Strange is suspended in the air with at least a hundred long, glass-like needles surrounding him — some sick form of torture, Tony can tell. One is piercing his cheek, emanating a white light as it does so. Squidward is floating in front of Strange, though Strange is face-down.

Tony watches, thinking, trying to figure out some sort of a plan, and then someone taps him on the shoulder. He jumps, his hand blaster facing the source and raring to fire.

But it's just Strange's freaking cape.

"Wow, you're a seriously loyal piece of outerwear, aren't you?" Tony says to it, though he doesn't expect a reply.

He gets one anyway. "Yeah, uh, speaking of loyalty..."

Tony turns and sees none other than Peter Parker hanging upside from the ceiling. Tony's eyes are wide. "What-?"

Peter flips and lands on his feet, his mask retracting into his suit. "I know what you're gonna say-"

"You should not be here," Tony scolds.

"I was gonna go home-" Peter starts to explain, but Tony firmly cuts him off.

"I don't wanna hear it-"

"-but it was such a long way down and I just thought about you and what Grace said on the way-"

"-and now I gotta hear it-"

"-and I kinda stuck to the side of the ship. And this suit is ridiculously intuitive, by the way, so, if anything, it's kinda your fault that I'm here."

Tony looks up at him sharply. "What did you just say?"

Peter's eyes widen. "I-I take that back. And... now I'm here in space."

"Yeah, right where I didn't want you to be," Tony says, stepping forward, his voice lowering. "I told Grace you were gonna be at the compound, and now what's she gonna think? That you're dead?"

Peter inhales sharply, the thought of her worrying about him that much hitting him, and he wishes he could've talked to her first, knowing he needs to apologize for this so much when he gets back. "Mr. Stark, I-I didn't know-"

"This isn't Coney Island," Tony says. "This isn't a field trip. It's a one-way ticket. You hear me? Don't pretend you thought this through-"

"No, I did think this through-"

"I know you didn't-"

"I did think this through-!"

"You could not have possibly thought this through."

"You can't be a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man when there's no neighborhood." Tony just looks at him, half mad and half amazed at Peter's reasoning, how... selfless and grown-up and yet reckless it is — almost something Tony would say, just less... eloquent. Peter sighs. "Okay, that didn't really make any sense, but you know what I'm trying to say."

Tony continues looking at him in silence for a moment, resolving himself to protecting to this kid, to getting him back home to his aunt and his friends and Grace. She needs him. It's a fact Tony's had to accept over the past two and a half years. And now it's the fact that makes this so much more worrying.

Tony sighs, starting to turn back to where Strange is. "Come on. Luckily, I trust Grace to handle herself, especially since the imminent threat is up here."

"Exactly," Peter replies.

Tony gives him a look, silencing him, then he walks over to stand next to the cape, looking down on Squidward and Strange. "We got a situation." He points to Strange. "See him down there? He's in trouble. What's your plan? Go."

Peter crouches and starts thinking. "Um... okay, okay, um..." Surprisingly, it only takes him a few moments to figure it out. He stands and looks at Tony. "Okay. Did you ever see this really old movie Aliens?"

Tony looks at Peter, already halfway to exasperated. "Yes."

Down below, Strange screams in pain. Peter talks over it, recounting the scene he's thinking of, and Tony understands before he's even finished. "Alright, go — go get in position."

Peter hurries off as Tony tells the cape what to do, hoping it understands him. Then, he quietly descends, heading to the steering of the ship, behind Squidward.

He's talking to Strange, most likely about the needles. "Painful aren't they? They were originally designed for microsurgery. And any one of them-" Tony lands with a soft clang, and Squidward cuts himself off for a moment, turning and then finishing his sentence to Tony, who's aiming his hand blasters at him "-could end your friend's life in an instant."

"I gotta tell you, he's not really my friend," Tony replies. "Saving his life is more a professional courtesy."

Squidward floats towards him, guiding large pieces of the ship behind him with his hand, presumably to hit Tony with them. "You've saved nothing. Your powers are inconsequential compared to mine."

Tony shrugs. "Yeah, but the kid's seen more movies." He blasts the side of the ship with a small rocket, and Squidward and his ammunition are quickly sucked out. Strange starts to follow, but his cape grabs him by the hand, wrapping its other end around something in the ship. But Strange's hand slips.

Peter acts quickly, jumping down and catching Strange with a web, then trying to catch himself on a spike lining the ship's walkway, which is probably just for aesthetic because it breaks off almost immediately. As he and Strange descend toward the hole in the ship, Strange actually going through it, spider's legs unfold from the back of Peter's suit and catch him, surrounding the edge of the hole.

