I don't own anything except any original character and/or any original plot.

🕷

Chapter 5: But We're Heroes

🕷

The next morning, I focused on the mission at hand and nothing else. Because if I allowed my mind to wander, it would focus on the prophecy I was given the day before, and I wanted nothing more than to forget it.

Students chatting excitedly throughout the halls about their time off, the X-Men set the ground rules and explained the situation with a lot of information missing. After a quick breakfast to fuel up, the X-Men put on their suits, and Peter and I changed into comfortable clothes. Our suits had been 'lost' nearly two-and-a-half years ago, meaning we weren't obligated to put them on and be Spider-Man and Riptide. We could focus on other things.

Meeting just outside, the students waved us off. We grabbed onto each other, and Kurt bamph-ed us to the Avengers Compound.

"Oh my God!" Scott L (two Scotts=confusion over the coms) clutched his chest, leaping up from the bench he was previously sitting on, "Um, hello?"

"These are the X-Men," I motioned to the group, "We can do introductions with the whole team later. Where are the others?"

Scott sat back down, picking up a taco, "They're inside planning. The rest of the team is supposed to be here soon."

With that, our semi-large group walked inside. The compound hadn't changed a bit. And with the general layout being the same, we easily located the largest lab there, where Tony was talking to Steve and Bruce.

"I figured it out last night, the proper shape to create the machine that is," Tony informed the pair.

"And what made you want to join us after you said no?"

"Well, I have my conditions you know that. But, I was looking at that picture I have of the kids and-"

"We're here, Mr. Stark," Peter interrupted his speech, waving nervously as the attention shifted to us, "We brought the X-Men."

Bruce beamed, clapping his hands, "Amazing, we're gonna have all hands on deck for this."

"Peter, (Y/n)," Tony called.

"Yeah?"

"What's up Mr. Stark?"

Both Peter's responded at the same time. Tony blinked, then realized the name situation. "Okay, my Peter, and (Y/n), follow me. I have something for you two. You're gonna like it."

With a dismissive wave of their hands, the X-Men stayed behind to talk to Steve and Bruce, leaving me and Peter with Tony. He led us all the way to the old suit storage room. Upon noticing our confused looks, he pressed a button and the door slid open.

"Mr. Stark, those aren't-"

"I found them when visiting the school a few years back. You 'lost' them, didn't you? Well, I adjusted their sizes to fit you now and added a few new features. What you had was so twenty-eighteen."

Deep in his heart, Tony was secretly a teenage girl. That could be the only explanation for his valley girl tone and hand motions. Two cases slid open, revealing our former supersuits. I stared at the lower mask on mine in distaste. The cage, the muzzle.

Peter simply touched his suit, and it shifted from its case to body. Simple and easy, lacking the need to change out of his clothes like he had to in his original suit. The two turned to me, waiting.

"Can I change the mask when it's on me?" I asked quietly. Tony 'ohd' in realization, "I know I had a full mask when I was with Thanos, but it feels like a muzzle when it's on the bottom."

Peter, mask shifting away from his face, took my hand. I smiled at him nervously.

"Tell Misty and it'll change for you. If we're ever in an area with a bad atmosphere, it'll have to change so you can breathe, but we'll take it one step at a time."

With that reassurance, I placed my hand against my suit. What was formerly tight fabric armored with kevlar became more metallic, like Tony and Peter's suits. The remaining fabric spread out from the nano-tech, giving me the familiar comfort. In the end, it was identical to my uniform from five years ago.

"Lovely to see you again, (Y/n). It's been a while."

"Hey Misty, can you shift my mask?"

At my command, my mask shifted from my mouth to my eyes. Sighing in relief, I turned to Tony and Peter- both were beaming proudly in their own ways.

We met the entire group back in the main room, minus Bruce, Rocket, Thor, and Nat. Nat was gone when we first arrived to recruit Clint. Bruce and Rocket had gone to recruit Thor right after the X-Men arrived. By Steve's calculations, the two different groups would be back in two hours or less if everything went according to plan.

"Let's pull ourselves together and get this machine made. The sooner the better," Tony announced.

~*~

"Mr. Thor let himself go," Peter whispered, making me nearly drop a hefty piece of equipment. Using my mutation would make it easier, but I didn't use it much casually anymore. It reminded me of how many people I hurt.

Sure enough, Thor waltzed through the room- clad in a hoodie and drinking beer.

"Drifting left. On the side there, Lebowski," Tony passed, patting Thor's shoulder, "How's it going, Ratchet?"

"It's Rocket," Rocket snapped from under the machine, "Take it easy. You're only a genius on Earth, pal."

Tony, unfazed, pointed out where Peter and I had to go, "Yep."

