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Doctor Strange took a deep breath - what was done was done. Tony Stark was dead. He had snapped, killing Thanos, Thanos’ Hoard, and himself. As he died, Stephen assured him that this was the one posible route to victory that he had foreseen.
It wasn’t. Oh, they defeated Thanos, unsnapped all who had been snapped, resolved Thor’s insecurities and reaffirmed Captain America’s heterosexuality, but the real problems were with the Infinity Stones. A universe, when it’s primary building blocks were taken out of it, fell into chaos - if it didn’t fall apart, it warped, it became prey to outside influences. That was why Steve Rogers had been tasked with returning the stones to their proper timelines - their proper universes, their proper dimensions. Those dimensions were safe - for now, as most of them still had Thanos. The one that Colonel Rhodes, Nebula, and Agents Romanoff and Barton had visited was safe, at least. Their dimension was not.
The true path forward, the one way they could have won and kept their world stable, was if when Hulk had snapped he had recreated the Infinity Stones. Tony hadn’t known they needed the Infinity Stones, hadn’t known what to wish for - and even if he had, it wouldn’t have been ideal. He would have been able to make a copy of the Infinity Stones - but they would have been drawn back to their home timelines, returning double the stones to each timeline. No, Hulk would have had to be the one to do it, as Thanos had done all his damage in one snap, destroyed the stones and half the population of the universe - the only way to recreate the Infinity Stones was to completely reverse Thanos’ snap. Hulk had only partially reversed it, had only brought people back, not Stones. The Ancient One had told him that each universe needed all the Infinity Stones, while saying that all the stones taken had to be returned to their home timelines, but Hulk hadn’t taken the hint.
And now here they were. No Infinity Stones. The Avengers either dead, unable to battle, gone to find themselves, or Hulk. Other heroes present and ready to restart their lives - Spider Man, Black Panther, even War Machine (although his restart was of a different nature, seeing as he hadn’t actually been dead). Sam Wilson was honored to be the next Captain America, had been some kind of Avenger before but was rejoining in his new role, ready and eager to help, not knowing that the world as he knew it was about to fall apart.
It started small - Thor reappeared shortly after the Guardians of the Galaxy had blasted off, giving no real reason for his appearance. That would have been fair enough, sometimes that kind of thing didn’t work out - but Thor had been thin. That kind of weight loss didn't happen in one week, not even to the God of Thunder.
Then the newly-reformed Avengers - for now comprised of Hulk, Thor, War Machine, Captain America (Sam), Bucky, and himself - had moved their headquarters back to Stark Tower. Stephen wasn’t sure what prompted the move back, and he’d been in the meeting where they decided it. There they found Pepper Potts, who didn’t seem to remember any events past the 2012 invasion. That was when they were joined by Pepper Potts - who did remember. Then a third Pepper Potts had appeared, looking about 14 years old but in full armor, and it turned out that she was best friends with Tony Stark and James Rhodes, who apparently all went to highschool together. Rhodey and both adult Peppers denied it, and then a quick google search informed us that Pepper Potts was married to Happy Hogan.
After that, the glitches and instabilities became more and more apparent - someone named Phil Coulson appeared looking for Clint Barton blabbering something about Barton being his cellist. The past began warping - people started coming back from the dead, either no longer having died in the first place or just walking in one day right as rain. Even the snaps - Hulk’s, Tony’s, even Thanos’ - were retroactively changed. Sometimes Tony was around to explain it, sometimes he wasn’t. Once Thanos was around to explain it, he was oddly relaxed and open to giving Tony first-time parental advice. That Tony actually followed.
Reality was bending, breaking, and reforming itself imperfectly. For want of a better metaphor, the universe had walls. Walls that the Infinity Stones maintained, kept solid and steady. Without the Infinity Stones, the walls turned from stone to plaster to drywall - and then into some kind of caustic jelly that wasn’t made for human consumption.
Their universe was hurting, to put it simply. Realistically everyone would be coping for at least a few months - there would be problems, but they needed to heal. Yet every time they tried, something new showed up - something that needed fixing, or Avenging - a new issue, a new problem. Reality couldn’t fix itself, so it was trying to make them realize that something was wrong so they would try to fix it. And yet nobody realized. Some had an inkling of what was going on - Tony Stark’s AI Jarvis, who was one of many who were brought back, seemed to realize something was wrong. A being known as En Dwi Gast seemed to as well, and Sam Wilson did as well, as he was growing increasingly disturbed, and Bucky along with him. Stephen held out hope that somehow, someone would fix the problem.
He would, he honestly would, but he couldn’t. He physically could not. Every time he tried to tell someone, he would lose control of his tongue. Every time he tried to write it down, the implement would fall from his hand. When he attempted to steal Pym Particles to venture into the past (as he no longer had the Eye of Agamoto for ease of travel), he miraculously developed an allergy. To Pym Particles.
He tried to find out what force was keeping him from interfering, but he could not. He was unable to. All he could really do was watch, watch and hope. Every time they brought a new person in, every time something was revealed, or a new threat showed up, his hope soared. He never let it fizzle when nothing was done to fix the real problem.
Perhaps, he mused to himself, if he built up enough hope, the problem could be fixed? It was not impossible, but that was because nothing was, now.