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The Avengers, or what was left of them, stood on the pedestal. They were about to be sent back in time. (Rocket, Groot, Natasha, Clint, Tony, Scott, Cap, Thor, Rhodey, and Nebula are all going back in time.)
Thor looked at his brother, Loki. “I shall return soon, brother,” he said. Loki had survived Thanos’ attack on the Asgardian ships with only non-fatal injuries. “The sun will shine upon us again. Upon us and the rest of this universe.” Thor smiled like a schoolboy.
“Don’t touch anything, Reindeer Games,” Tony commented.
“I am Groot,” said Groot. The tree had not been dusted away all those years ago, much to Rocket’s joy.
“No stupid, we’re going to be gone for, like, two seconds!” Rocket translated.
“I am Groot,” Groot argued.
“Well yeah, for us it will have been a while. But for Magic Man we’ll be gone and back real quick.”
“Alright then,” Tony sighed. “Everyone else good? Clint? Nat? You ready for 2012 again?”
“I never thought I’d be back in 2012,” Clint said. “But at least it’s familiar territory.”
“Bruce, can you make sure Reindeer Games won’t mess up any of the controls?”
“Yup,” Bruce, in his very green state, said.
In a flash of light and reality warping, the Avengers were gone. Bruce counted about three seconds, and flipped a lever. Loki had hardly enough time to knock over an empty soda can.
Bruce looked over everyone to see if they were alright. “Good? All good?”
“A little iffy, but I got the stone in the end,” Rhodey said as he removed his War Machine mask.
Rocket fell to his knees in silence. In one hand he held the soul stone. In the other, he held a tiny twig. He sniffled, but tried to cover it up with a cough. It just made him cry harder.
“Rabbit, where is the tree?” Thor asked, bearing the reality stone. “Rabbit?! Where’s the tree?!”
Thor’s unwavering smile faltered slightly at the response.
“A soul for a soul,” Rocket mumbled. “He sacrificed himself for this stupid rock.”
The Avengers quietly made their way into the next room. None of them had a friendship with Groot, they only knew him as Rocket and Thor’s friend. Groot’s death didn’t weigh heavily on their consciences.
In a very quick, way too short amount of time, Banner snapped and brought half of the universe back. At the same time, though, Nebula had made her way back to the time machine and was fiddling around with the controls. She was able to transport Thanos from the past into the future.
And what could only be described as chaos ensued.
What would later become known as the battle for Earth began. The original six Avengers, plus many many more fought Thanos and his army earnestly. Peter had gotten control of the gauntlet for a while, but gladly gave it up after nearly being shot to death by essentially an orbital strike cannon.
Peter fought valliantly, but Tony made him tap out after he got seriously stabbed and pelted by strikes.
“Kid, now is not the time to argue!” Tony yelled at him as he blasted alien brains. “FRIDAY warned me that you have lost a lot of blood! Sit tight, this will all be over soon!”
“What? No! I’m fine!” Peter coughed through the private comms channel. “‘Mkay, maybe not..”
“Sit out! That is not a suggestion! May will kill me if you die!”
Peter did not in fact stop fighting. He stuck close to Tony, since that was the only thing he would compromise for.
The infinity stones made their way around the battlefield like a ping pong ball. Thanos eventually came to have them.
He formed his fingers into snapping position.
“I am,” Thanos paused dramatically, “Inevitable.”
Snap.
Snap snap.
Thanos looked at his hand. It was devoid of the infinity stones.
Captain Marvel, in all her glowing glory, held the stones as if they were nothing but paperweights. She snapped.
Thanos watched as his army failed and crumbled into oblivion. His legs felt weak. He sat down and looked at his hands as they too became dust.
Soon, Thanos and his army and all his glorified weapons were gone. Fully gone. Forever.
Captain Marvel didn’t look at all harmed by the infinity stones. She was perfectly fine.
Tony and Peter met up and Tony frowned at Peter. Cap, Nat, Clint, and everyone else began to congregate after they realized that everything was truly over.
