06 || unbreakable promises

"I DON'T CARE THE COST. WE CAN'T LOSE."

- Avengers Facility, New York, April 2018-

Waking up with a groggy blink of her eyes, something felt wrong to Alison.

Something desperately wrong.

Barring the fact that her best friend had knocked her unconscious and the fact that her side was still screaming at her in pain, of course. There was a dull feeling that made Alison's heart drop and stomach twist.

Skylar was nowhere to be seen, which was surprising, given the fact that with her best friend trying to take her out of commission, Alison would have expected to see her there. But then there was an open comm laid out, Alison hearing the blare of voices through the machine, although she had no idea how that was possible.

"There's too many of them!"

"Steve, we need to do something, he's here, and he's brought three of his children–"

Thanos was there. Thanos was in Wakanda, where the last stone was trying to be destroyed, and Alison had a sinking feeling that Absinthe was one of those three children of Thanos that stood between the Avengers and destroying the Mind Stone.

There wasn't any time to think about the decision that came next. It seemed to be the only decision for Alison, really, because failure was not an option, not when the teenager understood what was at stake. Three children of Thanos was a death sentence, and for the towering alien to actually be there– it meant that there was only one option for Alison.

Finding the suit that was left for her, Alison found two bracelets that contained nano units made specifically for her, turning on the bracelet to feel the cool feeling of nanobots surrounding her, a new suit woven with nanobots now adorning her body.

If she was going to make a stupid decision like this, might as well go out in style.

Stumbling out of the vault, unsure of where Skylar was, Alison found an empty compound, only furthering the sinking feeling in her stomach. She had to act, and act now. Barging her way out of the confines of the facility, she didn't waste a second before she did the only thing she could think to do.

Alison ran and ran across the open fields of the compound, feeling a familiar tug as the world suddenly stopped to a grinding halt, a portal appearing in front of her as she sped through it. And within seconds, it was too painfully obvious where she was.

She was back.

The swirling teal lights that reminded her of the jump to lightspeed from Star Wars (having a boyfriend and a younger brother who were obsessed with the movie didn't help at all) were all around her, memories slowly playing out further down the tunnel, going from most recent all the way back to her childhood 17 years ago. Alison let out a hefty sigh as exhaustion crept into her bones, her adrenaline being replaced with a feeling that made her want to collapse.

"I told you not to go back in time." The voice attracted Alison's attention, seeing a battered and bruised Strange in front of her. He looked... different, a kind of worn out exhaustion obviously plastered on his face, something that Alison hadn't seen before. "You should have left things how they were."

Whirling around, fury obvious in her glare, Alison wanted to scream with everything that she had at the man. "What? And leave the world to ruin? Allow half of the universe to die because of some stupid fucking promise? Let Tony, Peter- my boyfriend that I love, mind you- and the rest of the people that I care about give up to the lottery of chance to see if they survive to see another day?"

There was a pause of silence, Strange analyzing her bright blue irises for a moment, searching for an answer inside of them. It was a moment before Strange sighed. He saw the desperation in her eyes- the worry that made his expression soften as he kept pushing the question. Damn it, and he had tried not to get attached to the girl, but it seemed that helping her more than once gave him a kind of... attachment to the super speedster. "Why'd you come back here? The promise-"

"My friend knocked me unconscious out of the fight, and I knew that it was game over." Alison started, seeing a scoff come from Strange. "What? I heard the comms of the Avengers, I could obviously tell they were fucked. And now that I know that you gave up the time stone," She gestured to the fact that the necklace that used to adorn the Eye of Agamotto was empty, no longer around his neck. " I can go back far enough to-"

"No."

