Whatever It Takes
******
2023: Future Timeline
Mischief teleported around the battlefield, throwing knives and shooting electric discs from her gauntlets. She pushed her jaw-length blonde hair out of her face as she turned her head in every which way to find Peter. Her boyfriend had a habit of getting into too much trouble despite the last five years of training they endured to keep themselves sane after the Decimation disintegrated most of their friends and family. Maisie took a moment to feel relief wash through her when she found him.
Peter noticed the look and shot another web grenade at a pack of the alien dogs, "Stop worrying about me, Maiz."
"I'll stop if you stop," Maisie shot back. "Don't let yourself get distracted."
Peter grunted as he used one of his Iron Spider legs to stab three alien dogs at once, smirking cheekily, "Love you."
Maisie teleported away, "Love you, too."
Mischief tore into the battle, destroying several aliens at once. She pictured Natasha's face as she fell down the cliff at Vormir as she maneuvered her blades in the way the woman taught her, and it pushed her forward. She tried not to think about it, but the image of Thanos' ship emerging from the sky as she, Clint, and Nat arrived on Vormir almost mirrored the haunting scene before her. Luckily back then, they had Carol for backup. Where was that overpowered woman now?
Doctor Strange would've been a big help if he weren't so focused on keeping the tsunami out of the fight so it wouldn't drown everyone, but it's not like Maisie could complain too much. She watched as Wanda tore apart several of Thanos' aliens while holding the red shield above her, keeping herself and others around her safe from the cannon fire. Maisie tried not to marvel too much about how badass it was.
Landing beside her, the two young women fought side by side.
Maisie turned to her, unable to help herself, "You're really, really cool."
Wanda had been dusted, along with Rhodey, Sam, and Bucky, something Maisie found out while getting over the loss of May, Peter's aunt, and Pepper. Even losing her father in the Snap had a harder impact on Maisie than she thought, and she winced every time she thought about reading his name among the list of the missing.
"Thanks," Wanda's mouth tilted into a reserved smile, and she threw her red magic over Maisie's head, intercepting an alien. Her eyes glowed red as she responded, "You're cool, too."
Maisie smiled despite the circumstances, and the two jumped back into the war. After a moment of fighting together, the cannon fire subsided. The two young women exchanged confused looks and turned their heads upward to see the cannons turned toward something in the distance.
"What the hell is this?" Sam Wilson's voice over the comms asked.
Mischief teleported away after a moment, unable to wait around after seeing one of the Masters of the Mystic Arts coming under a bit of pressure, and she continued the pattern, moving to wherever anyone needed help. She saved countless lives by popping in and cutting down alien dogs, giving its opponent enough time to gather their bearings before resuming their attack.
It would only be a matter of time before she was too late.
Maisie watched as Thanos fought one versus one against Tony on the far end of the battlefield. She'd only been looking for less than a second before she watched Thanos shove a massive sword right through Tony's heart. At the sight, she felt her own stop completely.
"N-No..." she choked out, bile rising in her throat.
By the time she got there, Tony was already gone. His eyes stared transfixed on something standing behind her. She dropped her knives at her feet before rushing to his side, reaching forward to find any source of life. She wasn't ready to give up hope yet.
"Tony..." Pepper cried. "Oh, God..."
Pepper had only been back from the Snap for the small amount of time it took for her to join this battle. Maisie wasn't even sure Tony got the chance to talk to her after five whole years of missing her. Maisie's hands were shaking as she slowly pulled the sword from Tony's chest.
Standing and watching the scene unfold with a smirk on his face was Thanos, knowing that regardless of what happened next, he'd won.
"Tony?" Peter's voice was fragile from where he landed next to them. He sounded less like the twenty-two year old man he had become over the past five years, and more like the sixteen year old he was when the rest of the world turned to dust. He stared with confused, disbelieving eyes at his father figure's body.
The long blade was ripped from Maisie's hands as though pulled magnetically away from her. It landed in Thanos' grasp, and the distracted, grief-stricken Peter didn't have much time to react regardless of his spidey-sense. Thanos sliced at his arm, but the boy ducked just in time, the sword only grazing the Iron Spider armor.
Ebony Maw had better luck. The alien used his telekinesis to send Maisie's discarded knives straight into Peter's chest with enough force to lodge deep past his suit's protections.
Maisie felt the world shift on its axis as Peter went down. She couldn't believe it, she wouldn't. She teleported and caught Peter before his head could hit the ground. Knowing she was likely the next target, she teleported them again, all the way across the battlefield.
"P-Peter, I—" she couldn't breathe, staring down at him. She sucked in short breaths of air as though it were poison.
Peter's eyes were wide and frantic, "Discon—disconnect s-suit."
Maisie watched in confused terror as the suit retracted, leaving just him laying in the middle of the battlefield. He fumbled around in his pocket, slow in his movements.
"Peter, w-what are you—" Maisie cried, holding pressure to his wound, tears clouding her eyes. She wasn't sure if Peter were in shock, but she was sure that she was when he pulled out a small black box from his pocket, pressing it into her hand.
Blood stained Peter's lips and his eyes shone with sadness as he looked at her. For a moment, Maisie saw the young Spider-Man she fell in love with those years ago.
"I-It's a promise...I promise—" Peter choked out, eyes brimming with tears. "I love you, M-Maisie, I'm sorry..."
Then, Peter Parker was gone, too.
Maisie was trembling, leaning down to hold Peter close to her. She cried for a long time, it could've been days for all she knew, when she felt Wanda come over and pull her back. Looking around, it seemed that she'd dealt with Ebony Maw already, but Maisie lacked any kind of strength for revenge.
In the span of a day, she lost Natasha, Tony, and Peter: her entire world for the past five and a half years.
Her hands were shaking as she tore her eyes away from Peter's body to look at the small black box. Slowly, she opened it, dreading what she'd see inside. A simple, oval diamond rested atop a silver band. A promise of a future she'd never have.
She took it out, tears quietly falling down her cheeks as she placed it on her finger. Maisie was unsurprised to see it fit perfectly.
"Mischief!" a voice called. Doctor Strange stood a distance away, looking the most frantic she'd seen him.
Maisie could barely comprehend his words until suddenly he was standing beside her, shaking her shoulders roughly.
"You saw what happened here," he composed his words, speaking very carefully. "You saw how it ends. This isn't the one we win. Go. You need to find the one when we do."
Her eyes widened at his words. She felt horrible. Her body was wracked with bruises and cuts, and her eyes burned with tears. She didn't want to leave. She couldn't leave them.
"What am I supposed to do?" she whimpered, balling her ring hand into a fist. She felt the diamond on her hand, and her heart sank even lower into her stomach. Peter...
"Something only you can do," Strange replied, stepping back. "Make a different reality."
The man jumped back into the fight, taking down several aliens at once in order to keep them away from Maisie.
She was confused. Make a different reality? Maisie remembered Doctor Strange's knowledge of the Time Stone; did he mean for her to go back in time?
Every time she'd gone back in time before, it had only been for a few hours, and even still, and there was always something different about the world she stepped into. Back when she saved Evelyn--years ago--she'd created a new timeline. She'd created a whole new reality, just like Doctor Strange had said. Going back weeks? She might not end up in the same universe at all.