Tony sighed, realizing that nobody knew what to do. He looked at everyone. Their eyes were just as stricken as his. “Shawarma? Are you guys up for shawarma?”
Cap stared at Tony and let out an airy laugh. It grew into a loud chuckle, and then into hysterical cackling. Clint, Nat, Bruce, and Thor joined in.
“I’m serious! Do you want shawarma or not? I’ll pay!”
“After we make sure nobody is injured,” Steve took a deep breath before continuing, “because I know that some people are hurt.” He shot a glance at the youngest Avenger.
Peter narrowed his Spider-eyes and crossed his arms over his chest. “I am not,” he huffed, ignoring the blood that was pooling at his feet and clinging to his side.
—
It was late in the evening, the day after the large battle that had made mainstream news all across the world. Tony had all but crammed every hero into the Shawarma shop. Every hero that could make it, that is. Many of the sorcerers and Wakandans didn’t come. It was limited to the original Avengers, Wanda, Vision, Peter, T’challa, and a few others.
Tony offered Loki an alcoholic beverage. “You never got it back in ‘12. Cheers.” Tony raised his glass to the god of Mischief, who simply stared at the cup in disbelief. He started to get a little emotional, but quickly hid said emotions and downed the drink.
Peter and Wanda were at a table sharing a platter of shawarma. Steve and Bucky were there too, although they each ate separately. Peter dubbed the table ‘the cool table’ for short, but ‘the people who need to eat a lot more because we have faster metabolisms and burn our energy faster–HEY! That’s mine!’ table for long.
“Are you sure you won’t get PTSD or something?” Bucky asked with a mouthful of food. “Aren’t children more susceptible to that kind of stuff? Because of your developing brains?”
“I think I’m all good,” Peter bragged. “I’m a perfectly functioning member of society.” Heroes don’t get scared. Heroes aren’t supposed to have childish fears because some scary thing happened.
“Do you think Stark is alright?” Wanda asked. “He seems off, in a way I can’t place.”
Peter was instantly worried. He looked at Tony to see if he could catch what Wanda was talking about. He saw no visible signs of damage. He turned back to the table and changed the subject.
“So, what’s your coolest hero story?”
Tony was still chatting with Loki when Thor decided to join them. “It seems Rabbit is sad,” he noted. “I think we should comfort him. Come brother, man of steel, I wish to make things right with him.”
Thor tried to strike a conversation with Rocket, but was met with no response. Rocket sat at the barstool and downed a drink. “Is he even supposed to be having alcohol? Isn’t he like a raccoon?” Tony muttered to himself.
Thor sat next to Rocket, and, not knowing what to do, started petting him. Rocket tried to object at first, but then decided that the petting was soothing.
“I bet I look so stupid right now,” Rocket sniffled.
“Nobody is watching, you have nothing to worry about,” Thor comforted.
“That doesn’t make it any less stupid.”
Thor laughed, and Rocket joined.
“I’d like to get back with my crew if that’s possible,” Rocket said as he stood up on the barstool.
Tony decided that now was a good time to interject. “Your ship is fine, by the way. It wasn’t damaged by the battle. It’s still at the compound.” Tony paused as Rocket nodded slowly. “I can take you there if you’d like.”
“Yeah, I’d like that.”
Rocket wiped his face with his forearm and hopped off the stool. He stole one more shawarma wrap as he and Tony sauntered out the door.
Thor and Loki sat at the table with everyone else. Peter smiled and chatted animatedly about meaningless topics to get everyone to stop thinking about the battle.
“And so my best friend, Ned,” Peter shared, “he was in my room–even though he wasn’t supposed to be! – and he caught me crawling into my room and closing the door from the ceiling. He dropped his Lego Death Star and asked if I was Spider-Man. And, you know, since he asked if I was Spider-Man when I was literally on the ceiling, I said no. Of course he didn’t believe me though.”
Peter took the laughter as a sign to end the story there.
“If this is a way to push your problems away,” Steve said very seriously, “don’t keep doing it. You’re a kid. You shouldn’t have to go through this kind of stuff. It’s traumatic. Tell us if you need anything, kiddo.”
