed what the other timelines looked like." You were still trying to imagine it in your head anyway.

"No offense, love, but your science once believed that everything revolved around your planet."

"Fair enough," You admitted.  "I guess it could be possible.  It really doesn't matter though.  There's someone who really needs to see you."  You stood up from your chair on the porch of the lakehouse, holding your hand out.

Loki, understanding immediately, took your hand and stood.  You led him through the house, passing a confused Pepper and Morgan, and going into the kitchen.  There, Bruce and Thor were talking.   Tony sat in a wheelchair with several wires connected to him.  Not even harnessing enough energy to easily kill a single man thirty times over could stop him.  Thor was chuckling at something Tony said and looked up to greet you.   Before he could say anything, he noticed Loki and his smile dissipated.   "Brother," Tears quickly filled his eyes as Loki smiled warmly.

Thor pulled him into a hug, nearly cutting off Loki's breathing.  Loki, being his melodramatic self, used this to his advantage.  "Brother, I can't breathe!" He choked out.

Thor loosened his grip ever so slightly, not caring if his brother didn't want any part of it.  That didn't matter at all right now.  He slowly felt Loki's arms wrap around his torso and awkwardly pat his back.  "It's good to see you too, brother," Loki commented.  "However, what in the nine realms happened to you?!"

"I'm sorry," Thor quietly (eerily quiet for Thor) said, not even listening to what Loki was saying.  

"For what?"

"Failing you."

"You never failed me.  I told you the sun would rise on us yet again.  I'm only sorry I missed seeing Thanos die."

Tony watched the interaction with shock in his eyes.  He had heard stories from both you and Thor, but this seemed insane.  "Is this seriously the same Reindeer Games that destroyed most of New York ten years ago with an alien army?"

"I wouldn't say that, Tony," You replied, "It's more like a free Loki.  A Loki who isn't controlled by Thanos.  It's the Loki I've wanted you to see for several years."  A smile grew on your face as you watched the brothers talk to each other.  For the first time in five years, everything was simply okay.

~

"Are you sure you have everything, Thor?  You don't want to forget the messenger in case something happens up in space.  Especially since Carol got it and Tony fixed it up just for you and the guardians.  Plus, you need to let me know how it goes with Gamora.  I know Nebula said she was going to talk to her, but I want to know how everything ends up in the next few weeks."  You were constantly pestering Thor to make sure he had everything he needed before leaving.  

Thor was clearly annoyed by it, but he appreciated the sentiment.  He recently left Asgard in charge of Valkyrie.  He didn't know if he should leave it up to Loki instead, but you told him not to, knowing Valkyrie knew Asgard well enough and understood how the world worked here.  Loki didn't know how anything worked here because he wasn't present.  You'd teach him in due time, of course.

"Yes, I have it all, Y/N.  Don't worry.  You're worse than how my mother was sometimes.  She could still put you to shame sometimes, but you're worse at the moment."  

You rolled your eyes at the statement.  "Whatever, Thor.  And remember, no beer, whatsoever.  The next time I see you, I don't want to see you with a beer belly."  

"I can promise you that much, Y/N.  And thank you."

"For what?"

"For bringing my brother back.  And for not yelling at him yet.  I haven't seen my brother that happy since our mother died.  Even when he got to see me electrocuted, he was never as happy as he is with you."

"Well, that may be ending soon.  I have a lot to discuss with him.  As for now, I'm just grateful he's around.  I'll yell at him when the dust settles a bit," You tried cracking a joke.

Rocket walked up to the two of you, telling you he finished preparing the ship.  Thor said his final goodbyes to you and you watched them leave.  Of course, you already told Rocket to keep the beer away from the Asgardian.  The raccoon told you it was already taken care of.  

When the ship took off, you walked over to Loki.  He was looking out to the pond, deep in thought.  "Want some company?" You asked him.

"Be my guest," He smiled as you sat down and let your feet swing out above the pond that was near the recently finished Avengers Compound.

"Is it strange to see everybody not trying to kill you?" You asked him, trying to lighten the mood.  