Still, a flicker of hope started in her heart. Maybe she could save everyone.
"Go! Now!" Strange commanded.
Maisie looked across the battlefield where Wanda and Pepper fought, Tony's body laying on the ground near them, and Peter's own serene face looking up at the sky. She was brought back to reality when she saw Thanos charging at her with his sword swinging by his side. Her features morphed into fury, and she knew in that moment she'd never let him win.
With that, she teleported back to the beginning.
******
2023: Current Timeline
Maisie's feet touched down on the hard tile she recognized as the Avengers Compound. There was an eerie silence around the building, and she pushed away the thought of the Decimation. Looking around, the young woman retracted her nano-suit and tried to find any indication of a date. If she time-traveled correctly (and, honestly, it was a gamble every time), she should've arrived as Scott finally appeared, five years after the Decimation, at the compound with an idea for time travel.
Her feet padded quietly across the compound floor, and the sound of a few voices reached her ears. Maisie's heart started to beat faster as she recognized it: Natasha was here. And, she was alive. A relieved smile broke out on her face at the news.
"Stop right there," a commanding voice interrupted her revelation. "Who are you, and how did you get in here?"
Maisie slowly turned around, "Cap?"
Steve Rogers took a step back in shock, disbelieving, "You're..."
"Maisie," she replied, feeling awkward. "I guess we never really met after you ditched me and Natasha in that Leipzig airplane hangar."
"That was you?" Steve furrowed his brows. "They told me you didn't make it..."
The man looked confused, then suspicious. His fists clenched for a moment, but then, he seemed to realize something. Maisie watched as his eyes filled with hope, and she knew he was thinking about the people he lost in the Snap. She just hoped that nothing already changed too much in this timeline that she couldn't work to fix it. According to Cap's reaction to her, here, she hadn't even survived Thanos' snap.
"I need to talk to you, er, anyone that hasn't been snapped," Maisie announced. Her eyes lit with panic, "Tony's here, alive, right? He didn't get—"
"No, he's fine," Steve replied gruffly, shrugging. "He's retired."
Maisie frowned, "We'll see about that."
Steve nodded, still suspicious. He only looked more confused as he noticed the diamond ring on Maisie's left hand. She frowned, moving it out of sight with a heavy heart.
"Let's go talk to Nat," she mumbled, following the sound of her voice.
Steve walked ahead of Maisie, something she thought was probably best. The way Steve was talking, Maisie assumed that in this timeline, she'd been dusted. She almost envied this version of herself, living without the pain of watching her friends and family disintegrate in front of her eyes and leaving her still standing.
The two entered the room where Natasha sat at a dining table, staring at a holographic screen in front of her. The sound of muffled crying caused Maisie to stop in her tracks; was Natasha crying? In all the five years Maisie spent closely with her, she'd never cracked in front of her.
Steve's face morphed to match Nat's, finally making himself known, "I would've offered to make you dinner, but you seem pretty miserable already."
Nat pulled herself together, a bitter smile crossing her features, "You here to do your laundry?"
"And to see a friend," Steve shrugged. "I brought a gift."
Steve stepped out of the way, revealing Maisie, bruised and beaten up, standing in the doorway. The change on Natasha's face was instantaneous. Her sadness diminished, replaced by confusion and disbelief.
"Maisie, right?" she asked, getting to her feet.
"H-Hey, Nat," she replied.
Maisie almost couldn't believe how lucky she was to see Natasha again. After Vormir, the Avengers lost all hope of getting the woman back. Her eyes welled up with tears, but for the first time that day, they were happy ones.
"How are you here?" Natasha took a step forward, eyes calculating. The woman looked to Steve for help, but he only shrugged.
Maisie didn't hesitate, throwing herself into the older woman's arms, whispering, "It's kind of a long story."
Natasha stared at Steve in shock over the younger's shoulder, awkwardly patting her on the back, "You're okay, kid."
"I wish I could explain everything... but I'm not so sure that I should—" Maisie replied, running a hand through her short blonde hair. She paused then, staring into Natasha's confused, unrecognizing eyes, and she froze in realization, "You—I forgot. Your Maisie, she dusted... which means..."
Their late night training sessions that turned into movie nights, their long talks that turned into Maisie crying into her shoulder, and the entire relationship they built together over five years of their pain and suffering turned into hope—none of it had happened, not for Natasha. Not in this timeline.
A request for a message popped up on the screen in front of Natasha, interrupting Maisie's scattered and depressing thoughts, and she waved it through with a swift flick of her hand. The beeping stopped, and the screen showed a confused and slightly frantic Scott Lang standing next to an ugly brown van.
"Uh, hi? Is anyone home?" the man asked, sighing. "This is Scott Lang, we met a few years ago? At the airport in Germany? I got really big, and I had my mask on... You probably wouldn't recognize me."
Steve's eyes widened, looking from Maisie to the message, "Is this an old message?"
"It's the front gate," Natasha replied, disbelieving. She looked back at Maisie, and the younger woman was afraid Natasha was hoping that everyone who'd been snapped was suddenly coming back.
The two Avengers let Scott in through the gate, and Steve went to go retrieve him from the front door.
"Look," Natasha turned to Maisie, all business, as soon as Steve left the room, "I understand not wanting to talk about what happened, it was pretty traumatic for everyone involved. But, you don't look like you've been... dust. Where have you been for the past five years, little one?"
Maisie stared at her. Her mouth opened and closed as she searched for an answer, but she had none besides the truth.
"I-I'm not the Maisie that dusted," she finally said. Natasha's brows furrowed, but she didn't speak, waiting for her to continue. "I'm from the future, um... a different future. I'm here because—"
"We lost," Natasha understood immediately.
Maisie nodded slowly, "Yeah."
"So, you're here to make sure we don't," Natasha responded. The famous Black Widow was taking this new information with surprising ease.
"I'm here to do the best I can to make sure we win," Maisie agreed. A determined look crossed her face, and Natasha's lips twitched at the sight of it. "I can fix it, I know I can. If I get the chance."
Natasha gave her a small nod, "Well, I'm glad to hear it."
Loud footsteps interrupted their moment, and Maisie reluctantly looked away from the woman who accidentally became one of the most important people in her life in another timeline. She didn't even realize that a tear escaped down her cheek until she wiped it away.
"Oh, jeez, did I just interrupt something?" a nervous voice asked. Scott Lang winced as he saw them, "I definitely did, God, I'm sorry..."
"Just tell us about your idea, Ant-Man," Maisie crossed her arms, raising an eyebrow.
Scott's eyes widened, "You're the teleporting one, right? With the purple, uh..."
"Also, I know about time-travel," Maisie pushed the conversation forward, "which I have a feeling is on topic with what you're about to suggest."
Steve turned to Maisie in surprise, and Scott looked taken aback.
"Er, yeah. How'd you know?" Scott wondered aloud.
"I just told you I know about time-travel, didn't I?" Maisie replied easily. "Now, go on."
Scott reluctantly looked away from her, locking eyes with Natasha and Steve, "Er, do any of you study Quantum Physics?"
