It's deathly quiet as the creepy alien holds the wizard in the air and using his telepathy to suspend what look like long glass needles all around him. ARTI's long gone as we're now pretty far into space, and I'm all alone up here, trying to find a way to get the wizard out of this and to keep what I've learned is the time stone inside his necklace safe—and away from Thanos.

Something about the mere name makes me uneasy. The thought is shrouded in darkness, and not the comforting kind like my shadows. It's the dark that even normal people can feel the evil that's harbored inside. All the more reason to keep the infinity stone away from him.

I peer over from the edge where I'm at and watch as Strange slowly begins to wake. The gasp that escapes him makes Squidward's twin smile in the creepiest way I've ever seen. "In all the time I've served Thanos," he speaks as he takes smooth steps towards the suspended wizard, "I have never failed him."

"First time for everything, dude." I whisper to myself in the darkness.

Luckily, the both of them remain oblivious to my presence as Squidy continues, "If I were to reach our rendezvous on Titan with the time stone still attached to your vaguely irritating person, there would be—judgement."

There's a long silence as one of the glass needles begins to pierce his skin and emanate an eerie glow beneath his skin. I can practically feel the energy and pulsating as the wizards groans in pain. "Give me," Squidy pauses as he points a crooked finger to the necklace, "the stone."

The necklace glows with an intricately patterned orange light. I watch in worry and fascination as the magic works to protect the stone, but my attention is drawn away by the familiar sound of a charging blaster. It takes me a second to find the origin and follow it to the ledge above me.

My knees nearly buckle when I see my Dad—talking to a floating cloak. "Wow, you are seriously on loyal piece of outerwear, aren't you?"

Another flash of movement catches my eye, and this time, my heart breaks at the sight of Peter, dropping down on a web. "Yeah, uh, speaking of loyalty."

"What the—" Dad starts as he looks to Peter and myself when I enter his line of sight.

"I know what you're gonna say—" Peter tries to interject, but Dad finishes his sentence before the former can get another word out. I climb up to the landing where they are. There's a visible show of relief from my dad when he sees for himself I'm not down there with the wizard.

"You should not be here—either of you."

"I was gonna go home—"

"I don't wanna hear it."

"But it was such a long way down, and I just thought about you and Lia on the way."

"And now I gotta hear it." Dad sighs and shakes his head

Peter continues to explain his logic for being here, "And I kinda stuck to the side of the ship. And this suit is ridiculously intuitive, by the way. So if anything, it's kind of your fault I'm here."

The comment makes me cover my eyes as Dad begins to get upset. "What did you just say?"

Peter begins to stutter as the nerves settle in and he takes back the statement altogether. "And now I'm here, in space."

"Yeah, right were I didn't want either of you to be." I can feel the frustration radiating off of Dad as he steps towards the both of us. "This isn't Coney Island. This isn't a field trip. This is a one-way ticket. You hear me? So don't pretend either of you thought things through."

"Personally, I didn't have much of a choice. It's not like they have exit signs posted." I retort and cross my arms. "But either way, I would have been here if you were."

"And I did think this through, Mr. Stark." Peter replies with a set expression. "I wasn't just gonna let you and Lia do this alone."

"No. You could not have possibly thought this through." Dad still argues, but Peter's face is set with determination.

"You can't be a friendly neighborhood Spiderman if there's no neighborhood." Peter replies, and I suddenly feel myself fall in love with him all over again. He cares so much about everyone, that he would risk everything just to help even one person. Dad and I both stand in an awed silence as the words really settle in. "Okay, that really didn't make sense, but you know what I'm trying to say."

"He has a point." I chime in. "We can't help people if they're gone. Just like you can't save the world if there's nothing there to salvage."

Dad looks at me and takes a shaky breath. "C'mon, we've gotta situation." He walks away to the edge and points down to the wizard. "See him down there? He's in trouble. What's your plan? Go."

"I've been watching for a while. Squidward's got some serious telepathy on him, and I haven't seen any limits to it yet." I whisper and point to the needles aimed at the wizard. "We also need to watch out for those."

Peter nods and nudges me. "Hey, you remember that really old movie we watched last week."

