"At the dawn of the universe, there was nothing. Then, boom. The Big Bang sent six elemental crystals hurtling across the virgin universe. These Infinity Stones each control a central aspect of existence."

"Space, Reality, Power, Soul, Mind, and Time." Strange opened the necklace on his neck to show the green stone.

I marveled at it all from behind the stairs, where I had been told to stay to heal and regain strength. Thanos nearly killed me, and I'd be dead in space right now if it weren't for whoever used the Bifrost to save Bruce and I. I will be forever grateful. I'd be in their debt, but I'm smart enough to understand that person is probably dead right now.

A pang in my heart appears when I think of that. Thor. Loki. Val. Are they all gone? Those thoughts would haunt me for some time.

"Tell me his name again." Tony's voice caught my attention, and this was my entrance. I needed him to know I was here and alive because I doubt I had come up yet.

"Thanos," I said as I walked into view and into the grand entryway of the Sanctum. The others looked at me right away. Strange and Wong were annoyed I went against their wishes, Bruce was grim at our shared fear for the titan, and Tony...

He stood instantly, then hurried to be right in front of me. His hands went to my shoulders where he started to inspect me. "Oh god, what did they do to you..." he whispered. I couldn't take it anymore and pulled him into a hug. Well, the best hug I could manage with one arm.

Tony hugged me right back, lightly squeezing as if to show how relieved he was. Obviously they didn't tell him I was alive and right here. When we let go, he looked down at the useless piece of junk on my side.

"I've got another one back at the Compound... I started working on it after I got you that one just because, well, it's me we're talking about," he said to me. It was a voice low enough that only I was supposed to hear what he was saying.

I smiled, the first one I was able to get on my face since I saw...

Bruce started coming toward us. "Thanos... he's a plague, Tony. He invades planets, he takes whatever he wants, he wipes out half the population. He sent Loki." We all looked puzzled. "The attack on New York- that's him."

I remember hearing all about that, about the thousands that were killed and so many more injured. Not to mention all of those who will never be able to forget how their once normal lives changed so quickly, like flicking a light switch.

"This is it," Tony mumbled. I looked at him with sadness in my eyes. "What's our timeline?" he asked, skipping right over how scared he was to get into the planning. It's what we should be doing, considering who we're up against. Tony started to walk around as he thought.

Bruce took this one, following behind Tony. "No telling. He has the Power and Space stones. That already makes him the strongest creature in the whole universe. If he gets his hands on all six stones, Tony..."

"He could destroy life on a scale hitherto undreamt of," Strange finished. My body shivered and I crossed my arm over my stomach.

Tony put a hand on a cauldron looking thing and started to stretch his leg. "Did you seriously just say 'hitherto undreamt of'?" he questioned as he switched to the other leg.

"Are you seriously leaning on the Cauldron of the Cosmos?" Strange snapped back. My eyes rolled- their personalities didn't fit together at all. I might not be able to deal with them much longer.

Tony mumbled something as Strange's cloak slapped Tony's hand to get him off. Offended at first, Tony glanced from his hand to Strange's. "I'm going to allow that," he said. "If Thanos needs all six then why don't we just stick this one," he gestured to the Time stone, "down the garbage disposal?"

It was a good point, I thought, and was ready to agree. "No can do," Strange objected.

Wong explained. "We swore an oath to protect the time stone with our lives."

Tony didn't give a shit. "And I swore off dairy, but then Ben and Jerry's named a flavor after me," he argued.

They all argued quickly, mentioned a Hulk themed ice cream flavor but it ended with Strange proclaiming, "Our oath to protect the Time stone cannot change."

"What about a different stone?" I piped up. They all turned to me so I stepped closer. "Sure, you two swore your fancy magic oaths to protect the time stone. Fine. But why don't we destroy another stone. Are awe forgetting about a certain stone in a certain android being?"

Tony snapped his fingers and nodded. "Not bad, kid. But here's the problem... two weeks ago Vision turned off his transponder. He's offline." I watched him start walking towards me and away from the others. Not too surprised, they don't quite get along.

"What?!" Bruce snapped. "Tony you lost another super-bot?"

"I didn't lose him," he argued back. "He's more than that, he's evolving." In his defense, that was very true. I hadn't told Bruce much about that because I hadn't seen much of it in action. What I did see and know was that he was becoming more human almost. It was strange to think about it, but I knew Wanda had something to with it. They were totally crushing on each other.

Strange followed Tony a few steps behind. "Who could find Vision then?" he asked.

Tony stopped right beside me and whispered a 'shit' under his breath before looking over to me. "Probably Steve Rogers," he answered. I deflated knowing that wasn't going to happen.