"A little.  I think the most peculiar thing about it all is just trying to adjust to the idea of there being many more Avengers while Thanos is dead."

"Would you believe me if I told you that the Stephen Strange is a part of the Avengers now?"

"Is he the witch doctor that sent me flying through portals?"

"That'd be the very one," You grinned.

"I can't believe he was allowed onto this team of yours."

"It's not really my team.  It's more like Sam's team."

"Is he the one that has the robotic wings?"

"Yeah, and Steve gave him the shield."

"I feel bad that he has to carry that around now." You laughed at his remark.  

"I missed this, so much," You leaned your head onto his shoulder.  You felt his arm sneak around your waist to bring you closer to him.  You two were like puzzle pieces, easily connecting together.

"So, may I ask when I have to hear about how angry you are for not telling you I'm alive?" He asked nervously.  Loki was not eager to have to hear about it.  He knew it'd be coming up at some point, but a part of him wanted it to be delayed while another part wanted it done and over with.

"Whenever I'm done being happy that you're here again, out of a cell, alive and well." You smiled while trying to bite back some laughter.  He almost sounded like a child that was trying to figure out whether or not he was in trouble.  

"When could that be?"

"It could be in a month, two months, or never.  I haven't decided yet.  I don't think there's a point in yelling about it right now.  I just want to show you something since you're going to be here for a while."  You continued your thought by asking him to come to your room in the compound.

When Fury heard the news of Loki being back, he immediately asked you to watch him during the day.  That meant the god would stay at the compound at all times under watch by someone.  Since you were close to him, it'd only make things easier for you to watch Loki.  You agreed immediately.

Because of that, you had your own room in the place.  It was large, nearly taking up an entire floor.  It was practically an apartment.  You didn't complain, loving the idea of never having to worry about rent.  The best part about your "room" was the one part you specifically asked for.

"Well, remember how I'd give you books all the time?" You asked him, standing in front of the door to the room.  Loki was slightly confused but nodded anyway.  "Since I have to watch you, I figured I wouldn't give you any more books and just give you access to my little collection."

When you opened the door, it led into a room with several bookshelves.  To say it was a small collection would be a complete understatement.  There were easily hundreds of books ranging from science-fiction to autobiographies.  It could keep someone busy for years.  

Loki looked around, admiring all of the books.  He pulled out one of the books, staring at its cover as if it was as old as he was.  When you saw the title, you understood why it caught his eye.  It was your collection of Shakespeare's work.  You forgot you still had that book even after all of these years.  

"You still have the book?" Loki asked, flipping through the pages.

"Of course I do.  Torn pages, tea stains, and all," You smiled.

When he reached a page, he noticed something fall out.  Your quick reflexes led to your powers catching it only inches before it fell to the marble floor.  A light blue aura surrounded the object as you lifted it into your hand.  The necklace Loki gave you was shining in all of its glory.  The stone looked like it had never been touched.

Loki slowly took the necklace from your hand, twisting the stone around between his fingers.  A small smile appeared on his face.  "When I first gave this to you, I thought you'd keep it for only a few months at most.  I can't believe you still have it after all this time."

"It was the day I realized how much I love you, Loki.  There was no way I could get rid of it.  Besides, I was waiting for the day I'd have to explain to Tony how I got a priceless necklace without his money," You joked.  

Loki didn't miss how you didn't use the past tense.  "Does this mean you still love me?" He asked.  

"Loki, I have never loved anyone as I love you.  Despite all that has happened, I don't think I could stop loving you.  At the very least, you'd have to really piss me off."

Loki chuckled at your words before placing a kiss on the top of your head.  You didn't realize that he had started to place the necklace on around your neck.  He gently pulled your hair out and smiled.

"I love you too."

[starkercrossedlovers]

Dying, Surviving, Living

{AN:  There are three places within the story that mark songs that should be played. They are marked as follows: *, **, ***.} 

*This is what dying feels like

He realizes it as he breathes, lungs burning with every inhale and exhale, vision blurring at the edges and mind desperately working to stay awake, alive, for one more breath, one more slow blink, just one more…

He’s left a message for Pepper, the last of his energy fading as he watches the slow creep of space, the icy cold of it pressing against the glass.