I smile as the realization of what he's thinking hits me. "Yeah. Aliens?" He nods with that hopeful look on his face to see if I think it's too crazy. "It's risky, but I think it's just crazy enough to work."

"Care to explain?" Dad calls. Peter and I quickly explain the plan, and I can see the apprehension on his face as he agrees. "Okay, let's get moving."

I nod and follow Peter down as the wizard's cries of pain echo in the wide expanse of the ship. It makes my heart pound as I feel a flashback to my time with the Trials threatening to take over. I feel my head spinning and everything being pulled under a haze.

"Lia?" Peter calls as his hand slips into mine, reminding me that I'm not strapped to a table, I'm not in pain, and I'm here with him. "Hey, you're okay. I'm right here."

It takes a moment for the memory to fade, but the shaking still remains. "I'm fine, or I will be."

"You sure?"

"I promise." I give his hand a gentle reassuring squeeze. "C'mon, we need to move quickly."

Dad lands with a loud thud that interrupts Squidward's speech and makes a threat against the wizard. "I gotta tell you," Dad replies, "he's not really my friend. Saving his life is more a professional courtesy."

"You've saved nothing." Squidy replies as he suspends huge chunks of metal and slowly steps towards Dad. "Your powers are inconsequential compared to mine."

"I'm gonna have to disagree on that one." I call from behind him and use a shadow to knock him off his feet.

"She's pretty strong. Plus, the kids have seen more movies." Dad smirks and fires a blast at the panel, which creates a vacuum pulling everything it can into space. Squidward is the first thing out, and the wizard is not far behind him.

Luckily, his weirdly sentient cloak catches him and stops, but in less than a second, he slips out of its grip. This time Peter is the one to catch him with a web as I catch his hand. All I can think to do is offer an encouraging smile and say, "Don't worry, babe. I'm not gonna slip this time."

There's a loud creak before the post I'm bracing against snaps and all three of us are being pulled closer to the expanse of space. I barely blink before spider legs expand from Peter's suit and brace against the interior of the ship to keep us from literal oblivion. "Yes!" Pete cheers before noticing what has us braced. "Wait, what are those?"

"I thought we were joking about adding those." I say to myself but mentally thank Dad for adding them anyway as Peter uses them to launch us back inside. Immediately, Dad uses the nanotechnology to close up the gap, and I barely hit the ground as Peter lands.

"You okay?" He questions as he helps me shakily stand on my own two feet. I nod and lean into his touch. "That was terrifying, but also really cool."

"I think I could go a while without doing that again." I laugh and rest my head on his shoulder. "I guess this means we're gonna have to postpone our date, huh?"

"Yeah, but we'll still have it."

Dad's suit dissipates as he approaches us, and the wizard struggles to his feet and says, "We need to turn this ship around."

"Yeah. Now he wants to run. Great plan."

"I want to protect the stone." The wizard argues, and I can't stop the frown tugging at my lips. We've come all this way to protect the stone, but something in my gut says running won't do anything. I pull away from Peter, and we share a look knowing this isn't going to go well.

"And I want you to thank us. Now, go ahead. I'm listening."

The wizard scoffs as he follows Dad towards the viewing window. "For what? Nearly blasting me into space?"

"How about not leaving you to be tortured and killed?" I sass under my breath while Dad makes his own retort.

"Why do I get the feeling this is gonna get bad really fast?" Peter asks as we watch from the sidelines as the pair argue back and forth.

"And due to that fact," Dad shouts, which grabs my attention, "we're now in a flying doughnut billions of miles from Earth with no backup."

"What am I? Last year's tech?" I interject with crossed arms.

"Yeah, we're backup."

"No, you two are stowaways." He says to Peter before looking to me, "The adults are talking."

"I'm sorry," the wizard says as he shakes his head. "I'm confused at the relationship here. What are they—your wards?"

"No," Peter replies, and I stay quiet. "I'm Peter Parker, and this is Lia."

"I'm Doctor Strange." The wizard—or 'Doctor Strange'—says, which makes Peter drop his hand.

"Oh, we're using our made-up names. In that case, I'm Spiderman."

"Phantom. It's not a pleasure to meet you." I say over my shoulder as I approach my dad to watch the space outside pass us by. "It's self-correcting. Isn't it?"

