"I SAW FOURTEEN million, six hundred and five possibilities of the upcoming war."

There was a small pause, one which clouded around the Protectors of the Galaxy and Earth alike, for they breathed in deeply at the knowledge beheld by the Sorcerer. One man in particular, with worry threaded into the lines on his weary face, asked the question that hung over their heads like a clouded storm.

"How many did we win?"

In that particular moment, the attention of a boy dressed in red and blue dissipated, for he became distracted by the tingles running up his arms under his iron suit. He glanced around the planet. There was nothing too out of the ordinary from the orange rocks and shards of metal around them, besides the fact that he felt slightly lopsided because of the gravitational axis being on an angle.

There was also the small fact of him being on another planet. One that was not Earth. It was something that sparked off a small pinch of excitement in the foggy dread of facing the mad Titan who sought to wipe out half of life.

"One."

The boy suddenly felt a prickling sensation on the back of his neck. His brows furrowed as he scoured around the area once again, chocolate brown eyes gazed over the strange woman with the antennas, who was bouncing up and down, and the tattooed man beside her.

Everything looked relatively normal.

And yet, he couldn't escape the nagging feeling that something was wrong. Something felt off. His eyes suddenly drifted up towards the cloudy blue sky that had tinged a murky grey, hiding the view of a moon. He looked slightly to the left, and noticed that the sky remained a cloudy blue. Only the area above the Protectors was grey.

"Uhh, Mr Stark, sir?" His small voice cracked out, he swallowed a lump in his throat as the grey cloud suddenly sparked with black static. His hair was starting to stick up in odd directions. "You gotta check this out."

"What is it, kid?" His mentor replied with a tense sigh. He was transfixed by the daunting idea that there was only one way to win the war.

"That's a good question," the boy replied, scratching his cheek.

There was a loud crack which rippled over the group, and the static cloud suddenly opened, revealing a swirling centre of darkness. Wind thrashed against their faces, moving their hair wildly, and sending them stumbling over their own feet.

A body fell from the cloud.

The boys brown eyes widened widely as he stumbled over broken rocks, holding his arms out as if to catch the person, but narrowly missed as the body fell onto his mentor. The man dropped to the ground with the added weight, and a loud grunt.

"Shit, Mr Stark?" The boy called out, crouching down and staring at the woman that was unconscious. "Are you alright?"

"This planet rains people." A blue man with red tattoos spoke wistfully, he cast his eyes up to the sky, as if expecting another person to fall, but the static cloud had dissipated and the wind had ceased.

"Wait, is that Le—"

"Thanks for the warning, Wizard," the man in the iron suit grunted. With the help of the boy, he gently moved the young woman off him, and laid her down. He hauled himself up after grasping the boys hand. He gave himself a once over, thankfully, he hadn't injured himself. "You knew that was going to happen, right?"

It was a few moments of silence before the Sorcerer looked at the man with a heavy heart.

"No."

___

Leena was slowly coming round.

Her entire body ached as if she had been dropped to the ground. She groaned as she lifted her heavy head and slowly fluttered her eyes open. She was at a loss for what had happened for her thoughts felt fuzzy.

Once her eyes had opened, she blinked back the water which filled them until she was able to see clearly. She furrowed her dark brows. Where was she? Her honey brown eyes whizzed quickly around her surroundings only for her heart to stop.

She focused on a group of people a few feet in front of her, and felt the ripple of intense energy coursing towards her.

She was on Titan with the Time Stone.

Her mind filled with a multitude of questions as to how she had ended up there. She quickly tried to spot the familiar figure of her father but couldn't see him. How did she get there? Last thing she remembered was being on the Sanctuary, cowering in a hallway after letting her sister, Nebula, escape. She swallowed a lump in her throat at the memory. Her father would punish her if he found out.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the prickling sensation on her hands and wrists, she glanced down and noticed an orange current that held her up in the air against a broken shard of metal. Leena tugged her wrist and saw the current spark. She heaved a sigh. A light clicked in her thoughts, she began wriggling her fingers. Whatever magic had trapped her had not been layered with a protective spell, foolishly on their part.

"Oh, uh, hi?" A boy called out to her. "I'm, uhh, I'm Peter."

Leena glanced away from the orange current and looked at the boy in the red and blue suit. His brown hair flopped over his forehead as he peered warily up at her.

"Uh, hi Peter," Leena slowly replied. Her brows furrowed.

"Kid, what you doing — oh, she's awake." A man cut in. Leena turned her attention away from the boy and towards the man that was faintly familiar to her, he was apart of a group known as the Avengers, a group that her father saw as a minor inconvenience. "Hey, Doc! She's awake."

Another man walked towards them, his eyes staring deeply at her. Leena tightened her lips into a line. She could feel the pulsating Infinity Stone emanating from him. She narrowed her eyes. So these were the people that had managed to trick her brother? Leena could not see how, given that she would be able to break free in just a few minutes.

"My name is Doctor Strange."