Maisie shrugged as Natasha replied, "Only in mid-conversation."
"Alright. So... five years ago, right before Thanos, I was in a place called the Quantum Realm," the other three looked at him in confusion. Scott sighed and continued, "The Quantum Realm is like its own microscopic universe. To get in there, you have to be incredibly small. Hope, she's my... She was my..." Scott winced, continuing. "She was supposed to pull me out. And then Thanos happened, and I got stuck in there."
"I'm sorry," Steve spoke up, "that must've been a pretty long five years."
"Yeah, but that's just it," Scott explained. "For me, it was only five hours."
Steve and Nat exchanged bewildered expressions.
Maisie sighed, looking down at her ring on her finger, "I'll be right back."
Natasha watched with slight hesitation as Maisie left the room, but she turned back to Scott as he continued the explanation of his time-traveling idea.
******
Maisie found her old room easily. She took off her nanosuit, placing its housing unit on the far wall. She then took off her torn jeans and long sleeved shirt; Maisie was still bleeding in a couple places from the fight back in her own timeline. Most of the clothes in her closet should still fit her; she hadn't grown much in the past few years. She threw on a black zip-up and grey joggers in an attempt to regain some form of comfort.
Her phone was destroyed in the compound when it exploded back in her own timeline, but it wasn't hard to find one in her room. She dialed a number she knew by heart, and waited patiently for it to ring.
"Hello?" a woman's voice answered the phone.
Maisie froze, "H-Hi?"
"Who is this?" the woman continued, sounding confused and somewhat bothered by the call.
"Um, my name is Maisie," she replied. "I was looking for Peter Parker."
"Who?" the voice asked, confused.
"Peter Parker," Maisie continued, sighing. "Is he there?"
"I'm sorry, you must have the wrong number, unless..." the woman's voice sounded unsure.
"Unless what?" she asked, an uneasy feeling settling in her stomach.
"Honey, this number used to belong to someone who's gone," the New York accent drifted through the receiver full of sympathy.
Maisie clenched her jaw shut, "Thank you. Sorry to bother you."
"Oh, it's no bother, sweet—" but Maisie had already hung up.
In all her planning of the timeline being different when going back in time, Maisie really didn't consider Peter turning to dust during the Snap to be an option. Pure, unchecked hope will do that to a person. Now, she had to fix the timeline without him.
This mission just became significantly harder.
Maisie was silent. She didn't know how she had any tears left in her, but she felt a few roll down her cheek. She stared at the wall in front of her, trying to digest the fact that there was no Peter at all in this world either. Maisie knew they'd get him back, but there was nothing she could do about her own Peter. When Peter finally came back, he'd still be sixteen, having no understanding what happened after Thanos snapped his fingers.
Her Peter was gone, and she had to move on in order to help save the rest of the universe. The promise ring sat depressingly on her finger, mocking her with its beauty.
"Maisie," Steve poked his head in the room, "we're leaving now."
She wiped her face again, turning around, "Where are we going?"
Steve sighed, "To see an old friend."
Maisie watched him with calculating eyes, and she knew then who they were going to see.
"You and Tony are still friends, then?" the girl raised an eyebrow.
Steve frowned, but there was an edge to his voice that let her know that he wasn't too oblivious to what she was insinuating, "What's that supposed to mean?"
Maisie stared at him. It wasn't a secret that the two had a falling out, and she'd been there when they reunited back on Earth after the Snap. She and Peter had Tony's back through it all, especially when he found out that Pepper was gone. She'd stand by him until the end, and Steve Rogers lost his privilege to do that a long time ago.
"I'll wait by the car," she replied stiffly as she left her room.
******
The truck pulled up to a small log cabin in the woods, and Maisie smiled. She spent two of the five years after the Decimation in this cabin: Tony's little slice of nowhere. She and Peter both lost their primary caregivers in Thanos' snap; he lost May, and Maisie lost her father, (not that he was providing any care for her anyway). Even Tony lost Pepper, the closest person to him. The three clung to one another for those five years, and although Peter and Maisie eventually moved away for college (albeit a year later than usual), this place was their home, at least for a bit.
Maisie got out of the car first, looking excitedly at the door. She wanted to see Tony since the moment she realized she was too slow to save him. Despite knowing he was alive in this timeline, the blank look on her Tony's face after he died would haunt her forever. She stepped up to the porch, taking a deep breath. It stopped in her throat when she saw a princess doll laying on the ground. Slowly, she bent down to pick it up, staring in confusion.
"Tony, we need to talk to you," Natasha said, speaking from behind her.
Maisie turned around to see Tony in the front yard, holding a small child in his arms.
"Oh my God," she breathed, eyes brightening at the sight of the girl clinging to him.
"Fine, just let me pass off the kid—" Tony stopped, finally noticing Maisie on his front porch.
"Daddy, who's that?" the little girl's voice squeaked out. Maisie's eyes shone, already loving her.
"T-That's... Maisie," Tony said softly. He couldn't believe that she was there after those five years; Maisie was standing on his front porch.
"The one from the pictures!" the little girl beamed, squirming to get out of Tony's arms. He set her down, still staring in shock, and she bounded up to Maisie in excitement. "Hi!"
"H-Hello," Maisie bent down, taking her eyes off of Tony for a moment, "what's your name?"
"I'm Morgan H. Stark," the girl replied proudly. "And you're Maisie!"
"That's right," Maisie nodded, smiling in pride.
So, Tony put up some pictures of her even though she and Peter hadn't ever been in his care following the Snap. She felt her heart ache at the thought of this little girl and not being there to see her grow up.
"Daddy said you're like his second daughter," Morgan commented, too casually for that grand of a statement.
She looked past the girl's brown hair and locked eyes with Tony. The man simply shrugged, jaw hanging open and unable to provide her with any clarification. He was still coming to terms with her sudden appearance.
"Tony, what's going on?" a voice called from inside the house, and a strawberry blonde haired woman opened the front door. Pepper stood in the doorway, eyes wide. "Maisie?"
"Pepper," Maisie beamed and stood up from hugging Morgan, stepping into Pepper's arms, hugging her close. "I missed you."
Tony seemed to have finally broken from his stupor and stared at Maisie, "Maisie McCall, get your ass over here right now."
The blonde choked out a laugh and jumped into Tony's open arms, "Sorry, you were just a little frozen there."
"And for a good reason," Tony eventually let her go, staring still in disbelief. "How are you here? Is Peter—"
"Just me," Maisie tried not to let her own sadness seep into her voice. "And, that's what we're here to talk to you about."
Tony turned to look at Natasha, Steve, and Scott, who rightfully decided to stand back and leave the group to their reunion. Maisie winced as Tony's expression shifted into one of stone as he looked at Steve.
Pepper seemed to notice the change, taking Morgan by the hand, "I'll be inside. Lunch is almost ready."
"What's up?" Tony asked, resigned to his fate. He settled in a rocking chair on his porch, waiting for the three to come to him.
Steve looked at Scott, ushering him forward to explain. Maisie crossed her arms as Scott told Tony of his experience in the Quantum Realm and the possibility of using it to go back in time and change what had already happened. She wasn't present the first time Scott explained the time traveling idea back in her own timeline, but he didn't make it sound very feasible in this one. Though, Maisie figured, it probably didn't take much to convince Tony to help when he lost Pepper.