“I’m not even that young!” Peter objected.
Steve raised an eyebrow. “Oh, my apologies. How old are you?”
“Sixteen…” Peter muttered so quietly that only the super soldiers could hear.
“Sixteen?! How old were you when I fought you at the airport in Germany?!” Bucky slammed his fists on the table in disbelief.
“Fifteen, it’s not even that bad.”
“You couldn’t even DRIVE?! I almost killed a child?!” Bucky seemed to be in the wringer with this dilemma.
“I still can’t drive,” Peter admitted. “May never had enough money to pay for driver’s ed. Plus, it’s New York. Who needs a car?”
Bucky sighed in defeat. He looked outside, only to find that it was very dark. He checked a clock on the wall. “It’s eleven thirty?”
The shop owner came out of the back of the store. “I would never kick out the heroes,” he said with a bright smile and thick accent. “Stay as long as you like. I stay open for you!”
“No no!” Peter waved his hands and Bucky shoved the rest of the shawarmas in his mouth.
“We’re finished here. Would you like us to help clean up?” Steve asked, looking around at the restaurant. It wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t good.
“No. I clean. You go home. Rest. Heroes do hard work, need lot of rest.” The old man smiled and waited for the Avengers to leave. Once they were out of sight, he began to work with a smile, humming a song he heard from the radio.
—
“There is no way I’m letting a little kid walk home alone,” Bucky said, and Steve agreed. Thor and Loki had already broken off and Wanda trailed behind them.
“I’m sixteen! I do not need to be walked home!”
“And I’m 106. By my standards, you are a very young and very innocent child.”
“I am not innocent either!”
“Really? I thought innocence was a good thing. What did you do to lose this innocence? Murder? Drugs? Sex?”
“Wha- no! Forget it. That’s gross! So gross!”
“Only an innocent child would think of sex as gross. If you love your spouse dearly, then sex is–”
“Stop! Stop talking! We are changing the topic!”
Bucky and Steve laughed at Peter. “We’re still walking you home,” Steve said as Wanda left the group to head towards the newly destroyed compound. Tony had texted her to meet him there.
So, Peter ended up sandwiched between two super soldiers in the dead of night as they walked to his apartment. Halfway there, they realized that it was most likely that May was not in the apartment.
“May! Oh my gosh! I haven’t called May yet!” Peter fished his phone out of his pocket and stood under a street lamp. Bucky used his head as an armrest. Peter dialed the phone number and prayed that May would pick up.
“Hello?” The voice on the other end of the line was casual. It was May’s voice. “Hello, who is this?”
“May. It’s me.”
There was a silence that followed. “Peter?” she asked quietly. Her voice broke.
“May, I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened,” Peter couldn’t help but let his voice waver.
“Peter, you were gone for five years. I thought you died!” May was choking up, but also seemed mad at the same time.
“I kinda did?” Peter let out a breath. “Where are you?”
“I’m still at our apartment. I haven’t moved. God– Peter, I really hope that you aren’t some prank caller,” her voice cut off as she blew her nose. “Just– just meet me at home, okay?”
Peter hung up the phone and wiped his tears off with his jacket sleeve.
“May didn't move. We can keep going.”
“Are you alright kid?” Bucky asked.
“I’m fine… It’s just– never mind. I’m fine.”
Bucky looked at Steve, who shrugged with a pitiful look at Peter. Steve got a call and took it. Peter overheard the conversation thanks to his super-hearing. He caught the words time travel and back, but that was all.
“I’ll do it,” Peter suggested. He didn’t know what was even happening, but if it included time travel? He’d do it for sure! Steve gaped at the boy and relayed that to Tony. He got off the phone.
They continued the walk towards Peter’s apartment. A few night owls were also out on a walk and marveled at the two superheroes. Peter was covering his Spider Suit with a jacket and hello kitty pajamas. One person pointed to her friend and they squealed like fan-girls.
The girls made no move to ask for autographs or anything, and opted for an across-the-street selfie with Captain America in the background.