"Hey, laser eyes, shoot this for me," Rocket called out to Scott. Scott groaned in response, crawling under the machine, "If you break it we're all dead."

"I toured the entire compound and there's some weird stuff here," Peter M zoomed inside, next to Tony, "What's with the random landing pad in the yard?"

"It's for Thor, so he wouldn't destroy the grass every time he showed up."

Ororo dropped from the top of the machine, "We're good on top, let me know if you need more energy," she sparked some lightning on her fingertips.

"You got it, Stormy," Tony gave her a thumbs up, "Where the blue one?"

"Right here," Kurt appeared next to Tony, causing him to jump and clutch at his heart, "I was checking in with the other group. They're ready when we are to begin the test run."

Clint entered, wearing the quantum suit Scott L was supposed to wear, meaning he was doing the test run instead.

"Clint, now you're gonna feel a little discombobulated from the chronoshift," Bruce informed him as he stepped up.

"I'll be keeping track of your mind as long as I can to make sure there aren't... Well to make sure you don't go insane when you're shrunk down."

Xavier's words flew over Clint's head, "Don't worry about it."

Rhodey cut in, "Wait a second, let me ask you something. If we can do this, you know, go back in time, why don't we just find baby Thanos, and-"

"First of all, that's horrible."

Rhodey shrugged, "It's Thanos."

"And secondly, time doesn't work that way. Changing the past doesn't change the future."

The Professor raised his hand, "If I may. We had a situation where one of our members traveled to the past. If you travel to the past, that past becomes your future. And your former present becomes the past. It's highly complicated, but to simplify. It may not change our timeline, but we can branch off and create new timelines which we will live in. Which is what we're attempting to do."

"So because you guys went back, we're already in a new timeline?"

"Precisely. All of you are welcome. It's likely you'd be dead by this point."

"Time travel isn't like all those movies," I added, crossing my arms, "It's way more complicated."

"So... Back to the Future's a bunch of bullshit?" Scott got silence as his answer.

"Alright, Clint. We're going in 3... 2... 1!"

Clint's helmet popped up, and he was gone. Seconds later he reappeared, stumbling forward.

"Hey, hey. Look at me. You okay?" Nat held her comrade's shoulders.

Clint held up a baseball glove, obviously from his home, "Yeah, it worked. It worked."

The team let out joyous laughs. For the first time in five years, all of us could breathe again. The pain, the torture, the permanent reminders of Thanos on my stomach, forehead, and mind were worth it.

~*~

"You're telling me that you can get everyone back?"

"Maybe," I winced at my parents' loud tones, "This will be the best chance we have, ever. We're gonna go back and get the stones to bring everyone back now."

"Are you going to face Tha- Ow!" My dad yelped, a dull slap heard over the receiver- my mom's doing, "Sorry, are you going to see him again?"

Sighing, I crossed an arm over my middle, the fabric of my shirt rubbing against the metal on my stomach, "I hope not. I don't think the others would put me against him either. I'll probably have an Earth mission. Even then, we're gonna do everything we can to avoid a direct confrontation with him."

"Good. We know you're still struggling, even if you don't want to talk about it. We don't want you to... relapse."

Chuckling dryly, I nodded, "I won't. Wish us luck. Love you."

Ending the call with my parents, I stepped back into the meeting room. For the last hour and a half, we had been contemplating where we could go to get the stones most efficiently. They had been all over the universe, so pinpointing a good location was tricky.

"Okay, so the 'how' works. Now we gotta figure out the when and the where. Almost all of us has had an encounter with at least one of the six infinity stones," Steve repeated for the third time, trying to get new ideas flowing. It wasn't working.

"Well, I'd substitute the word encounter for damn well near been killed by one of the six infinity stones," Tony paused, looking up from his holo-screen, "Hang on, did the X-Men face someone with an infinity stone?"

"Apocalypse," Scott stated blandly, "He had the Mind Stone in the eighties, it was how he got his followers. We didn't know at the time. When he died, the stone sort of disappeared. Somehow it ended up in space."

"Jean brought it up there," the Profesor assumed a prayers position with his hands, "On accident. She absorbed it from Apocalypse. When we went into space, she absorbed the Phoenix Force and expelled the Mind Stone. Thanos found it soon after."

The room stared at the mutant group in shock. Finally, Nat spoke up, "You guys have had really weird missions."

"I don't even know what the hell you're all talking about," Scott L cut in.

"Regardless, we only have enough Pym Particles for one round trip each, and only for the Avengers and or some X-Men depending on how we organize teams. And these stones have been in a lot of different places throughout history."

"Our history. So, not a lot of convenient spots to just drop in."