"What did you say?" Alison stopped, halfway to the memory that she had her eyes set on, the field trip barely even a day before, sitting with Skylar in the food court, staring up at the sky. Turning to face the Sorcerer Supreme, Ali brushed a stray hair out of her face. "But Strange, I gotta-"

"And get injured all over again? Almost killed? Alison, I don't think Tony would want this for you. Or Peter." Goddamnit, Strange didn't want to pull the card of lovers, but he had to. The sorcerer knew that if things went haywire with Alison up in space- well, it might've been game over. Speaking up again, Strange arched a questioning eyebrow at her. " And to be perfectly honest with myself, I don't even want that for you. Even so, bringing you directly to the fight against Thanos-"

"I'd rather be with Tony and Peter and you, injured out of my mind, than stuck back where I was. At least then, if we fail again, I can stay with all of you. Die with you, and not lightyears away from you, worrying about if everyone that I care about survived to live another day." Alison argued, stepping towards Strange with every sentence that she spoke, her tone becoming more and more fierce as she did so.

Giving another groan of exasperation, Strange gave a cold stare to Alison. "You never do keep the promises that you make, do you?" Seeing a guilty look spring up on Alison's face, he pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to consider what he was about to do- the plan he was about to make. "Alright, here's the deal. The timeline you just reversed? Out of the over 14 million that I viewed, that was the one in which we would win in the end. And now that you've royally screwed that one up, we need a new plan."

"Anything you have in mind?" Alison questioned, arching an eyebrow at the doctor, trying to find a solution herself. "All I can think of is to keep doing this again and again until we succeed." She thought aloud, her forehead scrunching up as she considered what she was going to have to do. Alison would have to keep pushing herself to the point of exhaustion, going and going until they won. But was she willing to push herself to that point? To save the universe?

That wasn't even a question.

"But what happens when you get caught?" Strange brought her back from her thoughts, his eyes narrowing at her, questioning the plan Alison was making. "Thanos finding you is inevitable. What happens then? Or what about the forces that I warned you about? Time is a fickle thing, Miss Marnell. You will have to face the consequences." Strange fired back, moving from his corner in the room to place his hands on the sides of Alison's arms, making the girl flinch at the sudden contact.

"I'll cross that bridge when I get to it." Alison stared up at Strange, trying to make herself feel a hell of a lot more confident than she felt. "I'm going to be coming back here anyways, right? And if I don't change enough to make us win-"

"This plan is incredibly stupid. Incredibly." Strange interrupted Alison, sighing as he took his hands off of the teenager, pinching the bridge of his nose as he tried to comprehend everything that she was going to do- and all the potential outcomes.

"Got any better ones?" Alison snapped back, seeing nothing come out of Strange's mouth, only confirming the idea that her plan wasn't exactly shit. "Exactly." She pointed at the man, soon gesturing around at all the memories. "So I just go back to when I got to Avengers Facility, change things that I know could make us win, and then it's game over for Thanos."

"As much as I hate to say it, this is the best solution that we can come up with for now. If I come up with a better one in the times further down if we fail-" Strange stopped, looking around him warily, almost as if something was off inside of the realm. It wasn't visible to Alison's eye, but whatever it was, it wasn't anything good. "We've been inside of here for too long. The time realm is out of balance, as there's no version of you in the present, therefore messing up your future and your past."

"I'm sorry- what?" Alison tried to comprehend what was going on inside of the realm, Strange's words so contradictory and confusing that it made her brain hurt when she tried to process all of the information.

"You and I? We need to leave. Now." Strange put in simpler terms, gesturing to the memory that he wanted her to go back to- the one where she had just awoken from her impromptu surgery with Bruce Banner and the rest of the Avengers on the ground. "Go to that exact moment. It'd be the easiest to explain your random appearance out of the sofa instead of randomly appearing on their quinjet or something."

Walking over to the memory, Alison gently pressed her hand to the sight of her jolting awake and seeing the Avengers in another room. The portal on the other side of the tunnel opened, Ali looking back at Strange with an uncertain frown on her face. "If I never get to say goodbye to Tony and Peter, tell them-"

"You'll tell them yourself. Trust me, Alison." Strange replied without any hesitation, stoically looking at the girl. Trying to offer her some small solace, he tried to give her a small smile. "Miss Marnell, I do believe that it is time for you to attempt to help save the universe."