"Yeah. Thing's on autopilot."

Strange nods and asks, "Can we control it? Fly us home?" I watch as my dad begins to pace around, clearly deep in thought, and I have a feeling I know what he's thinking because I am too. "Stark."

"Yeah?" Both Dad and I reply. The moment I realize what just happened, I feel my heart stop in place while the ship keeps us sailing through space.

Strange opens his mouth to continue, but stops when he notices the look on mine and my Dad's face as we both look to Peter, who's face is slowly dawning with realization. "Wait, she's your—Mr. Stark is your dad?"

I nod, unable to trust my own voice. Dad steps closer to Peter, "Hey. Don't blame her, kid. I haven't let her tell anyone. So if you're gonna be mad at someone; be mad at me."

"Can we get back to the matter at hand for a moment? Can you fly us home?" Strange interrupts, and I continue looking at Peter, who looks at me with wide, sad eyes.

"Yeah, I heard you." Dad snaps and sighs. "I'm thinking, and I'm not so sure we should."

"Under no circumstances, can we bring the Time Stone to Thanos. I don't think you quite understand what's at stake here."

"What? No. It's you who doesn't understand." Dad accuses as he gets closer to Strange. "Thanos has been in 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. You saw what they can do. At least on his turf, they're not expecting it. So I say, we take the fight to him, Doctor."

"We have to." I chime in, still frozen in the same spot. Suddenly, everyone's attention is on me as I continue. "Dad's right. He won't expect us to come to him, and if we try to fight him on Earth, the damage he could do—the sheer number of casualties—would be unimaginable. It'd be like setting the world on fire and hoping it won't burn."

Dad nods at me before looking back at Strange. "Do you concur?"

"All right, Stark. We go to him." Strange replies, "But you have to understand, if it comes to saving you or those kids or the Time Stone, I will not hesitate to let any of you die."

"So much for a hippocratic oath, huh?" I call, and Strange sends me a glare.

"I can't. Because the universe depends on it."

"Nice. Good, moral compass. We're straight." Dad scoffs and pats Strange's arm before turning to look between Peter and I. He taps both of Peter's shoulders and says, "Kid, you're an Avenger now."

The look on Peter's face makes me forget everything for a moment. "Congrats." I tell him with a meek smile. "You're officially part of the inner most circle."

"We're Avengers." He cheers and lifts me off my feet in excitement. "This is the coolest thing that's ever happened to me. Danger aside."

"So you're not mad? About—you know, me being a Stark?"

His face falls for a second, and I can see the emotions battling in his face. "I don't think so. I mean, I know Mr. Stark told you not to, but I get it, and hopefully we can talk about it later."

I feel tears brimming in my eyes as I lean into his embrace. "If it's any consolation, you're one of a very select few who know."

"It is." Peter chuckles and rests his forehead against mine. "Not to mention, I doubt there's anything that could change my feelings for you."

"Good. 'Cause I don't think my feelings will ever change." I can't help but smile as I look up at him. "Maybe once this is all over, we can sit down I can tell you everything."

The ship begins to shake, which instantly dispels the moment Peter and I were having. "Hey, what's going on?" He calls as we approach Dad and Strange.

They're both staring out the window where strange plant life appears. "I think we're here."

"I don't think this rig has a self-park function." Dad backs up as he calls, "Get you hand inside the steering gimbal."

"Wait, wasn't this meant for the big one? I'll just shadow up and handle both."

"No, it uses too much of your energy. Just help guide us through." Dad argues as he instructs Peter on how to get his arms in the gimbal.

"Guys, we're cutting it close." I shout and activate my helmet as a rough impact becomes inevitable, "Turn. Turn. Turn!"

Strange uses his magic to create a glowing orange barrier around us, but I have a feeling it's still gonna be rough. The moment the ship hits the ground, I'm thrown forward and right into the floor so hard it knocks the breath out of me. It takes a moment to come to a skidding stop.

Dad is on the floor next to me and quickly moves to help me up, all the while, peppering me with questions to make sure I'm okay. I nod and make sure he's uninjured as well. "That was close." He sighs and turns to Strange, "I owe you one."