Peter, Steve, and Bucky made their way all the way to the door of the apartment. Peter said goodbye and stepped into the house, using the key under the doormat.
For Peter, he had been gone for maybe thirty seconds. As if he had passed out. When Doctor Strange told him that it had been five years, he hadn’t fully realized that it had been five years. Now, walking into his apartment, the familiar scent was gone, replaced with candles with heavy smells and boxes.
May stood up and extinguished as many candles as she could. Her mascara was hastily wiped off, but streaks were still on her face. She hugged Peter tightly and didn’t let go for two full minutes.
“I missed you,” she whispered as she finally let him go.
—
Tony, after dropping Rocket off at his spaceship, began to drive home. He called Pepper on the way.
“Tony?” Her voice rang loud in the car’s speakers. She sounded worried, but also relieved. “Tony, it’s almost midnight. What were you doing? Are you alright?”
“I’m fine, Pep,” Tony chuckled. “I’m on my way home. If Morgan is still awake, tell her that I love her 3000.”
“Morgan’s asleep. Like she should be– Like you and I should be,” Pepper said with a hint of sarcasm.
“Sorry!” Tony laughed. “I’ll be home in a bit. Love you. See you soon.”
“I love you too.” Pepper hung up.
The drive went by in eerie silence. Tony kept glancing at his phone, still on and displaying the call list. He looked at his list of favorites (It held a staggering four contacts that didn’t belong to an official Avenger) and he let his finger hover over one. He almost called Peter, almost made sure he got home safe. Tony didn’t want to lose the kid again. It broke him. Peter was the reason he created time travel for goodness sakes.
He scrolled down the list and called Cap instead. That phone number had been unused since Germany. It felt strange calling it.
Cap picked up after the second ring.
“Yeah?” he asked, confused as to why Tony was calling him.
Tony hesitated. Why did he call Cap? It wasn’t like they enjoyed each other’s company. After another beat of silence, Tony spoke. “I… I want to start over. In our friendship. Now that this whole ordeal is over, I’d like us to work together again. Before Thanos and time travel, I was working on changing the accords.”
Tony began to ramble about how Ross was too self important, and Ross waited five years to actually try to make amends in the accords, and Ross this, Ross that. Steve cut him off.
“I’d enjoy working as a team again. I talked to Clint and Nat. They told me that the sorcerer supreme back in 2012 told them to return each stone to the exact moment in time which they were taken. Someone’s gotta do it.”
At that moment, Tony heard a faint ‘I’ll do it’ coming from a voice he knew all too well.
“It seems we have a volunteer,” Steve hesitated.
“I’ll talk it over with him,” Tony massaged the bridge of his nose. “Tomorrow, though. Are you walking him home?” His voice took on a teasing tone. He was met with a beep, signaling the end of the call. “I’ll take that as a yes.”
Tony finished the rest of the drive without a word. He pulled into his gravel driveway, turning off the car’s headlights so as to not wake up Morgan. He opened the front door quietly and greeted an anxious Pepper with a kiss.
Although it was late, Tony still stayed up. He did the dishes. He played around with holograms on his table. He looked at his schematics with pride. Tony took the framed picture off of the shelf and silently wept.
The universe was back. The world was back. Peter was back.
The framed photo of him and Peter now stood as a testament, saying that if Tony loved someone dearly enough, he’d go to any measure to protect them.
—
Nat and Clint decided not to stay for very long at the shawarma place. They opted to go to the hotel and get a room. The receptionist there gave them the room for free, simply stating “The Avengers should not have to pay for common courtesy.”
They got a room with two beds and a nice view. They were on the twelfth floor, near the top of the building, overlooking buildings. It was peaceful.
“So,” Nat said, breaking the tension in the air. “What are we gonna do now?”
“I don’t know,” Clint shrugged. He was looking over his bow.
“Put the weapon away, Clint. Take a minute to relax. We just won the biggest battle of our lives, and you’re already worried about the next?”
Clint sighed and folded his bow into its case. Nat smiled.
“Now come on, we’re going to watch a movie.”