Swallowing back the fear that was trying to escape her, Alison tried to give a small smile to Strange, remaining as confident as she could be when time travelling. "I guess it's time." She agreed, turning back around to the tunnel.

Running away from Strange, starting her run down memory lane, she could hear the soft whispers of a final greeting from the man, something that she wouldn't have expected from him. "Good luck and safe travels, Alison."

And then she took off like a bolt of lightning, running and running until-

She was standing right in front of the table that she had been operated on in what was only fifteen minutes before. Leaning over the table, Alison tried not to throw up as the last bit of adrenaline from her journey left her body, her exhaustion and pain from her wound making it very hard to bear.

In fact, she was pretty sure that somewhere down the line she had ripped a couple of her stitches to shreds, blood slowly oozing out of the wound somewhere. Trying to ignore the fact that she was tired beyond belief, Alison picked herself back up off of her leaned position and made her way to where the rest of the heroes were congregated.

"Okay look, Thanos has the biggest army in the universe. And he won't stop until-"

"Until he gets the rest of the stones." Alison interrupted the conversation, leaning in the doorway of the conversation. This was the exact same conversation that happened last time, except this time it was giving her an even bigger headache than last time. Maybe that was because she was so antsy to get through this bullshit and try and change things. But Ali couldn't tell anyone what she had done- not yet.

"You burned through that cocktail of drugs Bruce pumped through you fast." Natasha remarked, arching an eyebrow at the girl who was leaning in the doorway. "You sure you're alright for this discussion at the moment?"

"I'm fine." Alison dismissed, shaking her head with a small wince. "Nothing that I haven't felt before." She smoothly lied, trying to hide her wince of pain as she shifted her position in the doorway. Finding the exact same words escape her lips as the first time she had dropped in on the conversation, she couldn't do anything but speak them. "But this needs to be addressed. Now. Bruce is right. Thanos is coming, and whether we like it or not-"

"He's coming for Vision's stone." Bruce finished, glancing back at Alison with a look of almost a relief when she was on the same page that he was. But when he scanned her eyes- there was something else there. Knowledge? A look of pain? He wasn't sure, but whatever it was- it didn't mean anything good. "And he's not going to stop until he gets all six of the stones. The way it's shaking out, we may be the last line of defense between him and his goal."

"And what is his goal, exactly? Besides getting all of these... infinity stones, that is." Rhodey asked, still confused as to why this was such a pressing concern. Alison gave a groan, none of them knew anything anymore! But she had to speak up soon. But when was the right time to bring it up?

"He wants to destroy half of the universe as we know it."

The room went somber afterwards, everyone not knowing what to say after Bruce had spoken those words. It took a minute of uncomfortable silence before Natasha spoke up, deciding to say something about the situation.

"And we've already had this conversation!" Alison blurted out, sighing in exasperation as all eyes in the room fell on her. "You're going to say that we should protect Vision's stone-" She pointed at Natasha, taking the words directly out of her lips, "And Vision is going to argue to destroy it. This is going to go on and on and on and none of you realize that Thanos and his Children are coming! They're going to come for us whether we like it or not, Wakanda or New York, and you– no, we– have to be better prepared this time."

"This time?" Steve asked the girl, his eyes stern with confusion. There had to be something that wasn't adding up here. How did Ali know about Wakanda? Practically no one knew about the African country. Furthermore, how was she predicting everything that they were going to say? "What do you mean?"

"We've already had this conversation. Hell, we've already gone through this entire day, although I'm not too sure exactly how it ends, but I know nothing turns out the way you think it's going to go. At least from what I've heard." Alison sighed, leaning off of the door frame with an irritated look. "And you asking me questions isn't going to provide any help. I might be almost on the edge of exhaustion, but I am refusing to go through this all again."