That moment Peter descends from the ceiling on a web and retracts his mask, "Let me just say, if aliens wind up implanting eggs in my chest or something, and I eat one of you. I'm sorry."

I can't help the laugh that escapes me, which I quickly bury as Dad points to Peter saying, "I do not want another single pop culture reference out of either of you for the rest of the trip. Understood?"

"I make no promises." I shrug and smile at Dad, which only makes him shake his head.

"I'm trying to say something's coming." Peter replies, and we don't get a chance to react before something rolls in the middle of us and explodes in a flash of light and energy that sends us flying in different directions.

I push myself up on my hands and knees to see a trio entering the ship. Everything is moving quickly as one of them rushes me with a blade before Strange's cloak wraps around his face and drops him to the ground.

Panic rises in my chest as I see one of them approaching an unconscious Peter, and I quickly run over as fast as my legs can take me. I can hear him gasp as he wakes up and begins to scramble away from her, his voice high-pitched and squeaky as he shouts and webs it up, "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Please, don't put your eggs in me!"

Once its arms are restricted, I slide in and knock its feet out from under it. Unfortunately, the third one flies in and kicks Peter in the chest knocking him down as he shouts, "Stay down, clown."

"Nice insult, terminator." I yell and hit him from behind. He quickly recovers and knocks me down and puts a foot on my chest as he continues to shoot blasts at Peter, who deftly dodges each one. That is until terminator tosses something at him that wraps bands around his body before crackling with electricity.

I'm quickly picked up from the ground with an arm wrapped around my throat to keep me from resisting as he presses his gun to my head. "Everybody stay where you are. Chill the eff out." The one holding onto me shouts before retracting his mask to reveal—a normal guy? "I'm gonna ask you this one time. Where is Gamora?"

Dad's mask retracts as he holds one blaster pointed toward my captor and the other to the alien pinned under his foot. "Yeah. I'll do you one better. Who is Gamora?"

"I'll do you one better," the grey guy counters, "Why is Gamora?"

Everyone seems to ignore the sheer oddity of the question as the one holding me speaks again, "Tell me where the girl is, or I swear to you, I'm gonna French fry this little freak."

"Takes one to know one." I mumble under my breath, which makes him tighten his grip on my throat a little bit more.

"Let's do it." Dad shouts, and even though I know he's only bluffing, it still makes me feel uncomfortable. "You shoot her, and I'll blast him. Let's go!"

His armor shifts into the super blaster, but the grey guy seems entirely unfazed as he shouts, "Do it, Quill! I can take it."

"No, he can't take it." The one that was looming over Peter shouts, still wrapped up in webs.

"She's right. You can't." Strange agrees.

"Oh, yeah? You don't want to tell me where she is? That's fine. I'll kill all three of you and beat it out of Thanos myself. Starting with you." He presses the blaster closer to my skull, and I can see Peter and Dad tensing as he does so.

"Wait, what, Thanos?" Strange stutters out, "All right, let me ask you this one time. What master do you serve?"

"What master do I serve?" Quill mocks, "What am I supposed to say 'Jesus'?"

"You're from Earth." Dad says with a deadpan expression.

"I'm not from Earth. I'm from Missouri."

"Did you not finish grade school? That's on Earth." I scoff and roll my eyes.

"What are you hassling us for?" Dad questions.

"So, you're not with Thanos?" Peter questions in a timid voice, as if one wrong move would set Quill off in the worst way.

"With Thanos?" Quill retorts in disbelief. "No, I'm here to kill him. He took my girl. Wait who are you?"

"The Avengers, aka your new best friends who also want to kill Thanos." I retort, slipping out of his grip and lowering my mask so I can give him a glare.

"You're the one Thor told us about." The girl calls.

"You know Thor?" Dad questions, and I can understand why. We haven't seen Thor for quite a while, and from what information Bruce gave us, things weren't looking good the last time anyone had seen him.

"Yeah." Quill replies, "Tall guy, not that good looking, needed saving."

I let out a scoffing laugh, "Someone's clearly jealous."

"What? Am not!" Quill shouts back. "Why would I be jealous of him?"

"Cause Thor's strong, attractive, and not as—well—round."