"Call him," Bruce said. I looked over at him knowing damn well I had told him about the split. It wouldn't make sense that he's forgotten considering this conversation was maybe a day ago.

After hesitating, Tony turned to face Bruce. "It's not that easy," he said. "Cap and I fell out hard. We're not on speaking terms."

I put a hand on Tony's arm and he looked at me. "I could try to call him. At the very least one of the others that he's with will get him to answer. They like me a hell of a lot more than they like you right now."

He sighed and pulled the phone from his pocket. The one Steve had mailed to him. The one that proved Steve wanted to talk, it was just Tony who couldn't start the conversation. I couldn't blame him. But now was not the time.

"Thor's gone and Thanos is coming. We better get them now. Before it's too late." Bruce looked at us with a determined look and I had to stop the tears from coming. He's right- there's no way we can rely on Thor right now, not after what we saw.

There was a second of silence where no one moved. I broke it by sighing and holding my hand out. Tony looked at it, then me. I nodded to him, a silent way to say it's okay. He let out a breath then put the phone in my hand.

Using my thumb, I flipped it open to see one number in there.

Right as I was about to call it, there was a rumbling. I stopped moving and looked up. "What is it?" Tony asked. He knew I had enhanced hearing, as did Bruce. Wong and Strange were confused until it got even louder to where I knew they had all heard it, too.

I closed the phone and started to look around. When I looked at Strange, the loose hair in the front was waving around. My eyebrows furrowed and I tilted my head. What the hell was causing that?

"Strange, please tell me you're moving your hair," I whispered just loud enough for them to hear me.

"Not at the moment, no," he responded as he looked around with his eyes.

Tony and I looked at each other, then I shared a terrified look with Bruce when Tony looked up. "Oh god," I breathed, then looked at the doors.

Through the windows, we saw people running- no, sprinting away from something. There were muffled screams. I started walking to the door at a determined pace. "God, no, no, no, no," I whispered on the way.

When I got the door and flung it open, the screams became so much clearer. Cars were honking. Everyone was going in one direction, so I went the opposite. I could hear the other three following right behind me.

A lady ran right into me, nearly knocking me down. Behind me, Tony helped her up right as a car crashed next to me. "Bruce! Wong! Help them!" I called.

"Go, we got it!" Bruce called back.

I looked to Tony behind me and he nodded. Strange was behind me. We all turned the corner everyone was running around. Tony started talking to FRIDAY and Strange but I was just focused on what was ahead. I walked out into the street and stared up at the circular spaceship coming down. It was blowing everything away at top speeds, causing me to duck a couple times.

"Oh my god," I whispered, knowing who it belonged to. I just hoped and prayed he wasn't on it. Otherwise, we were goners.

Beside me, Strange started to cast a spell and then pushed his hands forward with causing an invisible force to push all the debris and wind from the ship to go up and get out of the streets. Tony had stopped a little ways ahead and looked back at the Doctor. He winked back.

"Now's not the time," I whispered under my breath to him. He merely glanced over at me and didn't say anything in response.

When Tony started to walk forward, I followed with Strange at my side and Wong slightly behind. A blue beam of light came down from the ship, with it two of Thanos' children. Creepy Nose and Big Guy.

"Hear me and rejoice," Creepy Nose started. The same words from the ship. His same stupid speech that made me want to bash his head in.

Tony interrupted him mid-speech with, "I'm sorry, Earth is closed today! You better pack it up and get outta here."

Creepy Nose stared at him, then he glanced at me, before landing on Strange. "Stonekeeper. Does this chattering animal speak for you?"

The gibe made me role my eyes. Sadly, it worked in riling Strange up. "Certainly not, I speak for myself," he snapped back as he walked forward and in front of Tony. He made gestures with his hands and then two orange disks appeared on his fists. "You're trespassing in this city and on this planet."

I decided to follow in suit and had a ball of energy in my hand, ready to throw it their way, and took some steps forward to be by Tony's side. "He means get lost, Squidward!" Tony added on. I didn't even try to stop the smirk from forming.

Creepy Nose looked back over at me. "The first time didn't go so well for you, why try again?" he asks in the most condescending tone. It makes my blood boil and I send a glare his way. "We should skip the formalities this time and I shall finish what the Titan started."

I shrugged. "You can try your hardest, but if I were to recall correctly, you did nothing," I said cooly. His words will not get to me. At this point, I was sure Thanos wasn't on that ship and we had a pretty solid chance at this fight.

He mutters something and then Big Guy comes stalking forward. Tony and Bruce started talking behind me, and I knew it was to get Hulk to come out and play. However, it wasn't working. "Dude, you're embarrassing me in front of the wizards," Tony muttered to him.