"Yes!" Peter shouts. He looks back. "Wait, what are those?!" He receives no answer, and he pushes himself forward, through the hole, then springs back up, gaining enough momentum to take Strange back through too. Tony quickly seals the hole with a substance from his suit, then Peter disconnects the web and lands back on the walkway. The cape floats next to him, and Peter turns to it, holding out a hand. Breathlessly, he says, "Hey, we haven't officially met." The cape practically ignores him and flies off to the wizard, who's standing with Tony next to the steering. "Cool."

Strange gets up as his cape returns to its usual place on his back. "We gotta turn this ship around."

Tony walks away from him, scoffing, his suit now the workout outfit it was before. "Yeah. Now he wants to run. Great plan."

"No, I want to protect the stone," Strange argues, following him.

"And I want you to thank me; now, go ahead, I'm listening," Tony replies. He stops and looks out of what could be the ship's windshield, though it's large and round.

"For what?" Strange asks. "Nearly blasting me into space?"

Tony turns, genuine anger now in his raised voice. "I'm sorry, who just saved you? Oh, yeah — me."

"I seriously don't know how you fit your head into that helmet," Strange replies.

Tony ignores his statement. "Admit it. You should have ducked out when I told you to. I tried to bench you. You refused."

"Unlike everyone else in your life, I don't work for you-"

"And due to that fact, we're now in a flying doughnut, billions of miles from Earth-" from my family, he thinks, but doesn't add "-with no backup."

Peter, now standing behind Strange, speaks up. "I'm backup."

"No, you're a stowaway." Tony gestures in between himself and Strange. "The adults are talking."

Strange shakes his head. "I'm sorry, I-I'm confused as to the relationship here. Wh-Wha-What is he, your ward?"

"No," Peter says. "No, I'm, uh..." he glances at Tony, who just nods, already exasperated with the whole situation "... I'm dating his daughter." Strange's eyebrows raise, and Peter holds out a hand. "I'm Peter, by the way."

Strange doesn't shake his hand, but at least he talks to him. "Dr. Strange."

Peter nods in understanding. "Oh, we're using our made up names. Um, in that case, I am Spider-Man."

Strange just turns from him, walking towards Tony, who changes the subject. "This ship is self-correcting its course. Thing's on autopilot."

"Can we control it?" Strange asks. "Fly us home?"

Tony's thinking, worried, too many things going through his head at once: his daughter, his fiancée, his friends, Peter, Thanos threatening to hurt them all, the whole world and more — again. He has to stop him. He has to. And there's only one way to do that, isn't there?

"Stark?" Strange says.

Tony turns. "Yeah?"

"Can you get us home?"

Tony waves him off. "Yeah, I heard you." He grimaces. "I'm thinking... I'm not so sure we should."

"Under no circumstance can we bring the Time Stone to Thanos," Strange says lowly. "I don't think you quite understand-"

"What-?"

"-what's at stake here-"

"No," Tony cuts him off, getting in Strange's face in only a couple of strides. "No, it's you who doesn't understand that Thanos has been inside my head for six years since he sent an army to New York, and now he's back! And I don't know what to do. So I'm not so sure if it's a better plan to fight him on our turf or his — but you saw what they did, what they can do. At least on his turf, he's not expecting it. So I say we take the fight to him. Doctor." He pauses. "Do you concur?"

Strange is quiet, but then he nods once, slightly. "Alright, Stark. We go to him. But you have to understand: if it comes to saving you or the kid or the Time Stone, I will not hesitate to let either of you die. I can't, because the universe depends on it."

Even as Tony's chest constricts, he says, "Nice. Good. Moral compass. We're straight." He sighs and walks over to Peter, tapping Peter's left shoulder and then his right like an informal knighting. "Alright, kid. You're an Avenger now." He keeps moving to another part of the ship, not even looking back.

Peter smiles in amazement for a moment, thinking about how he can't wait to tell Grace, but the thought sobers him. She's down there, waiting on him to get back, counting on him to help save the universe — at least, if she doesn't think he's dead.

Either way, he has a responsibility. He has a duty. Not just to Grace or Mr. Stark or even May and Ned and his other friends. But to the universe. As he steels himself for the fight to come, Strange walks toward him.

"You're an Avenger now, huh?" he asks, half amused.

"I am," Peter says, standing tall.

Strange chuckles. "You seem like a brave kid."