Scott stopped, sighing, "Now, we know what it sounds like..."
"Tony, after everything you've seen, is it really impossible?" Steve asked, crossing his arms. Maisie felt the urge to roll her eyes.
Tony sniffed, shaking his head, "Quantum fluctuation messes with the Planck scale, which then triggers the Deutsch proposition," Maisie's mouth twitched as he shrugged. "Can we agree on that?"
Scott, Steve, and Natasha looked puzzled, but Maisie simply nodded, understanding the basic concepts of what he was talking about. Unfortunately, that didn't bode well for his answer.
"Thank you," Tony gestured at Maisie. "In layman's terms, it means you aren't coming home."
"I did," Scott protested.
"No, you accidentally survived," Tony replied, frowning. "It's a billion to one cosmic fluke. And now, you wanna pull off a... what'd you call it?"
Scott paused for a moment, wincing as he replied, "Time heist?"
"Yeah, a time heist," Tony sighed. "Of course! Why didn't we think about this before? Oh, wait, because it's laughable? Because it's a pipe dream?"
"The stones are in the past, we can go get them!" Scott argued.
Maisie turned around to face the cabin, hiding her confusion; why wasn't Tony agreeing to at least try?
"We can snap our own fingers," Natasha pushed. "We can bring them all back."
The younger woman stared through the window and saw Pepper smiling brightly at her daughter as she set the table. Then, it clicked. He didn't want to risk the life he built in the five years since the Snap. He'd moved on. Maisie's heart sunk to the pit in her stomach, wondering if her plan would work after all.
"Or, screw it up worse than he already has, right?" Tony objected.
Steve spoke again, "I don't believe we would."
Tony scoffed, "Gotta say, sometimes I miss that giddy optimism."
He stood up and walked over to Maisie, placing a hand on her shoulder. She turned away from the cabin window and looked up at him with pleading eyes. Tony's features softened, but he remained convinced.
"However, high hopes won't help if there's no logical, tangible way for me to safely execute said time heist," he continued, turning to look back at Steve. "I believe the most likely outcome would be our collective demise."
"Not if we strictly follow the rules of time travel!" Scott responded, shaking his head. "That means no talking to our past selves, no betting on sporting events—"
Maisie rolled her eyes, turning to interrupt him, "You're not seriously using 'Back to the Future' as your reference for time travel, are you?"
"Well, what makes you an expert?" Scott defended, crossing his arms.
She stared at him for a moment, sure that her face showed every ounce the irritation she felt, "The fact that I'm a time traveler, Scott."
"A what?" Tony's surprise evident on his face.
"Tony," Natasha interrupted, forcing Tony's shock at Maisie's words to be set aside for the moment. "We have to take a stand."
He sighed, shaking his head, "We did stand. And, here we are."
"I know you got a lot on the line. You got a wife, a daughter, er, two daughters?" Scott awkwardly looked to Maisie, and she sighed and shook her head, frustrated with how this was going. "But I lost someone very important to me. A lot of people did. And now, now we have a chance to bring her back. Bring everyone back. And you're telling me that won't even—"
"That's right, Scott. I won't even," Tony replied easily. Maisie had to look away. "I can't. I've got a kid—"
As if on cue, Morgan ran out onto the porch and into her father's arms, "Mommy told me to come and save you."
"Good job, I'm saved," Tony picked her up. He sighed, looking at Maisie, "I wish you'd come here to ask me something else. Anything else. Honestly, I... I missed you," he glanced sideways at the rest of them, "all of you. The table can be set for seven..."
"Tony, I get it, and I'm happy for you, I really am," Steve took a step forward. "But this is a second chance."
"I got my second chance right here, Cap," Tony held Morgan closer. "I can't roll the dice again. If you don't talk shop, you can stay for lunch."
"Da—Tony," Maisie winced, accidentally letting the word slip. "Can we talk?"
If the man noticed her slip up, he didn't mention it, "Uh, sure."
Steve, Nat, and Scott looked like they wanted to follow, but Maisie sent them a look, "I'll see you back at the compound."
Natasha was the last to head back to the car, giving Maisie a stiff nod. Tony put Morgan back on the ground and told her to go help Pepper set the table.
"What's up, Little Red?" Tony frowned at her hair after a moment. "Though I guess that red stuff in your hair is long gone—"
"Tony, I'm not the Maisie that dusted five years ago," she stated simply, interrupting his rambling. "I came back from a future, a timeline where it's different," Maisie frowned, looking down at her hands. "A timeline where everyone I cared about didn't make it. Your Maisie, your Peter... they're still gone."
Tony's mouth opened and closed, unsure of what to say.
"And so is my Tony," her lip trembled as she spoke. "But, I came back here to fix what went wrong before, and we can't do it without your help. I know you have Pepper and Morgan, and I know that you probably didn't even miss Peter and me when you had all this, but—"
"I missed you," Tony interrupted. His eyes were hard, defensive. "I tried to protect you and Pete..." his voice sounded scratchy, and he shook his head. "You two reminded me so much of me and Pep. To watch you two go before you even had a chance to live..."
Maisie looked down at her left hand, smiling with a mix of fondness and sadness, "If it makes you feel any better..."
Tony's eyes finally landed on Maisie's ring, and he froze, "Is that? But, you're in high school—"
"I'm twenty-three years old, Tony," she couldn't help the smirk. "In my timeline, Peter and I didn't get all dusty... and we grew up. If it makes you feel better, I think it's a promise ring."
His smile returned, "Your Tony was pretty lucky, then."
Maisie shrugged, eyes impassive, "In my timeline, Pepper dusted instead of us, so you can decide how lucky he really was."
Tony's eyes widened, and his heart sank, "Pepper was gone?"
Maisie nodded, "She was the reason you decided to help with Scott's plan. Pete and I came back to help, too. It was the easiest decision of our lives to help you get her back."
The man looked down, unable to make eye contact with her.
She frowned, not wanting him to feel guilty, "And, I'd do it again. Even if you hadn't asked, Peter and I would've been here in a heartbeat, literally, with my teleportation, we could've been here in that time."
"I know," Tony scoffed. "This, coming from the girl who teleported onto a spaceship after her friend—"
"At least it wasn't a cliff," Maisie smiled softly.
Tony pursed his lips, hesitating, "I-I can't lose this. I can't lose them. Not after everything that's happened..."
"I know," Maisie nodded, looking down in understanding. "After everything that's happened, you of all people deserve this."
She stood up, taking a look around the porch and out into the yard. She couldn't disrupt his world, for what? Herself? For her own selfish desire to see Peter again? No, Tony had done more than enough for this world, and he'd never gotten the recognition or reward he deserved. Maisie sniffed, wiping her nose with her sleeve. Finally, she turned back to Tony in his rocking chair, looking much older than he really was.
"I'm sorry I couldn't save Peter," she finally said, fumbling with her ring. "I could've done better, and I'm sorry."
Tony looked like he was going to argue, but her teleportation cut him off.
