The year is 2018 and Mazzy Maria Stark is a teenager. Thirteen. What an age. Mazzy had originally thought that being thirteen would be a lot different from being twelve, just because it's the official teenage age, but as it turns out, it is just about exactly the same. Just that everything feels a little bit heavier than it did before. Because if Mazzy thinks too hard, she remembers that she is only five years away from being a whole adult, and that she has been alive for over a decade, which sounds really old.

One of the things that sucks about being a teenager is that, even though you want to make your own choices and you're capable of making your own choices, no one allows you to make your own choices. There's still some annoying adult in your ear telling you to do this and that and some other thing in the middle.

That's why, at the current moment, Mazzy is on a jog in the park with Pepper and her dad. And this jog in the park isn't very pleasant. It's hot out and the sun is beating down on the top of Mazzy's head, and every time the trio jogs past someone, their eyes get all wide like they've just seen Bigfoot. Really, it's just the Stark family. Including Pepper. Even though she's still a Potts until her and Tony's upcoming wedding day.

Having Pepper back around has been a lot better for Mazzy. Although Mazzy isn't really aware that not having a mother bothers her, it does. Moms are important for a lot of things. Pepper is happy to fill that role in Mazzy's life. In fact, she does it quite unintentionally. Regardless, it improves Mazzy's life exponentially.

When Pepper and Tony were broken up, Pepper still came around to see Mazzy sometimes, when she really needed it. But having her around all the time is way better.

Besides, when Pepper's around, Mazzy isn't the only one who has to suffer through her father's incessant talking. And talking and talking and talking and talking.

"Slow down, slow down. I'll spell it out for you," Tony is saying now as they slow into a walk rather than a jog.

Mazzy fights the urge to just take out her hearing aids—new and improved, by the way—and ignore him.

"You're totally rambling," Pepper says, rolling her eyes.

"No, I'm not," Tony counters.

"You definitely are," Mazzy tells him, pressing her lips into a thin line.

"You lost me," Pepper adds with a nod of agreement.

Tony huffs, taking his sweatshirt and tying it around his shoulders. "Look," he says, "you know how, when you're having a dream, and in the dream, you gotta pee?"

Mazzy furrows her eyebrows, not liking where this is going, but Pepper nods. "Yeah," she says with a shrug.

"Okay. And then you're like, 'Oh, my God. There's no bathrooms. What am I gonna do? Oh, someone's watching. Oh, I'm gonna go in my pants.'"

"So, where is this going, exactly?" Mazzy asks, her face scrunched up in slight disgust.

Pepper, however, seems to understand where this is going. Mazzy suspects that this isn't the first time she's heard this whole spiel. "Right. And then you wake up, and in real life, you actually have to pee," she says.

And Tony seems to be eternally grateful that Pepper gets what he's saying. "Yes!"

"Yeah."

"Okay."

"Everybody has that."

"I don't," Mazzy chimes.

Tony, who is now walking backward in order to face Pepper and Mazzy while he's talking, narrows his eyes in disbelieving suspicion. Then, he sort of nods, like he has considered it and has found a reason for it to make sense. "Because your dreams are, you know, the horrors," he says.

"That's..." Mazzy's head tilts to the side. "That's true. Yeah."

"Right, well, everybody except Mazzy has that. That's the point I'm trying to make," Tony says. Mazzy almost tells him that he should calm down because he's being overly expressive with his hands and it's a little bit embarrassing, but she decides that not saying anything is a little bit more entertaining. "Apropos of that, last night I dreamt we had a kid," Tony tells Pepper, stopping in the middle of the sidewalk and driving their walk in the park to a halt. "It was so real."

Mazzy raises her eyebrows and gives a joking sort of wave. "I'm real," she says.

Tony bats her hand down. "I meant with Pepper. Not your spy mother who didn't even actually like me. Anyway," he says, turning back to Pepper, "we named him after your eccentric uncle. Uh, what was his name? Morgan! Morgan."

"Right," Pepper says with a very slow and dramatic nod. "So you woke up and thought we were..."

"Expecting," Tony finishes for her.