There’s no way out of this, he knows.

This is what dying feels like.

“Mr. Stark? Hey, Mr. Stark!”

His eyes flutter open with a sigh. He wasn’t really asleep even though he’s exhausted, he’s too worried about going to sleep and never waking up. It’s probably the kindest way to die, but there’s some primal part of him that screams to fight, to keep breathing, even as it burns.

Through hazy half drooping eyes he squints at the figure crouched next to him.

“Hey! You know Mr. Stark, you should really get something to eat, you don’t look so good.”

A tired smile curls his lips and he sighs, nodding. “Probably right about that kid. Nothing left to eat though.”

“Oh.”

“Don’t worry Pete, it’ll be okay.”

Peter smiles at him softly, kindly. “Sure it will Mr. Stark. Especially if you attach that coupler to the filtration unit from your suit and use it to recycle the air in here.”

Eyes widening, Tony stares dumbly at him and then collapses back against the hull of the ship, laughing. It’s tinged with hysteria and feels too loud, but it’s a release valve for the grief and anxiety that’s been welling inside him for days.

“Quit talking to the dead Stark, we’ve got work to do.”

A foot connects with his shin and he looks up, glare sliding away into confusion when he sees Nebula standing over him with a disgusted look.

Peter is gone….which makes sense, as he was never really there to begin with.

It hits him again, that the kid is dead and it’s fault and he wants to vomit and scream and curse, or maybe just die because then he wouldn’t have to feel this agony.

Nodding, he takes the hand Nebula offers him, grimacing as he goes lightheaded and his heart squeezes in his chest painfully.

As they walk away, he feels ghostly fingers on his neck and shudders at the whisper he knows only he can hear.

Don’t give up Mr. Stark, I need you

This is what dying feels like.

---------------------------------

By some miracle they cobble together the parts from his suit to the air purification system and within a few hours it’s noticeably easier to breathe. There’s still nothing to be done about the lack of food or water, but he’s been studying the life support systems and he thinks he might have a solution soon.

“What if we filter the waste system and purify it into potable water?”

He hums, “Not a bad idea kid,” he agrees, avoiding the look he knows Nebula is shooting him.

So what if he’s seeing and hearing Peter? He’s going to die and if it means he gets to have him around, well, he’ll take it. Even if it does leave him guilt ridden and sobbing when the kid does disappear.

He’s never gone long, maybe a few hours at the longest, and Tony can’t write it off as oxygen deprivation anymore, this is just him, going straight up crazy.

He tried blocking Peter out for all of an hour, chest aching as the kid asked in a soft, wounded voice what he had done wrong. After that he had decided being crazy was better than being alone.

He and Nebula fiddle with the waste filtration system for hours until finally, it’s producing clean, drinkable water. The first glass they share is warm, tastes a little like greenery, but it’s still better than nothing.

Tony tears up when they drain the glass, his thirst raging to life in the back of his throat. It’s like a desert, aching for relief but for now he ignores it. The system needs to cycle a few more times and he’s exhausted, so he heads to the little nest he’s created, draws a blanket around himself and watches the universe slip past.

He wonders if Pepper’s even alive to get his message, if anyone he knew and loved is left.

“You look tired Mr. Stark, why don’t you rest?”

He sighs and rolls his chin to find Peter reclining against the opposite wall, concern on his kind young face. He smiles at the kid, heart aching with how much he misses him and his pop culture references and wide eyed enthusiasm for just about everything Tony says or does.

“Hey kid. Was going to sleep now, that sewage filtration idea of yours was a good one though, thanks.”

“Sure Mr. Stark! Why don’t you close your eyes, I’ll keep watch.”

Tony would protest that it isn’t possible for him to keep watch, that he’s not real, but he’s so tired he can’t even form an argument so he closes his eyes and sinks down.

A moment later he feels fingers running through his hair and he leans into it, tears rolling from behind his closed eyes.

“I miss you Peter.”

“I’m right here Tony.”