"Pleasure," Leena's eyes glanced down to the golden necklace around his neck. He watched her carefully. "Now what are these for?" She looked at the orange shackles around her that were dimming slightly, unbeknownst to Doctor Strange who had placed them there.

His lips twitched in faux amusement, "call it a precaution."

"You see me as a threat?" Leena asked with a tilt of her head. She could already feel her power numbing the aches.

"I looked into the future, and not once did I see you," Doctor Strange stepped forward, "you don't exist. You're a problem."

The woman in question felt her lips twitch but could not shake the undeniable confusion that clouded her thoughts. "Yet, here I am."

"Here you are," Doctor Strange repeated, gesturing his palms out to her. "What are you?"

Leena quirked a dark brow, wriggling her fingers slightly as tingles ran up her body. The orange hue of the magic was continuing to dim at a steady pace. Unfortunately for them. "I'm a whom, not a what."

She glanced to the side and noticed the wide eyes of the boy that had introduced himself as Peter. His gaze flickered between the three men and Leena.

"You're a problem," the Avenger intervened. Leena was instantly drawn to him. A spark lit off in her thoughts as she recalled his name, Tony. Tony Stark. "Just like Thanos."

Leena glanced away for a moment before meeting his hardened gaze square on. They knew who she was.

"He'll be here soon, he wants the Time Stone, and he'll get the Time Stone. Stand in his way," her eyes flickered to the boy whose face appeared slack for a second, "and he will kill you all."

Her words appeared to rattle them. Tony clenched his iron fist, his eyes narrowing in on her, while Doctor Strange ran a hand down his face. His hands suddenly shot out, and two orange sparks in the shape of a circle with odd symbols appeared in front of him.

"What are you?" He asked her again, forcing his palms out and the magic began coiling around her entire body, squeezing against her, which sent off a spasm of pain. She winced and forced her eyes shut, attempting to numb the pain but it proved difficult. "Answer me —"

"— Strange!" Tony shouted, pushing the Sorcerer back a few steps which ceased his power against Leena who was trying to shake off the spasms. She slowly opened her eyes to glare at him.

Doctor Strange's wild eyes flickered to Tony, "I saw over fourteen million possibilities, and she was not in a single one."

"That — that means the one possibility where you saw us winning?" Peter's soft voice spoke up from beside Tony, "it won't happen?"

Doctor Strange stiffly nodded his head. He spared Leena one last glance before stalking off. As her heated gaze followed him, she recognised a familiar group of people, whom appeared to have returned from scouting out the area. Her stomach plummeted. The Guardians were nearing and their fury was rolled off them in burning waves.

"There's not just fourteen million — or however many he said — possibilities of this. There are an infinite amount!" Peter tried to reason, as if to reassure himself, "and we can still win, uhh, right, sir? We can still win. We have a chance!"

Leena blinked, attempting to ignore the burning gazes of the Guardians, and confusion littering her thoughts as to why Doctor Strange had asked what she was.

She became distracted by the interaction between the boy and Tony, the latter who had taken to scrutinising her. Peter's eyes were wide in hope as he looked towards Tony, as if pleading for him to agree that they could still win the war. It was a thought that twinged something cold in Leena's stomach — Thanos had won? He had actually won? She barely had time to mull it over before a plasm blasted towards her, barely missing her face as it seared into the metal.

She shot her head towards the three Guardians, the one known as Star-Lord had fired at her. She swallowed a lump in her throat and clenched her fists but refused to break the magic hold around her.

"Where is she?" Quill demanded, his voice burning with white hot anger while his face hardened. "Where the hell is Gamora?"

Leena shook her head slowly, her curls softly moving around her while a tinge of guilt burned her chest. She had left Gamora with their father. "I don't know."

"Don't lie to me!" He shouted while his two friends flanked beside him, the more muscled of the duo — Drax — was clenching his knives while Mantis was nervously wriggling her hands. "Where the hell is she? She's your sister for crying out loud!"

Leena clenched her jaw. "Like I said, Star-Prick, I have no idea."

"You will do well to answer him, you monster!" Drax shouted, holding his knives up.

"God sake!" Tony cut in, forcing himself in-between the Guardians and the tied up Leena, who peered down in mild confusion for as to why he continued to stand in the middle of her fights. "All of you need to back off."

"What does it matter if she dies?" Quill exploded, his face flushing red while his shoulders heaved, "she has killed innocent people! She's no better than Thanos."

Leena released a mocking laugh, drawing their attention while Doctor Strange watched on from a distance. "Really? By that logic you should have killed your precious Gamora years ago."

"Don't say her name —"

"— Like you said," Leena taunted, "she's my sister."

Tony ran his hand down his face, staring at Leena tiredly, before he pushed Quill back. "Listen, the Wizard never saw her in the fourteen million versions of this war, she's an anomaly."

"An anomaly? Gamora told us she was Atlantean." Drax interrupted in heated annoyance.

Tony shot him a look, "I'm not talking about — it doesn't matter, god! What I'm trying to say, is that we don't know what will happen if we just kill her. She's not in the equation of us winning or losing, so killing her could swing it either way, alright?"