"I got this," I commented and walked forward. Turning back to look at Tony I added on one more thing. "Get suited up, will ya?"

I didn't bother to see what he did and refocused on Big Guy right in front of me. With a yell, I started to throw the energy at him, knocking him around a bit. He stumbled, unsure of what to do against me. I took my hand and made a rise motion, lifting him up high in the air. When I was about to throw him off to the side and deal with Creepy Nose, the latter used his own telepathy to knock a car into me.

I let out a pained yell and lost focus on Big Guy. He was dropped not-so gracefully to the ground while Creepy Nose used the car to hold me against the brick wall of a building. "Stay put," he demanded, and Big Guy got ready to work.

Tony got suited up and immediately took on Big Guy and easily sent him flying back towards Creepy Nose. With the hand not holding me up to a wall, he sent Big Guy off and out of his way.

When he turned his back, I yelled over. "Don't! You have to watch him at-" A piece of metal was clamped over my mouth and Creepy Nose was able to send Tony high up into the sky. Creepy Nose got to work on trying to take out the others, but luckily Wong was fast and put up a large shield to block all the trees and things being thrown.

I sat and struggled, unsure of how I was going to get out of this little... predicament. When I tried to move against it, I just felt the car get pushed harder to keep me immobile. My metal arm would've been able to get me out in a flash, but it's useless.

I watched as Tony came back, and then was off to fight Big Guy somewhere else and it was just between the wizards and Creepy Nose. Trying again, I tried to create a growing ball of energy to pry the car off of me.

Suddenly, I was on the ground. I landed with a huff and groaned at the sudden contact. Knowing that wasn't me, I looked to see what happened to Creepy Nose. He had gone off to fight against Strange.

I got up and was ready to help when a passed out Stephen Strange came flying by. "What the hell..." I mumbled, and went off after it. Using my powers to fly when I only had one working arm was difficult, but I made it doable.

As I went after, I saw Tony fighting Big Guy with...

"Peter!" I called down when he could take a moment. He looked up at me and I saw the eyes of his suit widen. Tony yelled something to the kid, and then he was following Strange with me.

"Where did you go!? You were gone for a year! Or almost a year!" Peter yelled as he swung beside me.

I was going to argue that it wasn't that long, but remembered the time discrepancy and how Sakaar was very different. That plus the fact that space itself has a lot of time weirdness. So I answered simply with, "Went to space for a bit. It's a long story that isn't that important right now!"

He understood. Right as Peter turned a corner in front of me, I saw him instantly fly back after getting hit by a billboard. Determined to get Strange, I turned the corner higher up and was ready to dodge anything thrown my way.

Creepy Nose was too focused on Strange to see that I was right above them. I looked over and saw Peter up ahead as well and watched as he grabbed Strange after he was flung out of this magic cloak thing. Now, it was time to deal with this creep.

I brought myself down right tin front of him and kicked him hard in the side. "Miss me?" I asked in a sickly sweet voice and continued my assault.

"Enough," he grumbled out and tossed me to the side. After bouncing off a car, I was back on the ground. He looked ahead then down at me with an evil grin. "You're too late."

My eyebrows scrunched together and then I looked over and saw a blue beam coming from the spaceship. And in that blue beam I saw Strange and Peter getting sucked up. "No!" I yelled. I was ready to jump up and go, but Creepy Nose wrapped a metal bar from the street around my ankle and I couldn't get up and out. Not without my metal arm.

"Peter!" I screamed again. He couldn't hear me, it was too late. Creepy Nose just smiled again and followed after the ship and went inside. "Shit," I breathed. My ankle finally was freed and I quickly tried to fly up after it.

Tony was doing the same. "Rey, stay on the ground! It's too dangerous for you to be flying like this with only one arm working!" he called over to me.

He was right, and he knew I knew he was. "Promise me you'll get them!" I yelled back. It was my way of admitting defeat and agreeing to stay down. He nodded, and then blasted up into the sky.

After a certain point, I couldn't see much and that included Tony, Peter, and Stephen. I never saw them come back down and back to Earth. My chest sagged when I finally knew they weren't coming back down. That they were going to space. Possibly even to Thanos himself.

"Rey!" a voice to my right called. I looked over and saw Wong making a portal and Bruce on the other side. He stepped out and came up to me, holding his hand out. "We have to call them. Now." In his hand was the flip phone.

Wong gave a solitary nod and then closed the portal, possibly going to guard the Sanctum during the absence of the Sorcerer Supreme and the Time stone.

Taking the phone from Bruce, I took a deep breath and prepared for what was going to happen. I opened it up and resumed what I had been doing earlier. Not wanting to waste more time I pressed call.

"Tony?"

"Not quite..."