No you’re not

He doesn’t say it, but it’s heavy in the air between them.

This is what dying feels like.

-----------------------------------------------

It’s entirely by luck that they make it back to Earth. They come upon an abandoned ship floating through space and after a quick inspection, Nebula deems it travel worthy. They’re lucky enough that it has a warp drive that they utilize to get back in just a few hours.

They guide the ship to New York, the lightless, lifeless city below sending a shiver over his spine. Steve stares at him in shock, and then they’re lurching towards each other into a rough embrace, tears rolling down both their faces.

They’re a ragtag group, and their newest addition is a woman out of time, convinced that the way to beat Thanos is to go back, change things before they ever happen. He’s too tired to argue the possibility of creating a time anomaly, so he just nods along, eats his food and works on his suit.

He wanders the compound late at night, drinking too much, talking to Peter and wishing it had been him who had died instead. The kid is always close by, murmuring to him ideas for the suit or offering opinions on the fight to come.

If anyone notices the fact that Tony’s drinking too much and talking to a dead kid, they don’t say anything. Steve hesitates the first time he catches it happening and then asks nonchalantly what Peter thinks about trying to make Loki an ally when they go back.

After that there’s no question that despite the oddness of the situation, Peter is there to stay.

This is what surviving feels like; numbness, desolation, grief so deep it’s like a fathomless ocean.

Dying was better.

---------------

They succeed, miraculously, in going back. It’s startling to see himself looking so young, but soon they’re battling the Chitauri and capturing Loki and removing the mind control Thanos had placed him under, and then it’s on to the next step of the plan.

“Duck Mr. Stark!”

Tony dodges a blow from one of Thanos’s minions, barely missing being decapitated before Steve is lunging in and shattering its skull. They share a brief appreciative grin before they slide into combat once more, soaking to the skin in blood.

It stinks, sticks and dries uncomfortably, and when he’s in the shower, he scrubs his skin until it’s raw and red and still, he doesn’t feel clean. He collapses onto the tiles below him sobbing, gasping for air, arms wrapped around his middle, desperately trying to hold himself together.

Ghostly fingers brush against his forehead, and when he looks up it’s into Peter’s kind eyes, soft with concern and affection. “Just breathe Mr. Stark, just breathe,” he whispers, pulling Tony into his arms and holding onto him as he sobs.

“Shh, it’s ok. I’m here. Just breathe.”

This is what surviving feels like.

-----------------------------------

“You need sleep Mr. Stark.”

He nods. Takes another sip of whiskey.

“Sure kid, once I’m done here,” he agrees tonelessly.

Fingers brush through his hair and he can see him, from the corner of his eye, more real than he has any right to be, watching him with concern.

“Please? Come to bed?”

Tony swallows hard, shivers running over his skin as Peter’s hand covers the back of his neck, slim fingers brushing against his skin softly. Heat builds at the touch and he leans into it unconsciously, sighs when Peter’s thumb rubs soothing circles into his jaw.

“C’mon Tony, lets go to bed.”

So he does.

He follows his ghost to his bedroom and orders FRIDAY not to let anyone in and strips before crawling into bed, headache throbbing away behind his eyes.

He smiles when fingers brush his forehead, soothing and gentle. A kiss to his temple has him curling towards Peter, aching for more of the gentle touches. It’s wrong, he knows, to want Peter like this, even if he was real, it would be wrong—age of consent be damned.

He’d always made sure he brushed off the hero worship and the too long stares the kid sent his way—he’s fucked up, but he’s not that fucked up...right?

Peter’s hand tilts Tony’s chin, warm brown eyes smiling at him before he leans down and presses his lips to Tony’s.

“Go to sleep Mr. Stark, I’ll keep you safe.”

He does, with Peter’s fingers raking through his hair and his quiet voice humming softly a tune that Tony knows, but can’t remember.

---------------------

“I’m just saying! Should we really be relying on a guy who’s talking to a dead kid?”

The room goes silent, tension in every body as they all either studiously look away or glance over at him.

He can’t even blame Rocket, as weird as it is to say, because yea, he’s not the most stable, but he’s holding it together. And that’s all he has to do, keep holding on until they get everyone back.