Maisie landed at the Avengers Compound, standing outside the door. She only took one step before she collapsed, falling to her knees as her breath left her lungs. Panicking and trying to grasp the composure she wasn't sure she had anymore, the only thought running through her head was what was she going to do now?
******
The next day, Steve, Natasha, and Scott showed up with none other than Bruce Banner in tow. Well, sort of.
After Thanos' snap, the man merged both his identities as the Hulk and Bruce Banner into one being. Now, he looked the part of the "big green rage monster," but he had the mind of the man with seven PhDs. Maisie took some time adjusting to the change back in her own timeline, so she was unsurprised by his appearance upon his arrival.
She spent the rest of the day after returning from Tony's house in a state of panic. In her old timeline, it took Tony mere seconds to decide to help save Pepper. Despite her constant talking to herself about how it made sense and Tony was perfectly right in receiving some sort of life after all he'd endured, Maisie couldn't help but feel hurt by his decision. She kicked herself for thinking she and Peter meant more to Tony than they actually did, but, then again, this Tony never spent five years with them as their guardian.
The fact that Tony decided to not risk his daughter's life meant that the timeline where they win was unattainable. Without the time travel tech, they had no way of getting the stones. Maisie considered using her own powers several times, but she knew she had no way of ensuring her return to the same timeline after she collected the stones. Everything seemed to be falling apart.
Worst of all, she really missed Peter.
Natasha knocked on the door to her bedroom, something that Maisie found surprising considering the circumstances. The woman was all business when she entered, however.
"We're about to run a test on Bruce's tech," Natasha informed, leaning against the door frame. "If you could come? Maybe give us some tips on time-traveling?"
Maisie gave her a small smile, "I don't think I'd be much help."
"You never know," Nat shrugged. "Come on, this could really work."
Maisie doubted it, knowing that Quantum Physics wasn't exactly Bruce's area of expertise.
"Okay," she agreed anyway, standing up from her bed.
She followed Natasha down to a lab in the compound. Maisie winced, blinking her eyes to adjust to the pouring of natural light into the room from outside. The wall was lined with windows all the way up to the ceiling, and a setup of machinery sat in the middle of the room. She was surprised to see an ugly brown van set up near the machine.
"What's that doing here?" she asked, crossing her arms.
"It's the Quantum Tunnel," Scott answered, moving out from behind the van. He was wearing something that resembled a space suit, and Maisie smirked at his awkward appearance. "It's what I was stuck in for those five years, or hours, in my case."
"So, that's what it looks like," Maisie shrugged. "Not as impressive as ours, but still kinda cool that you managed to put it in a van..."
Scott paused, "Thanks, I think?"
Maisie nodded, amused, and stepped back in line with Natasha who held a clipboard tightly in her hands. Steve appeared on Nat's other side, waiting for Bruce to finish with his preparations. They looked so hopeful. Maisie frowned.
"Okay, here we go," Bruce pushed the glasses up his nose and fumbled with the machinery a bit more. "Time travel test number one. Scott, fire up the, uh, van thing."
Scott followed the instructions, and Steve spoke up, "Breakers are set, and the emergency generators are on stand-by."
"Good, because if we blow the grid, I don't wanna leave Tiny here back in the 1950s," Bruce said, not as quietly as he would've hoped.
Steve, Nat, and Scott sent him a horrified look, but Maisie just snorted.
Bruce waved them off with a nervous laugh, "It was a bad joke."
Scott went back to preparing himself for the test run, and Nat turned to Bruce, "You were kidding, right?"
Bruce lowered his voice again, "I have no idea. We're talking about time travel here. Either it's all a joke, or none of it is!" he pressed a few buttons and gave Scott a thumbs up. Natasha and Steve sent a panicked smile at Scott which he did not find very comforting. "We're good! I'm gonna send you back a week, let you walk around for an hour, then bring you back in ten seconds. Makes sense?"
"Perfectly not confusing," Scott mumbled, sighing.
"Good luck, Scott," Steve spoke, his usual confident, leader voice filling the room. "You've got this."
"You're right, I do, Captain America," Scott nodded, looking like a newfound purpose entered his life.
"On the count of three," Bruce said, finger hovering over the button. "One, two, three!"
He pressed the button, and Scott disappeared into the Quantum Tunnel, then, Bruce waited for ten seconds, and pulled a lever to bring him back. Instead of Scott returning, however, the group found a teenager standing in his place.
"Uh, guys? This doesn't feel right," a young voice sounded nervous.
"That... who is that?" Nat asked, staring at the teenage boy.
Bruce went back to his machine, pressing several buttons, "Hold on."
"Oh my God, is that Scott?" Maisie wasn't sure if she should be panicking or not, but objectively, it was kinda funny.
"Yes, it's Scott!" Teen Scott yelled, his voice went up an octave, and Maisie pretended not to have noticed the slight voice crack.
The Quantum Tunnel zapped, and Teen Scott was gone, replaced by an old man.
"Ow, my back!" the old man complained.
"What is this?" Steve turned to Bruce, stepping closer to the control panel.
"Can I get some space here?" Bruce asked, pushing his glasses up his nose.
"Yeah, yeah," Steve stepped back. "Can you bring him back?"
"I'm working on it!" Bruce snapped back. He pressed several more buttons and looked hopefully at the Quantum Tunnel.
Instead of the old man again, a baby sat on the ground inside the suit made for an adult. Maisie's eyes widened.
"That's a baby," Steve said, deadpan.
"It's Scott!" Bruce tried.
Maisie and Natasha exchanged looks of disbelief and annoyance, wondering how they got themselves into this situation.
"As a baby," Steve continued.
"He'll grow!"
"Okay, bring Scott back," Maisie ordered. Her eyes were blazing, and Bruce didn't argue.
"When I say kill the power," Bruce said to Nat, "kill the power."
"Oh my God," Natasha mumbled, moving quickly to the generators.
"And..." Bruce flipped a few switches then pressed a button, "now!"
Natasha pulled the lever, and everything shut down. The Quantum Tunnel van spat out another person, and the group breathed a sigh of relief seeing it was the normal Scott. Maisie took one look at him and turned on her heel, heading toward the door leading to the lawn.
Maisie clenched her hands into fists at her side, resisting the urge to punch the columns of solid concrete in front of her in anger.
"We'll figure it out," a solemn voice said behind her. Steve Rogers had followed her outside. Maisie rolled her eyes, wondering when she'd ever get a moment of peace. "Whatever it takes."
"Really? Because that didn't look very promising," Maisie snapped. "I came back here to fix what happened in the future, but I can't do that unless we..."
She trailed off, eyes widening. Unless we what? Maisie wasn't given any instruction traveling back to the past in order to find a reality where they won. In fact, she wasn't entirely sure how this would help her own timeline at all. The familiar, poisonous feeling of panic flooded through her small body.
The sound of a roaring engine interrupted her thoughts, forcing her to look toward the end of the long driveway. The sight of an Audi R8 speeding toward the front of the building at top speed shocked her back to her senses, and she and Steve stood still as the car came to a rolling stop in front of them.
The Audi's front window rolled down, revealing Tony wearing his signature sunglasses, "Why the long face? Let me guess, he turned into a baby?"