"Brave enough to fight Thanos."

Strange starts to walk past him. "Brave enough to date Stark's daughter, more like."

"That too," Peter replies, following him. Then, he stops. "Wait, what do you mean?"

~~~~

Sam finally lowers the Quinjet, the bottom of it about ten feet away from grazing the tops of a forest of trees. "Drop to twenty six hundred, heading zero three zero," Steve says, walking from the back of the jet up to Sam.

He does as asked, but a bit reluctantly. "I hope you're right about this. Or we're gonna land a lot faster than you want to."

Grace gets up from her spot next to Wanda and Vision, who seem to be having a moment, and moves to stand next to Steve, just behind the chair Nat's sitting in. She looks out through the plane's windshield, worried as they get closer and closer to just straight up hitting the trees. But at the last second, there's a flash of blue and then they're flying over water.

"Woah..." she says quietly, looking at the city in the distance, tall towers and almost futuristic-looking structures set against a mountainous background. There are boats on the water, people walking the streets. They fly through the city, toward its largest building, passing hut-like buildings and towers alike. They land in the landing bay of what Grace can only assume to be the castle — or palace, or... whatever they call it in Wakanda.

Steve and Nat lead everyone else off the jet, Bruce, Rhodey, and Grace behind them, then Wanda and Vision, and finally Sam in the back.

Bruce, who's on Grace's left, leans over her and asks Rhodey, "Should we bow?"

"Yeah, he's a king," Rhodey whispers back. When Bruce turns away, he winks at Grace, who almost wants to say something, but doesn't.

"Seems like I'm always thanking you for something," Steve says to King T'Challa when he stops in front of him. They shake hands.

Bruce clears his throat and bows, and Rhodey looks at him strangely, just like everyone else. "What are you doing?" he asks, confused.

T'Challa shakes his head, holding his hands out in a reassuring manner. "We don't do that here." Bruce half glares at Rhodey, who smiles. Grace laughs.

T'Challa looks at her. He only spoke to her briefly in Germany, and he barely even saw her face; she was in Savior half the time. He then glances at Nat, who only smiles apologetically, based on what happened at that fight. Then, he turns, leading the whole group inside.

"So how big of an assault can we expect?" he asks.

Bruce hurries his way to the front. "Uh, sir —sir, I think you can expect quite a big assault."

"How we looking?" Nat asks.

"You will have my Kingsguard, the Border Tribe, the Dora Milaje, and-" he gestures to the side, where Bucky Barnes is walking through a scattering of guards.

"A semi-stable, one hundred-year-old man," the man himself finishes.

Steve practically beams as he hugs him. "How you been, Buck?" he asks.

Bucky shrugs. "Oh, not bad, for the end of the world." He sees the group behind Steve, nods at Sam and Nat, then Wanda, though that was in thanks. He doesn't know anyone else that well.

But then he sees Grace, and his slightly happy expression completely falls. He just looks guilty. There's an awkward silence.

She clears her throat, stepping forward. "Hi."

"Hi..." he trails off, unsure what to say, but knowing something has to be said.

"Long time no see?" Grace offers.

Bucky ventures to smile, achieving about half of one. "Yeah..." There's more silence after that, so he coughs a little and asks, "Um... How's... How's your dad?"

Luckily, she doesn't seem offended. And she isn't. She's just worried. "Well, he's in space right now, following a, uh, a sorcerer, basically," she says. "And, uh, my boyfriend is most likely with him, even though Dad told him to go home, so... I'd love to know how he's handling that."

"And guess who it is?" Sam cuts in, both to clear the tension and to tell Bucky this insane news.

Bucky looks at him with furrowed brows. "What?"

"Her boyfriend, guess who he is," Sam repeats.

Bucky becomes even more confused. "Am I... supposed to know?"

"You've met him," Sam insists.

"I..." Bucky's just at a loss. "I got nothing, man."

"Peter!" Sam shouts, but Bucky has a reaction similar to his.

"Peter...?"

"Spider-Man!" Sam says, causing T'Challa's brows to raise. "That annoying little web-slinger from the airport."

"Him?" Bucky says, looking at Grace in surprise. "How old is that kid, anyway?"

"Eighteen," she replies.

"Eighteen?!" he exclaims. "And you're-?"

"Seventeen," Grace finishes, amused at his astonished reaction.

"Seventeen," he mumbles. "I... Alright."

"Can you believe that?" Sam says.

Bucky shakes his head, chuckling along with everyone else. "Hardly, Sam. Hardly."