"Hey, I am not—" Quill starts to argue, but drops it as Strange asks if they know where Thor is now. "He went to some mythical place I can't be expected to remember the name of. Said he could get a weapon to defeat Thanos there."

"Well, if we do our job's right. Thor will have another fancy weapon for his collection that isn't blood-stained." I reply with a shrug. "We should probably go check out the rest of this place. 'Cause I don't know about you, but I want to use as much of the time we have left to find advantages for what's next."

"Kid's right. Place looked pretty desolate, but we should start getting ready." Everyone nods their heads and start to move outside.

"What the heck happened to this planet?" Quill asks to no one in particular as he holds up a weird glowing device. "It's eight degrees off its axis. Gravitational pull is all over the place."

"Really? I never would have noticed." I whisper to Peter as the girl, Mantis—if I heard correctly, jumps at least a meter and a half in the air. "I don't like it here. I've got a bad feeling, Pete."

"I do too, but we're in this together." He reminds me as his hand finds mine.

"All right, I have a plan." Dad calls as we all assemble, "Or at least the beginnings of one."

"So you have a 'pla'?"

Dad sighs and gives me a disapproving look, "What did I say about pop culture references?"

"Hey, I never promised to stop making them." I counter with a grin, to which Dad merely shakes his head and continues on.

"It's pretty simple. We draw him in, pin him down, get what we need. We definitely don't wanna dance with this guy. We just want the gauntlet." He stops as he looks to the side to see Drax with his mouth wide open in a mid-yawn. "Are you yawning? In this middle of this while I'm breaking it down, huh? Did you hear what I said?"

Drax lazily looks over and states, "I stopped listening after you said, 'we need a plan.'"

"See," Quill explains, "'not winging it' isn't really what they do."

"Um," Peter raises his hand, "what exactly is it that they do?"

"Kick names, take ass." Mantis replies, and I have to rub my temples to keep from yelling in frustration.

Dad, Peter, and I all stand there in a disbelieving silence. I can see the frustration building as he lets out a heavy sigh, and it's clearly written on his face that he's starting to doubt if we'll actually make it out of this alive. "All right, just get over here, please. Mr. Lord, can you get your folks to circle up?"

Quill quirks a smile at that, "'Mr. Lord.' Star Lord is fine."

"We gotta coalesce. 'Cause if all we come at him with is a plucky attitude—"

"Don't call us 'plucky.'" Quill interrupts. "We don't know what it means. All right, we're optimistic, yes. I like your plan. Except, it sucks, so let me do the plan, and that way it might be really good."

"I highly doubt that." I sigh and try to give them the benefit of the doubt.

"Tell him about the dance-off to save the universe."

"What dance-off?" Dad asks, and Quill only stutters out a reply.

"Wait, like in Footloose, the movie?" Peter questions, which makes Quill immediately perk up.

"Exactly like Footloose." He replies with wide, excited eyes. "Is it still the greatest movie in history?"

A laugh escapes my lips, and I end up doubled over in laughter. It abruptly stops when I see Quill's face, and I barely manage through the laughter, "Wait, you're—you're serious?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Dude, it never was." Peter replies, which makes Quill's face fall.

"Don't encourage this. All right?" Dad says as he directs me and Peter to the side. "We're getting no help from Flash Gordon."

"Now who's making pop culture references." I complain but nod in agreement anyway.

"Flash Gordon? By the way, that's a compliment." Quill interrupts. "Don't forget. I'm half human. So that fifty percent of me that's stupid; that's a hundred percent you."

"Careful, that kind of math can hurt your brain."

Quill opens his mouth to argue, but he's interrupted by Mantis. "Excuse me." We all turn to her and follow her gaze as she asks, "But does your friend do that often?"

"Strange? We all right?" Dad asks, and I approach him apprehensively, watching in worry as bands of glowing green encircle his wrist and the Time Stone open. There's a strange melody that fills my ears, but my focus is on Strange. His face looks like it's glitching as it swivels all around at impossible speeds.

Dad approaches him even further, and is there right as Strange comes out of the trance gasping and panting. "You're back. You're all right."

"What was that?" Peter asks from behind me, and I look between the panicked look on Strange's face to the Time Stone.