Once he gets Peter back—and Pepper—he reminds himself forcefully, it’ll all be ok again. He just has to fix what’s broke—himself included.

Steve shakes his head at the raccoon, “Tony knows what he’s doing. I trust him with my life.”

Tony looks at the other man in surprise, but nods his thanks. They’ve come a long way since he returned to Earth, but they have further to go. Eventually he gets up and leaves the conversation behind—he doesn’t actually care if they think he’s sane or not, so long as they fix this, it doesn’t matter.

“It does matter Tony...you have to hold on. Don’t let go of who you are,” Peter pleads softly as he messes with the nanites in his lab, hands shaking at the sound of Peter’s voice. It’s been a few days and he had started to worry Peter was gone.

“I’m never gone Tony. I’ll always be here for you.”

Tears blur his vision and he sobs, curling in on himself as Peter’s arms wind around his shoulders and pull him into his chest.

His lungs feel like they’re shredding, copper heavy on his tongue as he bleeds out inside, heart cracking inside its cage between his ribs. He wishes he could rip it out and leave it on the floor, useless broken thing that it is.

This is what surviving feels like.

---------------------

It takes all of them to fight Thanos, the battle bloody and ruthless, but eventually they kill the mad Titan and take the gauntlet to be destroyed in the same place it was made. The stones are destroyed, despite Strange’s wariness to lose them—convinced they could be used for good—an idea Tony would have agreed with once upon a time.

Before Thanos.

Before Peter dissolved into ashes before his eyes.

Before he had to hear him plead with Tony—please Mr. Stark, I don’t wanna go!

Across the universe order is restored, loved ones lost return. He watches as Steve and Bucky embrace, Quill and Gamora reunite, T’Challa and Okoye...person after person...stomach plummeting when neither Pepper nor Peter appear before them.

He’s failed.

His heart turns to ice in his chest, numbness spreading through him and he leans a little heavier into Nat, her eyes wary on him, too knowing for his liking, but he can’t...he can’t do this anymore.

----------------------

** Steve decides to stay in the 40’s with Peggy—no longer a man out of time. When he offers his shield to Bucky there’s a collective moment of shock before the man nods and takes the iconic piece of vibranium, the mantle of Captain America passed on.

They return to their timeline, broken, battered and bruised and as the team celebrates he slinks away from the rest of the group, everything too loud and bright.

Surviving sucks.

The door to his quarters shuts with a soft metallic sound, the lock engaging a moment later and an order to FRIDAY will ensure his solitude. He plans on getting blindingly drunk and sleeping for a week, celebration be damned.

He chuckles bitterly; what do they have to celebrate?

Steve is gone.

Thor is gone.

Peter is gone.

The strongest, bravest, best members of the Avengers, lost, forever.

A sob hitches in his chest as his eyes burn, tears welling up. Is this surviving? He hates it. Doesn’t want it.

“Mr. Stark?”

Head whipping up, he blinks through his tears and finds the familiar figure of Peter Parker, sitting on the edge of his bed.

Smiles tremulously.

“Hey kid, glad to see you’re still with me.”

Peter’s brow furrows, “I...I mean, yea, of course Mr. Stark, always.”

Tony manages a weak smile and pours himself a drink, sips the burning liquid and shudders as it spreads through him.

“Are you—should you drink like that?”

 Tony snorts and turns back to the kid, “I’d say I earned it, don’t you think? Saving the universe and all?”

 “Yea, but, why are you still not happy?”

Tony half sobs and stares at him incredulously. “Happy? Kid, how could I be happy? You’re gone! Dead! And the only reason I’m seeing you is because I’ve finally gone flat out fuckin shit house crazy!” he shouts, “Do you get it? I’m broken! I-I’ll never be Iron Man again. I’m done!”

Peter stares at him, aghast, confusion and hurt staining his face. “Mr. Stark…”

“No! No...I can’t Peter. I need...fuck, I need you...but if you stay…” Tony shakes his head ruefully and laughs bitterly, wipes at the tears on his face, “I’ll jump out that fuckin window someday. I can’t live not having you. I can’t remember that I failed you every time I look at you.”