"Among other things, yeah," Maisie's heart soared, seeing Tony having come to help.
"What are you doing here?" Steve asked, hopeful.
"That's the EPR paradox," Tony continued, speaking to Maisie. "Instead of pushing Lang through time, you might've wound up pushing time through Lang. It's tricky. Dangerous. Somebody shoulda cautioned you against it."
"You did," Steve replied, a small smirk on his face.
"Oh, did I? Thank God I'm here," Tony's sarcasm flowed easily off his tongue, glancing at the man. "Regardless, I fixed it."
Maisie glanced down at his hand where she recognized the device made to time travel back in her timeline. All the doubt she'd been filled with following the visit to the cabin evaporated, and she thought for a moment, she might really be able to do this. In addition to that, she couldn't help but feel a selfish kind of happy; Tony thought they were worth risking his second chance for.
"A fully-functioning, time-space GPS," Tony sighed, looking at Steve. "I just want peace. Turns out, resentment is corrosive, and I hate it."
"Me too," Steve responded.
"We got a shot at getting these stones, but I gotta tell you my priorities: Bring back what we lost? I hope, yes," Tony looked at Maisie. "Keep what I got? I have to, at all costs. And... maybe not die trying will be nice."
Maisie's smile faltered slightly at his words, but still, she nodded, glancing at Steve, "Whatever it takes."
Tony stepped forward, wrapping an arm around her shoulders, "Missed you, kid." He gave her a nudge toward the door. "Go tell Marty McFly that we've figured it out, I think he'll be relieved, to say the least."
"Will do," she mumbled, smiling brightly.
Everything was back the way it should be. Her next task? Ensure that this timeline won the battle against Thanos.
Maisie walked back inside the Compound, and her eyes landed on Natasha who seemed to be scolding both Bruce and Scott for what had happened. The red-haired woman was alight with determination and it made Maisie's heart hurt knowing how her story ended in her own timeline. She promised herself when she arrived that Natasha wouldn't die for the stone like she did on Vormir, and she intended to keep that promise. Maisie knew that if she had been there, nothing would've convinced her otherwise.
"Hey, guys?" Maisie called. "Good news."
******
Over the next few days, the rest of the remaining Avengers, Guardians, and other world defenders arrived at the Avengers Compound. Maisie was surprised to see Rhodey arrive as Rocket and Nebula did, and she was happy to see that in this timeline, he survived the Snap. Along with him came the surprise of the arrival of Clint, and Maisie wondered for a moment who had to be the ones to take their place as "the dusted," before remembering that both she and Peter were gone in this timeline, too. Frowning, she decided Clint and Rhodey were good replacements for them.
Tony, Maisie, and Rocket got started on creating the monstrous machine that would create a passageway into the Quantum Realm and allow them to travel through time. Maisie helped piece together some aspects of the machine that caused a few moments of hesitation and questioning back in her own timeline, and it helped speed the process along. After finishing everything she could, she left the rest of the construction to Rocket and Tony, assisting in the creation of the suits they'd have to wear in order to survive the Quantum Realm.
Tony entered the Testing Chamber as Maisie was turning to leave, dodging a beer-drinking Thor, "Drifting left, on the side there, Lebowski," the man took a look at the raccoon under the machine and asked, "How's it going, Ratchet?"
"It's Rocket," he shook his head, pausing his work. "Take it easy. You're only a genius on Earth, pal."
Maisie smirked and shook her head, enjoying their antics as she entered the side room where Scott, Bruce, Nebula, and Rhodey were currently working. As she entered, Rhodey gave her a quick nod, eyebrows furrowing in concentration as he was most likely trying to place where he knew her.
"How's it going?" she asked, crossing her arms.
The suit Scott was testing was red and white, covering him from head to toe. He had a small open compartment where the few vials of Pym Particles would go, allowing him to shrink small enough to enter the Quantum Realm. It looked pretty good, in her opinion.
"Time travel suit?" Rhodey shrugged. "Not bad."
Bruce leaned forward and tried to place one of the vials in Scott's suit, but he protested, "Hey, hey, hey! Easy!"
"I'm being very careful!" Bruce objected.
"No, you're being very Hulk-y," Scott took the vial from him, shaking his head.
"I'm being careful," Bruce frowned, looking around the room for support. Maisie only shrugged, and Nebula wasn't paying attention.
"These are Pym Particles, alright? And ever since Hank Pym got snapped out of existence, this is it. This is what we have. We're not making any more!" Scott sounded almost panicked.
"Scott, calm down!" Rhodey ordered, sounding more a like military man than Maisie'd ever heard him.
"Sorry. We've got enough for one round trip each. That's it. No do-overs, plus two test runs," Scott gasped as he accidentally pressed a button on his suit, disappearing and reappearing in front of their eyes. He paused for a second, wincing, then continued, "One test run."
The group was silent, watching him with concern.
"All right, I'm not ready for this," Scott shook his head, getting more worked up by the minute.
A moment passed, and Maisie looked around with wide eyes. In her timeline, Scott did the test run with no problem, and he actually seemed a bit too determined to do it. She wondered what was different in the other timeline for him, but she figured it wasn't her place to play detective.
"I'm game," a voice spoke behind them. "I'll do it."
Scott almost immediately agreed, taking off the suit and handing it over to Clint. The group helped him put it on despite Maisie's reluctance. She knew that the test run would work, but she wasn't sure how it would be different now that Clint was doing it.
Bruce was finishing up some of the technical protocols when he said, "Clint, now you're gonna feel a little discombobulated from the chronoshift. Don't worry about it."
"Wait a second, let me ask you something," Rhodey spoke up, getting everyone's attention. Maisie turned to face him with crossed arms. "If we can do this, you know, go back in time, why don't we just find baby Thanos, you know, and..."
The man gestured strangulation with his hands, gaining mixed reactions.
"First of all, that's horrible—" Bruce said, wincing.
"It's Thanos," Rhodey rolled his eyes, unapologetic.
"—and secondly, time doesn't work that way," Bruce continued. "Changing the past doesn't change the future."
"Look, we go back, we get the stones before Thanos gets them... Thanos doesn't have the stones. Problem solved," Scott agreed, moving to stand next to Rhodey.
"Bingo," Clint chimed in.
"That's not how it works," Nebula murmured, adjusting something on a tablet.
"Well, that's what I heard," Clint defended, frowning.
"What? By who? Who told you that?" Bruce pushed.
Maisie wondered when she should jump in. They didn't realize that she had the best understanding of the subject of anyone in the room, maybe even more so than Tony.
"Star Trek, Terminator, TimeCop, Time After Time—" Rhodey counted on his fingers.
"Quantum Leap!" Scott butted in. Maisie wrinkled her nose, not a great movie.
"—A Wrinkle in Time, Somewhere in Time, Hot Tub Time Machine, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure," Rhodey finished, shaking his head. "Basically any movie that deals with time travel."
"Die Hard!" Scott shook his head. "No, that's not one."
"I'm not sure why everyone believes that, but it's not true," Maisie finally entered the conversation. "I suppose it'd make for a good movie, even though it's always cheesy and overdone."