"You were looking at possible futures. Weren't you?" I ask, and Strange nods, still out of breath.

"I went forward to see all the possible outcomes of the coming conflict."

"How many did you see?" Quill asks the question on all of our minds.

"Fourteen million, six hundred and five." He replies, and I feel my stomach twisting as Dad asks how many we win. The look on Strange's face gives me a pretty clear idea of the answer. "Two."

Everyone takes a long moment to recover from the news, and it's only now that the Guardians seem willing to listen and formulate a plan. My heart is pounding so hard in my ears, I can barely make out what Dad's saying. The only thing keeping me focused is knowing that we can win. It's not gonna be easy, and it's highly unlikely, but we can do it.

Once the plan is all finished and everyone knows their places, I grab Peter's hand. He doesn't argue as we slip away from the group for a minute, and I think it's mostly because his nerves are as raw as mine.

I know if I tell them, they'll probably think I'm crazy, but there's this feeling—like a thought just out of reach in the back of your mind, or that realization that hits a split second before the thing actually happens—that keeps telling me I'm not gonna make it. Of course, I'm not ready to go, even if I've learned to make peace that we don't always make it out of these things. I don't want to go yet.

Still, I want to make sure I have everything off my chest in the off chance that I'm right. "What's going on? You have that look you get when something's on your mind."

"Can you blame me? There's a lot going on Pete. Not to mention, the numbers aren't in our favor." I sigh and pull him into a tight hug. "I just wanted a minute alone with you before everything starts."

"I know." He sighs and holds me close enough that I can feel his heartbeat. "Can—can you do me a favor?"

"Always." I reply and look up at him.

"If something happens, take care of May? You know, let her know I love her and—and that I'm sorry."

"I really want to tell you that you can do all that yourself, but I was actually going to have a similar conversation with you." I take a deep shaky breath and try to push back the tears. "If something happens to me, I left a file with Karen and Friday. You'll know what it is when you see it, but I've always kept it there for worst case scenarios.

"Also, in the spirit of 'no more lies,' since you know one of my huge secrets, I think it's time I told you my last one." I sigh and stare up at him, the boy I love with everything in me. "You know, I was really hoping to say this after our first date, but now, I just want to be able to say it out loud."

"Okay?" Peter asks as he keeps his hands around my waist.

"I love you. I've kind of been in love with you since before you went to Homecoming with Liz." I whisper with a hopeful smile that is slowly mirrored across Peter's face, "Also, just in case something does happen, I don't want to die without doing this."

"Without doing what?" He asks, and I only smile as I stand up on toes to press a kiss to his lips. It makes my head spin as my heart pounds, which only increases as Peter reciprocates and holds onto my waist like I could fade away any second. We eventually have to pull away to breath, and Peter rests his forehead against mine. "For the record, I love you too."

"Good. Otherwise this would have been very awkward." I laugh and press another kiss to his lips. "Also, I like your hair like this. It's all fluffy and makes you look like a prince charming."

"Does that mean you're the princess?"

"I'd prefer badass heroine who fights alongside her prince, but I'll can live with 'princess' for now." I relax under his touch.

"So, you've really been in love with me for three years without ever letting anyone know?"

"In case you haven't figured it out yet, I'm pretty good at keeping secrets." I tease and press another kiss to his lips. "Now, you know all of them, which is honestly, a relief. You have no idea how much I hate lying and keeping secrets."

"I know, and I do too." He smiles and cups my cheeks so he can give me another long kiss. "We really should get back."

"We're Avengers now, which means a lot more responsibilities, and a universe to save."

"Hey, I know the odds aren't great, but I believe in Mr. Stark's plan." He tells me with a smile as his hand finds mine. "We'll get through this, and I'm gonna take you on that date."

"Yeah, we will." I reply, but the thought still lingers. It follows me as I help work out the details of the plan and get everything in place.

My theory feels to be further proved by the fact that I keep notices Strange watching Peter, my Dad, and I with a somber expression. I know I shouldn't, but I want to ask. I wanna know if my gut's right. It's hard not to, even if doing so could completely put us on the wrong track.

There's a shift in the air, and I look to the others as we all know the same thing.

Thanos is here.