He’s pleading now, frozen heart shattering in his chest as he begs his ghost to stop haunting him.

“Please Peter, please go. Please.”

There are tears on Peter’s face now too and Tony sobs, swallows down a gulp of whiskey and curses, fills the glass again with fumbling hands.

“I’m not dead.”

Tony stills for a moment and then shakes his head. “You are. This is just my fucked up mind trying to give me what I want.” He exhales shakily, “But I can’t have you kid. You’re not real.”

“Please Mr. Stark, I promise I’m real!” Peter begs, half sobbing now too.

Tony whirls and glares at him, “Stop! S-Stop torturing me!” he snarls, “I can’t love you and not have you,” he hisses, “Don’t you get it?!”

Peter stares at him wide eyed as Tony breathes unevenly, tears in his eyes once more. The kid shoots to his feet and stalks over, grabs the glass of whiskey and chucks it at the wall, both men startling at the crash.

“I am not dead,” Peter tells him lowly, firmly. Reaches out and grabs Tony’s wrist, holds on as he tries to fight. “Feel that? I’m real dammit!”

Tony shakes his head furiously, yanking on his wrist even as part of him remembers that when Peter touched him it had been like a gentle breeze on his skin—fleeting and barely there.

This is...real.

Alive

Warm

Tony stills as Peter’s hands tighten around his wrists, dark eyes gazing up at him steadily, determined.

“I’m real,” he whispers, “I promise.”

A half choked sob punches out of Tony and he tugs a hand free, shaking as he reaches out to touch Peter’s face. The boy smiles and leans into it, warm and solid and real against his palm.

“Peter?” Tony whispers hoarsely, painful hope burning inside him, and he knows, it’s either real, or he’s so far gone it doesn’t matter anymore. If he’s so crazy that he’s able to touch his hallucinations, he’s going to lock himself away in a remote location and live out his days in pleasant insanity.

“Have you ever been able to touch me before? When I was gone?” Peter reasons, likely seeing the hope and disbelief warring on Tony’s face. Some part of him appreciates the reminder to use that analytical brain of his and he shakes his head slowly, recalling every time Peter had ever touched him.

He can smell Peter now too—cologne musky and warm, the soft scent of honey and lavender from his shampoo, all things he hadn’t been able to sense before.

“I could be having a break from reality,” Tony reasons, voice hoarse and low.

Peter nods and tugs him toward the door. “Let’s see if anyone else can see me,” he suggests, “Rhodey wouldn’t lie.”

Tony nods slowly and lets the kid tow him out of the room and back towards the celebration. The remaining teammates look up, shock silencing the room and hope burns brighter in Tony.

“Can you see me Rhodey?” Peter asks, smiling at Tony’s oldest friend.

The older man nods disjointedly, a smile beginning to creep onto his face. “Y-yeah kid, I see you.”

Tony’s fingers tighten on Peter’s wrist, “Rhodes, you sure?” he demands, voice breaking on the last word. If this is just a delusion...he can’t. He won’t survive it.

Rhodey nods again and reaches out to poke Peter in the chest, bright laughter boiling out a moment later. “Yea Tones, I’m sure.”

The dam inside Tony shatters and he curls inward with a sob, swaying dangerously till Peter grabs onto him, pulls him into his arms and holds him as he weeps.

A storm of grief and euphoria devastates Tony, the reality of the young man holding him up too much for his broken heart and broken mind to handle. Peter carefully guides him back to his rooms, hushing him gently as he applies a little strength and makes Tony sit on his bed.

He strips Tony of his shoes and socks, pulls his jeans off and slides his button down shirt off till he’s in his briefs and a tank, shivering as he sobs. Peter hastily sheds his own clothing and slides into bed beside Tony, murmuring softly for FRIDAY to darken the room.

When Tony panics at the sudden darkness, sobbing and clutching at Peter, he urges FRIDAY to turn on a nightlight, low and golden around the edge of the ceiling. When Tony can see him again he settles some, arms banding tightly around his waist as he buries his face into Peter’s shoulder.