"Which means we have to pick our targets," Steve continued.

"Correct."

"Let's start with the Aether. Thor, what do you know?"

Everyone turned to Thor. He was in a chair with sunglasses, making it impossible to tell if he was awake or asleep. Peter waved a hand in front of his face.

"I think Mr. Thor is asleep," he reported, nearly jumping onto the wall when Thor jerked up with a start.

"What's going on?" He questioned drowsily.

Tony rolled his eyes, "The Aether. What do you know Point Break?"

"Where to start? The Aether, first, is not a stone, someone called it a stone before. It's more of an angry sludge thing, so someone's gonna need to amend that. Here's an interesting story though, many years ago my grandfather had to hide the stones from the Dark Elves," he wiggled his fingers to imitate telling a scary story, "Wooooh, scary beings. So Jane, oh, there she is. That's Jane... She's an old flame of mine. She stuck her hand inside a rock this one time and then the Aether stuck itself inside her, and, she became very, very sick. So I had to take her to Asgard, which is where I'm from. And we had to try and fix her. We were dating at the time, you see. I got to introduce her to my Mother... who's dead, and oh you know, Jane and I aren't even dating anymore, these things happen though you know, nothing lasts forever-"

Tony tried to push him back to his chair.

"I'm not done yet, the only thing permanent in life is impermanence." He finally sat down.

"Awesome, eggs, breakfast?"

"I'd like a Bloody Mary."

Everyone collectively sighed. Peter M stood, zoomed off, and returned with the alcohol. He zoomed off again, and seconds later returned with a classic diner breakfast, likely from an actual diner.

"Love him!" Tony pointed to Peter M, "What's your name again?"

"Peter Maximoff."

"Woah," Nat sat up, interested, "And you have super speed? You don't think-"

The glass door to the room slammed open, cracking. Wade, in all of his red and black leather glory, crossed his arms, "Hold it right there bitches. Don't continue that conversation. You have more important things to do."

"Who the hell are you?" Steve questioned, stepping into a defensive stance.

"Wait! That's just Wade," Ororo waved her hand dismissively, "He's fine. Really weird. He comes and goes."

Wade gasped dramatically, rushing over to Tony, "Robert? Robert oh my God, you're still here thank God. Listen something is going to happen that makes you even more of a meme but it's because you- Oh Peter!"

Wade skipped to Peter, pulling him up and into a hug, "Best friends forever! But guess what? You're twenty-two so I can say Spidey-Pool now! It's legal!"

Peter choked and gasped within Wade's grasp. I rushed over and pried his arms off of my boyfriend, punching his arm. Wade didn't flinch, but dropped Peter all the same. Turning back to the room, he noticed the obvious tension.

"Right. Enjoy your breakfast. Call me when you need me, cause you will. Oh! And Remember how important New York is. Bye!" With a songful goodbye, Wade used the door like a normal person and continued to wave until he was out of sight.

All was silent. Everyone stared at the cracked entrance door, shocked. Pinching the bridge of my nose, I was the one to bring everyone back to attention.

"Wade does that a lot, he just pops up whenever he wants. Ignore him. I don't know why he called you Robert, Tony. Anyway, we need to focus. And eat. Because I'm starving."

Everyone picked up a different box of food and enjoyed what was inside, chatting through different plan ideas while they were eating. Our brunch lasted another hour, with no further progress. When the food boxes were empty, and out stomachs full, Rocket hopped on the table and easily avoided the piles of trash so he could pace around.

"Quill said he stole the power stone from Morag," he stated.

"Is that a person?" Scott L questioned. I held back a laugh. He was so out of his depth with all of that big-time hero work.

"Morag's a planet. Quill was a person."

"A planet? Like in outer space?"

"Oh, look. It's like a little puppy, all happy and everything," Rocket walked over and pet Scott's hair gently, "Do you wanna go to space? You wanna go to space, puppy? I'll take you to space."

Nebula, after rolling her eyes, stood to take the attention away from Rocket's mockery of Scott, "Thanos found the Soul Stone on Vormir."

"What is Vormir?" Nat paused in her note-taking.

"A dominion of death, at the very center of Celestial existence. It's where Thanos murdered my sister. And where he solidified his resolve to find another daughter," Nebula snuck a glance towards me.

A large part of my recovery was thanks to Nebula explaining her own recovery process from Thanos' mental manipulation. She was my alienated sister for twenty-three days, but when I was rescued she became my sister by war. Trauma brings people together, and we were perhaps the only two people in the universe who understood what it meant to be a daughter of Thanos, however brief or long our time in the role was.