"And what would all of this be?" Natasha fired back, her tone seemingly more hostile as Alison got more agitated. She wasn't just shocked that the girl knew what she was going to say- there was something about her actions that scared the former Russian assassin.

"The fighting about what to do about Vision's stone. The stupid idea to leave me behind when you inevitably decide to go to Wakanda to try and attempt to get Vision's stone removed before you destroy it. And, most importantly, the fact that you wouldn't consider that I'd use my powers to get us a try two with it all." Alison listed the three things on her fingers, a silence falling over the room as soon as she finished speaking. "What? Did I say something wrong?"

"How the hell-"

With a nonchalance that she had only performed once before, Alison looked straight at Rhodey, who had started his sentence that Alison was going to finish. And, oh boy, was she going to knock the socks off of every goddamn person in the room when she said it. "Time travel."

"What the f-"

"Alison, what the hell?"

"Ublyudok."

"You goddamn idiot."

"How is that even possible?"

"The science of the situation doesn't even-"

"That would explain a lot, actually."

The choruses of surprised reactions from all of the Avengers in the room were a cacophony of noise that Alison knew wouldn't lead to anything good. "Listen, I know you all must have every question in the goddamn world, but right now, we need to do what was originally planned to do in this timeline. We need to get Vision's android ass on a plane to Wakanda, and we need to get there as fast as humanly possible. Grab Skylar from wherever the hell she is in the Compound, because we're going to need some bright brains to help us with this situation if we're even going to make an attempt to win this time."

Not wanting to doubt what Alison was saying, probably out of fear of what the girl would do if they didn't listen to her, Steve nodded at her. "You heard what the kid said. Suit up and get on the quinjet. Wheels up in five. Nat, you get Skylar. And Alison?"

"I got a pit stop to make, because my old suit is kind of a wreck. But as soon as I do, I promise, everything will make a whole lot more sense than it does right now." Alison told the Captain, giving a mock salute before she raced off again. "Wheels up in five." She repeated, smirking as she headed to the one place that she knew she could restock - Vault 17B.

Five minutes later, everyone was loaded onto the quinjet, Alison sitting next to Skylar, both of them staring at each other as the rest of the Avengers stared at Alison. Giving a deep sigh, Alison settled in, donned in her new Breakout suit, ignoring the flashing pain that was coming from her lower left midsection. "So, there's a lot of explaining to do."

A whole hour and a half later, Alison was finished talking about the knowledge of what she had heard from their failure and a more fleshed out plan for this time, answering every single question that was fired at her in an attempt to explain everything. And as she finished, Alison's eyelids felt a lot heavier than she thought they were. Leaning across the spare seats in the quinjet to sleep also felt a lot more pleasing than she thought.

Alison, thinking that she probably had enough time on the flight over to Wakanda, fell into a deep sleep. But Alison was transported away when she fell asleep, something inside of her pulling her to a planet that didn't look like anything she had seen before. Ruins covered the surface of the plane, everything a horrible orange tint that vaguely reminded Alison of death.

She saw people she didn't know run towards where she was, feeling her butt come into contact with the hard ground underneath her, and then she saw Tony and Peter bounding towards her. That was when she got utterly confused, thinking that she had left them a few hours before.

"Peter? Tony?" Alison tried to question, realizing that she was inaudible to them, almost as if she was somehow there in some sort of astral form. "What the hell?" She whispered, looking behind them to see a grey alien man with tattoos half naked, what looked to be a regular but rather chubby human with a leather jacket, and a bug lady.

"You're with us now." Tony tried to reassure whoever Alison was next to, the girl turning and seeing a Strange sitting there rather jumbled beside her. He was frantic and in some form of disarray, something that no one had really seen the composed sorcerer like before.