"And who are you, again?" Clint asked, crossing his arms.
She just stared at him, "I'm here to help. Same as you."
Bruce jumped back into the explanation, "Think about it: If you travel to the past, that past becomes your future. And your former present becomes the past. Which can't now be changed by your new future!"
"Exactly," Nebula agreed, finishing with Clint's suit.
Scott looked devastated, "So, Back to the Future's just a bunch of bullshit?"
Maisie snorted, reciting a line she'd heard Tony say numerous times around the lab, "That's physics, baby."
Rhodey's eyes flicked to Maisie's, and something seemed to click in his eyes, "Wait a second—"
Tony popped his head in, "All done with the TARDIS, Goldilocks. You ready?"
"Just finished," Maisie tapped a few buttons to finish the compilation of the suit's data, and she switched off the machine. The girl bounded out of the room, following Tony and leaving the rest of the group to scramble after them.
Bruce led Clint to the glass platform where the Quantum Tunnel would allow him to go subatomic, traveling through time and the Quantum Realm. Maisie moved to stand next to Tony, crossing her arms to watch nervously. She was hoping the test run wouldn't fail simply because Clint was doing it instead of Scott, but she knew all the tech was up to date and correct, so there's not much that the man could screw up. Still, she chewed on her bottom lip anxiously as Clint's nanotech helmet went up.
Tony shoved her with his shoulder, nudging her off balance. A small smile broke out on her lips, and she knew everything would be fine. Rhodey watched the two from a distance, his thoughts confirmed as he saw Maisie and Tony interact. He nodded to himself, turning to watch Clint's test run.
Bruce was next to the control center, flipping a few switches, "Alright, Clint. We're going in three... two... one!"
He pulled a lever, and Clint disappeared. Bruce flipped another switch and pulled the lever again, and Clint was back. He was sitting on the glass, panting heavily. Natasha rushed forward, giving him a hand.
"Hey, hey, look at me," Nat said. "You okay?"
When Clint stood, Maisie saw something in his hand, her eyebrows furrowed as he tossed it to Tony. The man caught it, looking down at a worn baseball mitt in his hands.
Clint nodded, "Yeah, it worked."
Maisie grinned, allowing her childlike hope to shine on her face for everyone to see. This was going to work. Tony glanced at her, shrugging and tossing her the mitt, "Let's get to work."
******
That afternoon, the Avengers congregated in a large conference room with glass holographic screens and a huge table. Chairs were pulled together as data spanning decades were shown on the screen regarding the Infinity Stones.
The girl sat in the front row of chairs, staring defiantly at the orange stone on the screen. Maisie was nervous; she knew how to get all of the stones. Her only problem was Natasha. Her eyes kept flicking over to her, trying to come up with a plan in order to save her.
Steve and Tony were standing, running the group through the basic information regarding the stones as the rest listened. Maisie thought she heard Natasha mumble to Clint something about "old times" as the two conversed.
"Okay, so the "how" works. Now, we gotta figure out the when and the where," Steve sighed. "Almost all of us has had an encounter with at least one of the six infinity stones."
"Well I'd substitute the word encounter for damn well near been killed by one of the six infinity stones," Tony's sarcasm echoed through the room.
"I haven't, I don't even know what the hell you're all talking about," Scott replied, frowning as though he'd been left out of a club.
Maisie snorted, "You're not missing much."
"Regardless, we only have enough Pym Particles for one round trip each, and these stones have been in a lot of different places throughout history," Bruce pointed out, nodding at the screen.
"Our history, so not a lot of convenient spots to jump in," Tony took a sip of his coffee.
"Which means we have to pick our targets," Clint understood.
"Let's start with the Aether," Steve turned to face the back of the room, "Thor, what do you know?"
Everyone turned around to see Thor sitting in a chair, sunglasses over his face and softly snoring.
"Is he asleep?" Nat asked.
Maisie tilted her head, considering throwing her pencil at him.
"No, I'm pretty sure he's dead," Rhodey crossed his arms.
Maisie threw her pencil at him. It bounced off his sunglasses and landed in his lap, shocking him awake. The room looked at her, and she shrugged in reply. Steve told Thor to describe his history with the stone, and they were back on track.
"Where to start? Umm... 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... Ooh, scary beings," Thor wiggled his fingers as he described them. Then he cleared his throat as a photo of Jane Foster appeared on the screen, "Jane, 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," Rhodey and Clint exchanged looks. "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, you know, Jane and I aren't even dating anymore, these things happen though you know, nothing lasts forever," Tony stood up, moving to try to help him sit down again, but Thor wouldn't have it. "I'm not done yet. The only thing permanent in life is impermanence."
The room was silent.
"Awesome," Tony tried to change the subject, "You want eggs? Breakfast?"
"No, no, I'd like a Bloody Mary," Thor replied. "Thank you."
"Next up?" Steve cleared his throat, trying to change directions. His eyes wandered around the room before settling on Maisie, who stared at the screen in contempt, eyes fixed on the Tesseract. "Maisie?"
She flicked her eyes to his, frowning, "I'm not sure if—"
"Just get it over with, kiddo," Tony nodded his head toward the front of the room. "All the info we can get, you can do it."
Maisie's frown deepened, but she slowly rose to her feet. The Avengers watched her with varying levels of curiosity, and she cleared her throat.
"I'm not sure how much Tony ever told you about how I got my powers, or if he did at all, but..." she sighed and looked back at Tony for a second before continuing, "I got them from the Tesseract the day that Loki came to Earth through the portal at SHIELD in 2012... My mom died, and I almost did, too, but I teleported myself and my mom out of there before the facility imploded."
The Tesseract glowed blue on the screen behind her, and it broke apart to show a small blue stone glittering in its place.
"It's actually the Space Stone, one of the six Infinity Stones," Maisie nodded at the screen. "Thanos has used it on me before, and it had a terrible effect. I just remember feeling pain everywhere, like my body was ripping itself apart on a cellular level. Like electricity itself was tearing me apart. It has an effect on my powers, apparently."
Maisie locked eyes with Natasha, and she was surprised to see them fixed on her with such determination. The girl faltered for a moment, Natasha's gaze softened, and she continued.
"Um, but then Doctor Strange gave Thanos the Time Stone, and told him to spare my life, along with Tony's," Maisie remembered Peter helping her off the ground with concern in his eyes, checking every inch of her to see if she were alright. Her eyes started to well with tears, "That's when he won. He had all six stones, and when he snapped his fingers there on Titan, everyone started disappearing—"
"Hold on, you said he snapped his fingers on Titan?" Tony interrupted, eyes wide.
"Y-Yeah?" Maisie glanced around, noticing the similarly confused looks on everyone's faces. "Is that wrong—"
"He snapped his fingers in Wakanda," Natasha spoke softly.
No one in the room knew exactly what to do.
"W-Well, um, in my timeline—" Maisie began, but she was interrupted.
"Hold on, what do you mean 'your timeline'?" Rhodey asked.
Maisie shot a look at Tony, "You didn't tell them?"
"Didn't know how much you wanted everyone knowing about the future," Tony shrugged. "Cap and Nat didn't tell anyone either."