“It’s almost eleven! We’re gonna wake people up!”
“They can deal with it. We need time to relax.”
Clint gave in and joined Nat on the little couch. They scrolled through a selection of movies and turned the volume really low. They sat next to each other (in a non romantic way) and almost fell asleep during the climax of the movie.
—
Thor and Loki were stuck in New York. They wanted to return to New Asgard, but that was on the other side of the planet basically. They were not going to be able to get there within the day.
The brothers decided to stay a night at the Tower. Tony had never sold it, thank goodness. The uppermost floors still belonged to the Avengers while Stark Industries occupied the rest of the building.
Loki shut himself in an empty room once they got to the Tower. Thor didn’t try to force him out. Thor instead raided the pantry and ate all the remaining Pop Tarts, and almost depleted the supply of cereal.
Loki stole a book off of a shelf and began to read it.
Thor stayed in the common room and fell asleep there.
—
Rocket climbed the steps to his ship. Peter (Quill) and Drax were there, lounging around.
Peter’s eyes lit up when he saw his friend. “Rocket!” He said, trying to hide his joy. His best friend hadn’t died!
Rocket did not reply. He took the twig out of his pocket and planted it in a pot of soil that he stole from outside. He sniffled.
“This worked last time,” he said quietly. “Come on, Groot, please come back.”
Drax and Peter sat next to Rocket. The three were completely silent as they stared at the twig. Drax pet Rocket.
“Why does everyone pet me?!” Rocket said, annoyed. “I’m not a dog!” He laughed despite himself. He wiped his eyes and his nose before turning away from the twig entirely. “Come on. There’s some losers at the Tower who want a ride.”
Rocket made his way to the cockpit and hardly gave his friends enough time to strap in before he launched into the sky.
—
Rocket steadily landed the ship on the much too small helipad. Thor had finally gotten Loki out of the room, and they both stood outside. Rocket lowered the ramp. The two gods climbed in, and they shot off into space.
—
Wanda wandered the streets. She felt abandoned. None of the others had cared to stay with her, and Vision was dead. Who was left? Was there anyone left who cared for her? She wasn’t even twenty yet. She had completely lied about her age, just so that she and her brother would qualify for those stupid HYDRA experiments.
Wanda was seventeen, and she was wandering the streets, completely alone with no guidance. It had been a while since she was in a situation such as this. Her phone was useless. It didn’t have any contacts in it. Just random numbers and spam.
She had followed Steve, Bucky, and Peter the night before. When she ‘left’ she actually just wandered around but met up with them later. They didn’t even notice her. So that’s how Wanda ended up outside, in the middle of the night, looking at Peter through a window.
Wanda propped herself against the brick wall in the alleyway and promptly fell asleep.
—
The next day, Tony made an effort to call every single Avenger and check up on them. Only a few didn’t answer, such as Clint (who was flying in an airplane to head home) and Thor (who still hardly knew how to use Midgardian technology. He had left his phone at the Tower as per usual. Tony didn’t know why he bothered giving the god one in the first place).
Tony spent extra long on the phone with Peter. The kid was up all night talking with May and being afraid to sleep. Tony felt bad for him. And worst of all? Peter was expected back at school already. Luckily it was Friday, and the school was giving the students time to get adjusted before heading back.
“It’s so stupid,” Peter complained. “Don’t they realize that a lot of kids probably don’t have homes anymore? And they’re giving us three days to make up for it?”
Tony made no comment. It was nice to hear Peter talk again. He could listen to his ramblings for hours and hours.
“Pete?” Tony said, interrupting the kid.
“Yeah?”
“Meet me at the Tower. It’s nicer to talk in person.”
“OK!”
Peter got off the phone. Tony waited.
Thanos was gone.
The infinity stones were back in their place (Steve had sent them home earlier that day, but came back as planned thank goodness).
The threat of death seemed far and distant.
Tony, along with the rest of the Avengers, would be able to live out their days with as much peace as a hero could get.
“I’m here!” Peter squeaked as he climbed through a window.
Tony decided that life at this moment was perfect.