His heart breaks for his friend, mentor, love of his life really. He hadn’t known how deeply his death had affected Tony, and now he wishes he had a way to take it all away—the pain, the grief, the loneliness.

As Tony quiets slowly, he runs his fingers through his hair, murmuring soft words of affection and assurance. When Tony finally falls asleep, Peter watches him, tracing the deep lines in his brow and the dark circles beneath his eyes.

Tony had survived losing him, but at the cost of his sanity and health. He’ll make sure that Tony learns to live again, in time.

------------------------------------------

*** The sun shines down, drying out the red earth below, the scent of rosemary and lemon heavy in the air.

Tony shifts and Peter glances over at him, smiling when the older man sighs softly in his sleep, face relaxed and tanned from weeks in the Tuscan sun. He watches Tony sleep for a few minutes before turning his attention back the screen in his hands.

He’s been reviewing after action reports for the teams since he and Tony left for Italy three months ago. The UN hadn’t been pleased to receive notice of Iron Man’s retirement, nor the notice that Spider-Man would be taking a vacation for an indefinite amount of time unless an imminent global threat arose.

The rest of the team and the Guardians had things well in hand, and he wasn’t about to leave Tony.

Not now.

He and Tony had arrived in Italy just two weeks after the return of the Avengers and the restoration of the universe. Ross had tried to accuse them of being lazy, self indulgent or cowards, that was until every member of the Avengers and Guardians had threatened to refuse the call if Ross and the UN didn’t support Tony and Peter.

Faced with losing earth’s best defenders yet again, the capitulation from those in power had been swift.

A distant rumble of thunder draws Peter’s gaze to the horizon. It’s been weeks without rain, the earth so dry he can hear it cracking under his feet when he walks out into the orchard each morning, the creak of the branches in the wind dry and lifeless.

He hopes the rain lasts like they say it will, a slow steady soaking that will bring life to the earth once more.

He leaves Tony to sleep while he pads barefoot into the kitchen, his hands moving almost mindlessly as soft music plays from the record player in the other room. The house belongs to Tony’s family—the whole town really—and it’s littered with photos of his mother as a teenager, smiling brightly, laughing and dancing, and he knows it makes Tony’s heart ache to see them, but it’s a good ache, he thinks.

The roast chicken recipe is one of Tony’s Nonna’s, the picture of her and her husband watching over the kitchen—her dark eyes and wry smile reminiscent of her grandson. He sees Tony everywhere in this place—in the faces of his family and the updates he’s made to the electrical grid, to the flawless Italian that he speaks when they venture into town.

Thunder rumbles louder and when he glances out the window the clouds are much closer now. He can feel the air pressure changing, the temperature falling and a shiver runs over his skin, senses tingling. There’s anticipation in the air—of the storm to come, of all the things the future holds, and it makes him yearn for something unsaid.

Drying his hands on his shorts, he heads out to rouse Tony, a light hand on his brow and brush of his lips against Tony’s.

“Wake up Tony,” he whispers against his lips, “storm is coming.”

Tony’s beautiful eyes flutter open and a slow smile curls his lips.

“Mio caro,” he whispers, voice husky from sleep, face soft and open.

Peter smiles and kisses him again, “Hey,” he whispers, taking Tony’s hand as he rises from the patio chair and tugs him inside as the first drops of rain start to fall.

When he glances back droplets of water glisten in Tony’s dark hair and there’s a yearning, hungry look to his gaze that has nothing to do with chicken.

Peter shivers.

This is what living feels like.

------------------------- 

Rain patters down on the clay roof, the air chill against the sweat on his skin, lightning flashing to illuminate the dark eyes staring back at him.

Tony breathes deeply beneath him, hands trembling where they rest on his thighs as Peter rides him, slow and steady. This isn’t even about coming, it’s a need for connection, a yearning for that feeling that comes when Tony gasps his name like it’s oxygen for his drowning lungs.