"Yeah."

"Yes?" Tony asks, raising his eyebrows hopefully.

"No," Pepper tells him.

"Aww," Mazzy complains with a frown. "I want a sibling. I mean, a sister would be preferable but a brother works, too."

"I had a dream about it. It was so real!" Tony says. He seems to be completely and entirely convinced that his dream prophesized Pepper being pregnant, but Pepper is sure that it's not true.

Pepper reaches forward and unties the knot Tony's tied with the sleeves of his hoodie around his shoulder, revealing the metal arc reactor on his chest. "If you wanted to have a kid," she tells him, tapping the arc reactor, "you wouldn't have done that."

Tony's eyebrows shoot up. "I'm glad you brought this up, 'cause it's nothing."

"Does it make you infertile or something?" Mazzy asks. She's not particularly fond of this conversation or thinking about people getting pregnant, but if they're having the conversation, she might as well get her questions in while she can.

"No, no. It's just a housing unit for nanoparticles," Tony answers, holding his arms out at his sounds.

Pepper sort of scoffs, shaking her head at him. "You're not helping your case, okay?"

"No, no, this is detachable. It's not a-"

"You don't need that," Pepper tells him, her voice firm and tense.

That's when Mazzy decides that this conversation has become far too argument-like for her liking and she doesn't want to be a part of it any longer. So, naturally, she murmurs out, "This tree is... cool." And she inches her way toward a nearby tree, kicking absentmindedly at the bark while Tony and Pepper have their micro-argument a few feet away. When the tense voices start sounding more light and she hears Pepper giggle, Mazzy turns around again to see what's up. And her dad and Pepper are kissing already. "Jeez. They get over arguments quickly," Mazzy mutters to herself, turning back to the tree.

But just as soon as she turns, of course, something very interesting happens behind her. There's a loud woosh type of sound and then, suddenly, a man's voice. "Tony Stark. I'm Doctor Stephen Strange. I need you to come with me."

Mazzy spins around so fast she might have whiplash. Standing there in the part, with a sparkly, orange-ish portal behind him, is a man in a sorcerer costume. 

"Holy sh- crap. Holy shcrap," Mazzy lets out, her eyes so wide they might pop right out of her skull.

"Oh, uh, congratulations on the wedding, by the way," Dr. Stephen Strange—apparently—adds.

Tony's head tilts to the side with narrowed eyes. "I'm sorry, you giving out tickets to something?" he asks.

"We need your help," the sorcerer says very seriously. His name is quite fitting, in Mazzy's opinion, because he does look very, very strange. "Look, it's not overselling it to say that the fate of the universe is at stake."

Mazzy steps closer to the man excitedly, very curious about the science behind the portal he has created, but Tony grabs her by the shoulder to stop her. She's practically bouncing on her toes when she says, "I'll help save the universe. I have superpowers, too, y'know. You probably saw it on the news. I'm like... if Captain America was a teenage girl and also got kidnapped by evil people for a little while."

"Hey, how about zip it?" Tony suggests, although Mazzy knows it's more of a demand than a suggestion. He then turns his attention back to Dr. Strange and his sparkly portal. "Who's we?"

Suddenly, a different, more normally dressed man steps out of the portal and into the park. For a moment, Mazzy doesn't even recognize him. He has a whole new haircut and is missing the glasses he used to sometimes wear, but standing there in front of her, next to the strange sorcerer man, is Bruce. As in Bruce Banner. As in the Purple Shirt Guy and his angry, green counterpart.

"Bruce!" Mazzy can't help but shout. She absentmindedly signs the word happy very quickly, and then does a double take, just to make sure she's not imagining things. "You're literally old now! Your hair is graying!"

"It's not... that gray," Bruce murmurs awkwardly.

"Bruce," Tony mutters in shock.

"Hey, Tony," Bruce replies. "Pepper. Mazzy."

"Hi?" Pepper breathes out.

Bruce steps forward and hugs Tony, but all Tony can do is stare at the sorcerer with confusion and disbelief. Bruce disappeared ages ago. He was on that Quinjet, turned off the tracker, and they never saw him again. Not until now. Now he's here again. With some magical sorcerer guy, saying that the fate of the universe is at stake. This is not how good happenings usually begin.