The room fell into an awkward silence. Nat grimaced, but wrote down the information all the same. Instinctively, I reached out for Peter. He grabbed my hand, hiding his own nerves beneath a bright smile. However fake it was, I needed it.

"Oh, we have an issue at the school," the Professor rolled out from behind the table, "A breakdown from one of the students. The four we left in charge are having trouble handing it. We need to head back for a brief while. Kurt?"

"Do we need to go too, Professor?" I rubbed my eyes, tired of staring at the same six pictures of the stones.

"You and Peter can stay here. We can handle it," with that, Kurt grabbed the four and teleported off.

Steve grunted, and stood, twisting his arms to stretch his back, "That's as good a time as any for a break. I need a shower."

"I do too," Scott stood as well.

Rocket jumped off the table and left at the announcement of a break. Nebula followed close behind. Taking on paternal roles, Peter and I gladly picked up the trash lying on the tables and traveled to throw them away in the garbage outside.

"You doing okay?" Peter placed a hand on each of my shoulders, rubbing them soothingly, "I know all of this must be hard. You thought you could move on. We both thought we'd never wear our uniforms again."

Wrapping my arms around his middle, I squeezed him tightly, closing my eyes and enjoying his presence, "Honestly? I'm not doing great. Constantly on the verge of a breakdown. But I'm working through it. Five years is a long time. I hurt people under Thanos' control, but I've made amends with that."

"You're so strong," Peter kissed my temple, then my cheek, then jaw, "I've always admired that about you. Having you here with me now, seeing you fight your inner demons... I want to be here for you through it."

"Thank you."

We spent the next few moments together in silence. Next to a dumpster. Not the most romantic spot, but considering that we were speaking about my mental health, it wasn't meant to be romantic. It was serious, and Peter's consideration lessened the strain on my mind.

"You ready to go in?"

Nodding silently, I stuck close to Peter's side as we walked back inside. There, Steve, Nebula, Rocket, and Scott L were still gone. Bruce, Tony, and Nat had shifted and were either laying on the table or on the floor.

"Hey," Nat greeted monotonously, turning her head to look at us, "We were thinking, that Wade guy said that New York was really important earlier, you got any idea what he meant?"

I shook my head. Peter, surprisingly, put the pieces together before I did.

"Doctor Strange lived in New York, right?"

Nat's eyes widened as she put the pieces together, "Guys if you pick the right year, there are three stones in New York."

Bruce shot up in surprise, "Shut the front door!"

~*~

Another hour later, we had put a plan together. The X-Men had arrived back during that time, having dealt with the situation at the school. Per Steve's orders, the X-Men and I were to stay at the facility and both monitor the machines and be there as backup. There weren't enough Pym Particles for all of us, and I was more than willing to stay away from the Infinity Stones.

Soul and Power 2014. Reality in Asgard 2013. Space, Mind, and Time in New York City 2012.

After the Avengers changed into the Quantum suits, they began their dramatic walk to the time machine.

"All right. We have a plan. Six stones, four teams, one shot," Steve announced to the gathered group, "Five years ago, we lost. All of us. We lost friends. We lost family. We lost a part of ourselves. Today, we have a chance to take it all back. You know your teams, you know your missions. Get the stones, get them back. One round trip each. Most of us are going somewhere we know. But it doesn't mean we should know what to expect. Be careful. Look out for each other. This is the fight of our lives. And we're gonna win. Whatever it takes. Good luck."

Kissing Peter, I smiled shakily, "You're gonna be fine going with Bruce for the Time Stone?"

Peter nodded, smiling back, "I'll be fine. We'll do this and bring everyone back. I love you."

Holding onto his hand until he stepped onto the program, I sighed and stepped back, "I love you too."

Bruce set up the machine, the Professor and Ororo watching over his shoulder to learn the most basic works. Peter, Kurt, and Scott were watching the team, arms crossed and brows raised in interest.

Giving Peter one last smile, he pressed his watch and disappeared. A few seconds, a few minutes at most, and they'd be back. And everything would be fine.

I didn't even blink before Tony and Steve stumbled onto the platform, early. Sure, it should have taken only a few seconds, but not less than a second. The two jumped up and shared the same panicked look.

"What happened?"

"Bad news, we lost the Mind Stone when a bunch of guards shot at us. But we managed to get the Space Stone," Tony held up his briefcase, "Oh, and a bunch of those Pym Particles."

Peter M disappeared and returned with the particles in his hands, looking to the Professor with a smirk, "Well, if you want something done right you gotta do it yourself. What do you say, Professor? Wanna face Apocalypse again and get the Mind Stone?"

The Professor sighed, "It's the last thing I want to do."

Reaching out, I took one of the vials, rolling it in my hands, "I don't want to either. But we're heroes. So let's do it."