He grabs Tony’s hand and lifts it to press against his sternum, the steady thrum of his heart against Tony’s calloused palm enough to make the other man whisper his name, adoration glowing in his eyes.

He’ll never tire of that—of the way Tony looks at him, of how he holds him, loves him. It’s too hard fought for, this love of theirs, for him to ever let it go.

Fingers curling in thick curls, he leans down and kisses Tony, sharing a gasp as the action has Tony’s cock dragging over his prostate. A choked off wrecked little noise barely makes it past his lips as he kisses Tony again and rolls his hips harder, chases that sensation.

Thunder rumbles loud enough to vibrate through the walls, the tremble of it shuddering over his skin and down his spine as he arches back up, fingers pressing into the scar on Tony’s chest where the arc reactor used to be.

I love you Tony he whispers, love you, love you, love you

Tony’s head falls back as Peter leans in again to press kisses to his throat, raindrops sliding down the window panes and blurring the world outside.

He tastes like sweat and sun and lemon and Peter knows that however many years they have left together, it’ll never be enough.

He’ll always want more.

Tony gasps his name, hands desperate on his skin as Peter rolls his hips, bodies slick and hot against each other, soft cries filling the room alongside the hush of the rain.

Please, Peter, need you, please Tony whispers, voice breaking as tears glisten in his eyes. Peter hushes him gently and leans up for a kiss, soft and gentle, lips parting on moans as they move faster now, that warm familiar ache building where their bodies meet.

Tony cums inside him with a low cry, body arching into Peter’s as he half sobs, clutches at him desperately, face tucked into Peter’s neck so his hot, unsteady breaths wash over his skin.

The sensation of Tony’s release is one Peter will never get used to—it’s like carrying a piece of his lover inside him, warm and comforting and completing. Like he’s whole for the first time in years.

He didn’t know how he could miss something he had never had before he and Tony made love, but it’s that—love—that he’s been yearning for his whole life. It’s different than the love he has for May, it’s deeper, consuming, like a string has been tied under the left side of his ribs, deep inside him, stretching across space and time to where it’s knotted beneath Tony’s, and if they go too far apart, it would snap.

Lightning flashes and Peter holds Tony’s gaze as he cums too, shaking and gasping before he’s capturing those lips in his, desperate and needy as he rides out the last of his release. Thunder pounds against the stucco of the house and inside his chest, heart pounding as it begs to fly free and up into the night.

He collapses against Tony, sighing as he presses his lips to the sweaty crown of his head.

“I love you,” he whispers, barely loud enough to cause a vibration in the air, but he knows Tony hears him because his hands tighten on his skin, possessive and loving.

Il mio amore...mio caro...il mio cuore

Tony whispers it in his ear, voice hoarse, and Peter can smell the salt of his tears, hear the irregular beat of his heart, feel the warmth of his breath...every inch of him trembling with love.

Leaning up slightly he smiles softly at Tony, kisses away his tears and presses his forehead with Tony’s.

My love...my darling...my heart

This is what living feels like.

------------------------

Okay my loves, this is the story I started when I first discovered Starker, and I have to say, it’s my favorite thing I’ve written for this ship. There are three places within the story that mark songs that should be played. They are marked as follows: *, **, ***. I encourage you to listen to the songs--even if you aren’t a classical music nerd like me!! Hopefully you’ll love it, and even if you don’t I hope you gain a little appreciation for my favorite composer! 

I hope you all enjoy the story and the music as much as I do! 

@sluttystarker @starkerchemistryy @pantastic-peach @thebadthingshappen @ciel-mio @hpspazz @starker-4ever @w1nters-stark @foof-a-loof @confused-trash-kitten @panicdotexe @stqrker @honey-honey-darling @mariketa12 @itsmeryshipper @dramione90 @starker-flame @pretzelpoetry @seriouslystarker @starkerthanreality @ikneelbeforemygod @professional-fangirl75 @virgilismypoorshadowling @godlovesstarker @sapphicfreak @veronicashipsit @the-dark-obsidian-princess @ikneelbeforemygod @laughing-oreo @sensei-sans-sugoi @ruelukas22 @tom-starker @yourlittlemelody