Peter was the only one to nod his head at his mentors words.

Quill, on the other hand, merely puffed out his cheeks in frustration. He looked up at Leena, and with a strained voice asked the one question he feared, "is she alive?"

The question hit Leena like a bucket of ice water. She swallowed a lump in her throat. "He would never kill her."

The answer was enough for Quill to nod his head stiffly, before turning around, and walk towards Doctor Strange with Drax and Mantis following. Mantis sent her a quick look over her shoulder, her face softened, before she turned back around.

Leena breathed in deeply, closing her eyes for a moment. Gamora had to be alive. She had to be.

Once they had moved back a few feet, the weary-faced Avenger turned towards Leena. His eyes narrowed slightly while Peter watched on from beside him.

"Your name is Leena, right?" Tony asked, inclining his head in the direction of where Quill had walked off to. "He also said you're a daughter of Thanos?"

Leena glanced away from Tony, casting a look to the Guardians. "Adoptive."

Tony scratched his jaw. "Adoptive," he repeated, "but you do what he says?"

Leena's jaw clenched. She said nothing.

"He wants to wipe out half of life, and you'll help him do it?"

"You're full of questions, aren't you?" Leena decided to redirect the conversation. Her wrists pricked slightly with the magic.

There was a small tick in Tony's jaw, "and you don't seem nearly as formidable as your siblings, whom I had the pleasure of meeting earlier today. Great people — or things, you know, I honestly have no idea how to describe them. They weren't too easy on the eyes." His own gaze never shifted away from her, it sent an uneasiness over Leena as his look intensified. "You, on the other hand, look kinda normal. Mr Clean over there —" He threw his hand up, his thumb pointed in the direction of the Guardians, "— he mentioned that you were Atlantean? Care to share?"

Leena merely closed her eyes when she felt the tingle in her fingers increase. She could feel her eyes glazing over as they darkened while her body strengthened under the magic that had been poorly placed around her.

"Ooh! Ooh!" An excited voice echoed around her, she fought back the urge to peak an eye open to see if the boy was actually jumping up and down, as it had certainly sounded like he was. "I know! MJ was talking about it on the bus a few days ago, uhh, it's created by this guy called Plato. And he writes about this world called Atlantis, but you know, everyone knows Atlantis sunk. Or it never really existed."

There was a brief pause in which Leena presumed it was Tony who had released a sigh.

"Yeah, thanks kid." He said, distractedly, "hey, how about you go check up on the Wizard for me?"

"Yeah, sure thing."

Leena listened to the metal boots, kicking away at rocks, as Peter walked away from them, until it was only the Avenger and Saviour left.

"You haven't died on me, right?" Tony asked.

"Not yet."

"Good because I'm not done psycho-analysing you."

"You don't know me." Leena said softly, her eyes still remained shut.

"I know your type," Tony retorted, there was a sound of rocks being kicked around. "Pretty easy to guess, actually. But do tell me if I get it wrong. I think — wait I know — that you have some father issues. I've been there, done that, and got the emotional baggage to remember it."

Leena couldn't help the small, sardonic smile that twitched at her lips.

"You do what he wants, when he wants, because you know nothing else." He continued, his words weighing down on her chest that suddenly felt significantly tight. She curled her fingers. "I'm not saying it's an excuse for all the horrible stuff you have probably done, but it means there's still a pinch of hope for change. This leads me onto point two," she heard a clap of his hands, "you said earlier that he will kill us when he gets here. You never said that you would kill us."

"You know nothing." Her voice sliced through the air like a sheet of ice.

"Maybe, but you have shown me a hint of what you're like," he said, quietly. "Did you honestly think that no one would notice, that for the last ten minutes, if you wanted to, you could have easily broken free from that voodoo around you? And hurt us?"

Leena tensed. Her black eyes peeled open. She noticed a small smile on Tony's face. It surprised her. For it was not one which mocked her or taunted her for figuring out her secret, it was simply a smile. A kind smile.

"Granted, those shmuck's — aside from Pete — might not have noticed, but I did." Tony said, quietly. He took another step towards her as the bonds around her loosened slightly. She threw a look towards the Doctor that was talking to the rest of his group. "You don't want to hurt us. If you did, you would have already done it."

Leena uncurled her fingers while her heart thudded in her chest, and for a brief moment in her life, there was someone beside Thanos who had invoked fear inside of her. She couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was that she feared from the metal man but his words were enough to send her heart pounding ferociously in her chest.

The hairs on her arms suddenly stuck on end. Leena glanced around the orange clouds, and over the random metal shards that littered the orange rocks. With a pounding heart and a lump in her throat, she looked at Tony and noticed his entire face drop as she uttered the words that burned the air between them:

"He's coming."

_____
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i hope you guys liked this!! and omgg, guys we're over 400 reads!! that is actually insane, i can't believe it! but yayay, finally met the titan squad! i'm actually really hyped to dive further into my AU threads of this story, because there are going to be some BIG changes to how we all saw infinity war on the big screen! so stay tuned to see exactly how things are different!