"What happened there?" Peter asked, looking at Stange with a worried look. It made Alison almost sigh with relief at the fact that he was okay, and not injured or hurt in any way. At least, for now.

"I went forward in time to view possible outcomes of the conflict ahead." Strange heaved, trying to regain his bearings in the strange planet around him. Alison, sitting next to him, realized that the green time stone around his neck was glowing a bright green, her almost astral projection glowing that same color.

Perhaps it was a time stone thing, and only Strange could see her, or he had summoned her there so that she could see their discussions. Alison didn't know, and was happy just to be around the people she knew better, not away from the battle and away from the people she loved.

"How many did you see?" Tony asked, grasping onto Strange's shoulder. He himself looked rather concerned, an almost frown forming at the edge of Tony's face as he inspected Strange's bewildered expression.

"14 million six hundred and five." Strange started, his eyes looking up at the sky as he continued to calculate the numbers in his head. He seemed to be still processing something that had occurred inside the viewing, a frown forming on his face as he did so.

"How many did we win?" Tony asked, concerned if the plan that the six had started to come up with would even work. The worry in his face was well masked, Alison had to give him that much, at least.

"Unclear." Strange huffed out, sighing as he pinched his temple in frustration. This wasn't the same man that Alison had seen inside of the tunnel, this one had no clue of the plan. Or, at least, he was pretty damn good at faking it. "Goddamnit, that girl doesn't listen to the promises she makes. She just tries to mess up the timeline as much as she possibly can."

Giving a small toothy smile, Alison looked over at Strange again, seeing the man (or what she assumed was a rather good conscience of the man) a few minutes before. "Oops?" She winced, Strange glaring over at her.

So he could see and hear her, good to know.

"Who?" Tony asked again, trying to coax the answers out of Strange without bombarding him with too many questions. He, however, didn't get the answer from the doctor, who was still glaring at Alison (or for the rest of them, blank space).

"Alison." Peter answered meekly, sighing as his head hung down. He gave an almost frustrated sigh, realizing that sending her back to Earth just meant that she was getting into trouble without anyone to help her. If anyone knew what his girlfriend was doing, it would be him. After all, he knew that she would have done anything to make sure that another Absinthe case didn't happen again. Plus, with her recklessness and emotions off the charts recently, he wasn't surprised that she had done something stupid.

"Alison?" Tony asked, confused. He had no clue what the little teenage speedster had done, especially since they had just sent her home to get bandaged up and to stay away from the fight on home turf.

"Yeah..." Peter trailed off nervously, his eyes darting between Strange and Tony. Was this something Alison hadn't told Mister Stark? Was this a secret between him and the Doctor guy? "Did she not tell you?"

"No, no I did not, I only told you." Alison agreed with Peter, pointing at him as if he was correct with a wince. "That decision had probably been the wrong one, now that I think about it." She added, giving Strange a meek smile.

"Alison?" The other human questioned, confused as to who this person even was. "Who in the hell is Alison?" He looked over to his companions to try and get clarification, but they had no clue either.

"She's- well, she's an almost carbon copy of this one. Teenager, vigilante, enhanced protege." Tony gestured over to Peter, who still was contemplating what exactly would cause Alison to do such a thing, a worried look on his face. "But she's a lot quicker, and sometimes is a bit more of a pest. She hates opening up to anyone."

"Hey!" Alison almost started to protest Tony's third point, but after hearing his fourth, she almost gave a wince. Cracking a small smile even though no one else could see her, Alison tried to counteract Tony's point, but found nothing. "Somehow, I can't argue with it anymore? That last one is pretty on par."

"And she's my girlfriend." Peter added after Tony's comments, getting a small look from his mentor after adding that. Clearing his throat, Peter continued on talking. "She's basically like the Flash." He tried explaining it to the man who was not caught up to literally any pop culture (Ned and Skylar would've been ashamed that he didn't make a vine reference at some point while around the heroes, but no one would understand it). "And, like that scarlet speedster, she probably went back in time."