✮

Dr. Stephen Strange's house is, so, so, so, so strange. Really, everything about the guy is incredibly strange. He got really lucky with that last name. It describes him to a tee. His house is weird, his clothes are weird, his hair is weird, and his magical sorcerer powers are weird. Plus, he has a weird friend named Wong who lives with him.

Mazzy's not sure what their whole relationship is like yet. Roommates? Best friends? Coworkers in sorcery? Lovers? She has no clue. They haven't really done the usual introductions you get when meeting people for the first time. Mostly because they have been too busy explaining how half the universe might die within the next couple of days.

Anyway, Wong is a short man who also happens to have sorcerer powers. He also dresses weird, but his buzzed haircut is relatively normal, at least. Using his weird sorcerer powers, he is explaining to Mazzy and Tony, who are sitting beside each other on Dr. Strange's couch, how exactly the fate of the universe is at stake. It's quite complicated and involves some important rocks.

Beside Mazzy, Tony is bouncing his leg up and down and rubbing his chin, like old, wise men do in movies when they're thinking really hard. Usually, Mazzy would be kicking him in the leg for man-spreading and being annoying, but she is currently far too enraptured in what Wong is saying to even notice that her dad's leg space is intruding into hers.

"At the dawn of the universe, there was nothing. Then..." Wong's arms fly out to the sides and space-like colors appear in a cloud above their heads. "Boom. The Big Bang sent six elemental crystals hurtling across the virgin universe."

In the cloud of the universe above them, six stones appear. One for each color of the rainbow—excluding indigo. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple.

"The six Infinity Stones each control an essential aspect of existence."

The blue stone shines. "Space," Stephen says. Then, the red. "Reality." Purple. "Power." Orange. "Soul." Yellow. "Mind." And finally, Stephen reaches for the clunky necklace that hangs around his neck. "And Time," he says as he pulls his pinched fingers across the air in front of his chest. Slowly, the necklace opens, revealing the green Time Stone inside.

For a moment, there is only silence.

Ideas of what the world could possibly look like if the power of the universe is put into the hands of the wrong person. Just one person could destroy everything. It's a scary thought. Scary enough to make Mazzy scoot an inch closer to her dad beside her. It's horrifying, but it's real. The silence is evidence enough for Mazzy to know that everyone else is thinking the same thing.

Then, Tony speaks. "Tell me his name again."

"Thanos, Dad," Mazzy reminds him without looking away from the illusion Wong has created.

Bruce turns to the two Starks with a desperate look on his face. "He's a plague, Tony," he says, stepping closer to the couch. The terror in his eyes makes Mazzy squirm. "He invades planets. He takes what he wants. He wipes out half the population. He sent Loki."

Tony gets up off of the couch, his head snapping up to meet Bruce's gaze.

"The attack on New York. That's him," Bruce tells them.

Mazzy gets up off of the couch now, too. She steps closer to her dad, looking up at him to see that smug, confident face he's usually got on. But it's not there. Instead, Tony's face is frozen in fear. He stares into the empty space in front of him, visions of his life without the people he loves flashing through his mind. No Mazzy, no Pepper, no Happy, no Peter, no Rhodey. No one.

A lump forms in his throat.

"This is it," Tony whispers. Mazzy gets so close to him that her arm presses against his, and the feeling of it snaps him out of his petrifying daze. He swallows, looking over at Bruce. "What's our timeline?"

"No telling. He has the Power and Space stones. That already makes him the strongest creature in the whole universe," Bruce explains with an intensity that Mazzy's never heard from him before. This version of him is somehow scaring her even more than the Hulk does.

Mazzy has experienced a whole lot of scary things in her life. Tony has seen her at her most horrified state, and he knows what fear looks like in her. The way her brow furrows. How she runs her teeth over her lips. She looks a little bit like she's in a dream, and she feels like it, too. And she gets a little quieter than she usually is.