"Wait, I'm sorry, what?" Tony almost yelled in shock, looking at Peter and Strange with a confused look. "Did I just hear you correctly?" He gestured to his ear, trying to make sense of what Peter had said. "The kid can-"

"Yeah." Peter and Alison both said at the same time, a blush forming on Alison's face as Strange gave her yet another weird look, hearing how in sync the two were.

"You didn't know?" Peter questioned Tony, assuming that Alison would've at least told the man at some point. He thought she had come clean with all of their escapades from two years ago, but apparently she hadn't. "She told- well not really told me, she accidentally let it slip last New Year's, that she can."

"Geez." Tony sighed, bringing his two fingers up to pinch the bridge of his nose in frustration. "That girl might have gotten us into a deeper pile of horseshit than we wanted."

But suddenly, the world around Strange and Alison froze, the familiar glow of the time stone all around them. Everyone was frozen in place, from the weird alien people to Tony and Peter, who were just in front of her.

"You wanted me to tell them something." Strange looked at her, arching an eyebrow at the girl before turning back to the group of people. "Now's the time to tell them something. They won't be able to see you or hear, but this is the best I can do."

"This is- this is more than enough, Strange." Alison smiled softly, looking at Tony and Peter. Seeing them was more than enough, to try and tell them something so that she could get the closure that she wanted.

Walking up to Tony first, she gave the man a hug (or the best she could do as a hologram), trying to keep herself together as she stared at her mentor. "Thank you for always being kind to me. You're kind of like the father I never had, although you'll never catch me dead saying that with you around." Alison laughed, looking at his concerned face frozen in place. "I promise I'll make this right. We'll win, so you can go home to Pepper and all of us can be some kind of okay."

Then she turned to Peter.

The waterworks started as soon as she laid eyes on her boyfriend's face, a sort of hopeful and wistful smile on his face. Somehow, even in the worst of times, he could see the positive. And maybe that was what she loved most about him. Shaking away her thoughts, Alison cupped her hand on his cheek, trying to remember everything about his face before she had to leave him. "I love you so goddamn much, Peter Parker." She whispered, tenderly kissing him on the lips for as long as she could, trying to never forget this moment. To never say goodbye. "I'll win. For you, and then we can go back to Queens and fight crime until we can't anymore and eat so much Thai food that we'll throw up."

Dropping her hand from his face, Alison wiped the steady tears from her face, turning back around to face Strange. The man ignored the glistening tracks of tears down her face, just nodding at her with a firm look. "You say everything you need to?" He asked, almost to gentle and kind for the man- something uncommon for him.

"Yeah." Alison nodded, sitting back down beside the sorcerer. "Thank you so much." She whispered, feeling a tug in the bottom of her stomach. Looking back at Strange, Ali saw the world around her unfreeze, and she slowly drifted out of the dream, waking up inside of the quinjet.

Seeing a face above her, Alison squinted at who it was, seeing the familiar face of Steve Rogers looming over her. "Good thing, you're awake kid. I was afraid that I'd have to do it myself." He tried to give a small smile to her, offering her a hand up from where she leaned across the seats.

"And why's that?" Alison grumbled, her mind still foggy as she sat up. Rubbing her eyes, she saw that the quinjet was no longer flying, the steady rumble that would typically follow the quinjet no more.

"Because we're here."

<~*~>

well well well 

if it isn't good old me (i literally wrote out most of endgame so now i'm coming back to infinity war so then i can write book three which is literally my favorite 

this book is probably going to get updated pretty frequently up until when i stopped writing for infinity war and then i just gotta write out like 2-3 chapters and then we are BACK IN MF BUSINESS BABY! 

i keep my promises of writing a majority of the plot of my books and then coming back to write them... I promise I promise 

anyways so sorry it's been so long hopefully you guys still want to read because I am still here to write xxx

see you next time! 

(gif by @sanktham)