Tony's not an expert in comforting people. There's really only one way he knows how to deal with the clenching he feels in his chest when he sees those fear indicators in Mazzy. And that's with humor. Take no things seriously and maybe they'll stop being so serious in the first place, right?

"If he gets his hands on all six stones, Tony..." Bruce says.

Breaking from Mazzy's side, Tony leans against a nearby cauldron and uses it to keep his balance as he stretches his legs. Take no things seriously, and maybe the petrified look on Mazzy's face will disappear.

"He could destroy life on a scale hitherto undreamt of," Strange finishes.

"Did you seriously just say 'hitherto undreamt of'?" Tony mocks, still leaning against the cauldron. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees the corners of Mazzy's lips turn slightly upward into the teeniest bit of a smirk. Suddenly, the crushing weight in his chest is a little lighter.

Knowing that her dad can still joke makes this all a little less scary for Mazzy. It reminds her that things will be okay. They win every time, right? They haven't lost before. They won't lose now. So Mazzy allows herself to laugh at her dad's behavior.

Stephen, however, is not happy at all with Tony not taking this seriously. "Are you seriously leaning on the Cauldron of the Cosmos?"

"Is that what that is?" Dr. Strange's cape suddenly has a mind of its own and it reaches out to smack Tony's hand off of the cauldron. Mazzy's jaw drops a little, because since when can capes move on their own? Tony's jaw drops a little, too, but more in annoyance. "I'm going to allow that," he says decidedly, staring Stephen down. He then takes a breath and reverts back to the issue at hand. "If Thanos needs all six, why don't we just stick this one down a garbage disposal?"

"No can do," Strange says, shaking his head.

"It can't be that simple or it would've been done already, Dad," Mazzy says.

"We swore an oath to protect the Time Stone with our lives," Wong tells them, his voice all gravelly and serious.

Tony only rolls his eyes. "And I swore off dairy but then Ben & Jerry's named a flavor after me, so..."

"Stark Raving Hazelnuts," Strange says, already exhausted by Tony's presence.

"It's not bad." Tony shrugs.

"Ehh. Kinda bad," Mazzy murmurs. "Hazelnuts, y'know?"

"A bit chalky," Strange agrees.

"A Hunk of Hulk of Burning Fudge is our favorite," Wong adds.

"Oooh, that one's good," Mazzy says, nodding her head enthusiastically. If there's one thing Mazzy Stark likes, it's ice cream. And popsicles. That's two things.

Bruce looks very shocked by this information. "That's a thing?"

"Whatever," Tony interrupts, once again having to get back on topic. "Point is, things change."

"Our oath to protect the Time Stone cannot change," Strange tells him. Mazzy groans and tosses her head back in complaint. "And this stone may be the best chance we have against Thanos."

"Yeah, so conversely, it may also be his best chance against us," Tony counters.

"Well, if we don't do our jobs."

"What is your job exactly? Besides making balloon animals."

"Protecting your reality, douchebag."

Once again, Mazzy lets out a loud, obnoxious groan and tosses her head back exhaustedly. She begins walking around the room impatiently and making sure that her shoes squeak against the floor. Maybe if she is annoying enough, they'll shut up and they can get this whole thing over and dealt with. Considering this conversation is shaping up to be incredibly unhelpful and unproductive.

Bruce seems to be thinking the same thing, but he deals with it in a non-annoying manner. "Okay, guys. Could we table this discussion right now?" he asks. Huffing, Tony tears his eyes from Stephen's and turns to look at Bruce instead. "The fact is we have this stone. We know where it is. Vision is out there somewhere with the Mind Stone and we have to find him now."

Right. Mazzy completely forgot about the whole Vision having the Mind Stone thing. She clenches her teeth together and sucks air into her mouth. "That's easier said than done considering the current state of affairs," she murmurs.

"State of affairs?" Bruce questions, his eyebrows raising with concern. "What state of affairs?"

"Yeah, that's the thing," Tony says, pressing his lips together.

"What do you mean?"

"Two weeks ago, Vision turned off his transponder," Tony explains. It's very bad timing for a war concerning the livelihoods of all the living things across the entire universe, considering Earth's most powerful beings aren't getting along so well. "He's offline."

Bruce's eyes go wide. "What?

"Yeah."

"Tony, you lost another super-bot?"

Mazzy furrows her eyebrows. "Technically, you both created him, so he was your responsibility, too. Except you decided to vanish off the face of the Earth. Who would trust my dad to be responsible for something? Of course he lost him," she scoffs.

"I didn't lose him," Tony argues. "He's more than that. He's evolving."

Stephen sighs. "Who could find Vision, then?"

"Shit," Tony whispers to himself. Mazzy knows where this is going. "Probably Steve Rogers. Maybe."

Wong and Strange huff and shake their heads, all annoyed and disappointed. Mazzy would roll her eyes at their dramatics, except they aren't really being dramatic. They're being real. The fate of the universe is at stake and their main problem at the moment is the Avengers' breakup.

To this day, Mazzy isn't one hundred percent positive that she knows how she feels about what happened. She knows Bucky is different from the Winter Soldier, but she knows that her dad had every right to be angry after seeing what the Winter Soldier did to his parents. She knows she's furious at Steve for hurting her dad like he did. She thinks she probably shouldn't have run off with them like she did. And she doesn't fully understand the implications of the Accords.

TLDR: she still has a lot of contemplating to do.

Bruce has a very confused look on his face. "Call him," he says like it's the most obvious thing in the world.

Tony turns to him with a sigh. "It's not that easy," he tells him. Bruce's confused, wide-eyed stare becomes even more intense, now including some hints of concern. Tony and Mazzy share eye contact for a moment before looking back at Bruce. "God, we haven't caught up in a spell, have we?"

"No," Bruce answers, shaking his head.

"The Avengers broke up. We're toast."

"Burnt toast. Burnt toast that smells really bad and sets your garbage can on fire when you try to throw it away too quickly," Mazzy, who is now sitting on the stairs, adds.

"Broke up?" Bruce questions. His head tilts to the side like a dog when it hears a noise it doesn't recognize. When he's met with silence, he holds his arms out at his sides a little, pushing for answers. "Like a band? Like- like the Beatles?"

Tony nods, a small frown on his face. "Cap and I fell out hard. We're not on speaking terms."

"Tony, listen to me." Bruce takes another step closer to Tony. "Thor's gone. Thanos is coming. It doesn't matter who you're talking to or not."

Mazzy watches as her dad thinks through it. She can practically see into his brain, watching the neurons fire and the limbic system light up. After a moment, he lets out a deep, disgruntled sigh, then turns away from the others, pulling something out of his pocket. He mutters something about a flip phone to himself and that's when Mazzy realizes that he has the flip phone in his hands.

The flip phone that Steve sent him right after the fallout. He's been keeping it on him the whole time?

Scoffing to himself, Tony hovers his thumb over the button to make the call. Just as he's about to press it, he hears a distant rumbling. His muscles freeze as he listens intently for more sound. It comes in the form of louder rumbling and the rattling of objects all over Strange's place.

As she gets up off of the stairs, Mazzy looks between her dad and the two sorcerers for answers. She doesn't get a straight answer from any of them, but the loudening noises are answer enough.

A hair hanging in front of Stephen's forehead blows a bit to the side, like there's a slight breeze messing with it.

Tony gestures over to him. "Say, Doc, you wouldn't happen to be moving your hair, would ya?"

"Not at the moment, no."

Rumbles turn into screams and Mazzy can see people running on the sidewalk through the windows on the door. Not the type of running you'd do on an afternoon jog, but the type of running you'd do when there's a giant monster in the street that could possibly kill you if you don't get the hell out of there.

Mazzy hasn't done very much saving the day in a good, long while, but she hopes she can still provide some sort of help in the fight she's sure they're about to be in.

⭐️💫⭐️💫

guys this is our last movie with aryana engineer as mazzy. in endgame she is going to be old. my baby is growing up so fast.

anyway, be on the lookout for next chapter because it will probably be our either later today or sometime tomorrow. probably later today, though.