"Hello?" Rhodey asked again, one eyebrow raised.
"I came back from the future," she winced at her choice of words. "And here, things are different. Whenever I time-travel, some things are always slightly changed, but I'd never gone back so far before, and so much is different this time—"
"What's different?" Natasha interrupted. Maisie wondered if she'd ever finish another thought.
The girl bit her lip, trying not to let any specific clues escape her eyes as she thought of all that changed as she went back in time. Her gaze landed on Rhodey, then back to Tony, shaking her head as she replied, "A lot."
Natasha remained silent.
"In my timeline, for example, I didn't... dust," she explained. A disobedient tear escaped her eye and she hastily batted it away as she continued, "Neither did... um, a couple people. Like, Peter, er, Spider-Man. He and I are—were—partners. In my timeline, he was killed by Thanos in battle."
Her left hand fidgeted by her side, and she moved her ring in a circle before balling it into a fist. Rhodey and Clint exchanged somber looks, and Natasha avoided looking at Maisie.
"I'm not going to tell you how the future ends, that won't help. This place is already different enough that there's no way it can end the same way," Maisie commented, convincing herself as she spoke. "If we do this, I know we can win. We have to win, it's—" she sighed, shaking her head. "It's all I have left."
The room was quiet, pondering her words, finally knowing the truth.
"Cap, why don't you get some food, help with the mood, y'know?" Tony broke the silence with his chirping voice. He clapped a hand on Maisie's shoulder, steering her toward the door. "We'll be back."
Tony ushered her into the hall, then into the living room. Maisie almost smiled when she saw it; it was where she and Peter spent the majority of their time (when not in the lab, of course) when they stayed over at the Compound. Her fond memories dissipated from her mind as she remembered that it wouldn't happen again.
"Look, kiddo," Tony sighed, "you've gotta give me something here."
Maisie looked up, confused, "What do you mean?"
"We need to know how we're gonna win this one, and if you don't want us to make the same mistakes again, we need to know what happened," Tony explained.
Maisie bit her tongue, remembering the countless conversations she'd had with herself about the same thing, "I can't."
Tony frowned, but he didn't look surprised, more curious, "Why not?"
"It was something Doctor Strange said to me, well, to all of us, back on Titan," Maisie recalled. "After he gave Thanos the Time Stone in exchange for our lives, he said, 'It was the only way.'"
"Only way for us to lose," Tony responded bitterly.
Maisie shook her head, "I'm not sure that's true. He'd seen all those futures, he knew what happened, and he let Thanos take the stone anyway. Why?"
Tony started to understand, "Because we'd win later... but why didn't we win in your timeline?"
"Strange didn't tell me, but..." Maisie winced. "I have theories."
"Theories you won't share with the rest of the group?" Tony crossed his arms.
Maisie opened her mouth to respond, but a wave of anxiety washed through her. She shook her head, "This is my job. I have to figure it out, and I'll do my best to help, but everything's going to happen the way that Doctor Strange saw it. And if it doesn't..."
Tony tilted his head to the side, "Would you keep going? Start over?"
Maisie frowned. How far would she go to ensure the safety of the people she loved? As far as it took. But at what point does it become too much to watch the people you love die over and over again?
"I don't know," she replied, and that was the truth.
******
Later, once the food had arrived, Rocket began telling the story of the Power Stone and the Guardians of the Galaxy. Maisie used chopsticks to shovel food into her mouth while trying to listen to the raccoon's words.
"Quill said he stole the Power Stone from Morag," Rocket explained. He was standing atop the conference table so the group could see him while he spoke.
"Is that a person?" Scott Lang asked, mouth full of food. Natasha wrinkled her nose at the sight.
"Morag's a planet, Quill was a person," Rocket answered. Maisie frowned at her Chinese takeout.
During the Blip in her timeline, she had lots of time to do research. After seeing Quill on Titan, she knew they were somehow related, and the story of her aunt Meredith's son vanishing one day in 1988 struck a chord with her. Stealing her mother's journals from that year from storage, Maisie found out that Peter Quill was her long-lost cousin. When her older sister died of a brain tumor leaving behind a son, a young Jennifer Quill was prepared to take him on herself at the young age of eighteen.
It took her mother a while to get over the loss of her nephew and sister, and it took years before she was ready to have kids with her husband. Eventually, though, she had Maisie, and she never regretted it. Now, Maisie lamented, they were both gone. Not to mention her father, too. It seemed that whatever family Maisie conjured for herself vanished before her eyes.
"A planet?" Scott's surprised tone tore her from her thoughts. "Like in outer space?"
A few people snorted at his disbelief, and Rocket immediately started mocking him, "Oh, look, it's like a little puppy, all happy and everything. You wanna go to space, puppy?" Rocket patted his head like he were speaking to a dog, "Yeah, I'll get you to space."
After Rocket, the next speaker was Nebula, never one to smile or make light of a situation, she dove right into her explanation of Vormir. Maisie had been dreading this one.
For the couple weeks she'd been in the new timeline, Maisie tried to come up with a plan where no one had to die in order to get the Soul Stone, but she found nothing. With a sinking feeling in her chest, she knew that she had to be the one to do it. Maisie couldn't go through watching Natasha sacrifice herself, not again. This time, Maisie'd be ready.
Besides, what else did she have to live for?
"Thanos found the Soul Stone on Vormir," Nebula explained, her usual frown on her face.
"And what is 'Vormir'?" Nat asked, writing down notes as Nebula spoke.
Nebula's eyes darkened, "A dominion of death at the very center of Celestial existence. It's where..." her voice broke, "Thanos murdered my sister."
Maisie looked down, fiddling with her ring. Why did everything always have to end up like this?
"Not it," Scott mumbled, shaking his head.
Later that night, Maisie stuck her head into a conference room filled with snacks and notebooks filled with research. Tony and Natasha laid atop the conference table, and Bruce laid on the floor; they seemed to be discussing something, and Maisie smiled when she heard them mention Doctor Strange.
"Yeah, what kind of doctor was he?" Nat asked, wrinkling her nose.
"Neurostuff meets rabbit from a hat," Tony summed up.
"Nice place in the village though," Bruce commented casually, recalling the building he crash landed on five years previously.
Nat froze, "Wait, he lived in New York?"
"No, he lived in Toronto," Tony scoffed, and Bruce laughed along with him.
Maisie ducked her head, smiling at the level of genius in the room, yet they couldn't come to one conclusion without Natasha Romanoff.
"Guys," Natasha interrupted their sarcasm, "if you pick the right year, there are three stones in New York."
There was a moment of silence, and Bruce spoke again, "Shut the front door."
"2012," Maisie said, finally making her presence known. The three turned to look at her. "The year I got my powers... and the year Loki invaded New York."
******
The next day was spent determining which of the Avengers were going where in time and space. Maisie had her claim for Vormir ready to be staked, and she was waiting for others to decide on their missions.
"We can most easily blend into the chaos in New York," Steve began, referring to Tony and himself. "If something goes wrong, Tony can use his tech in the tower to his advantage, and I had standing at SHIELD at the time. While we get the Tesseract and Loki's scepter, Bruce can talk to Strange and get the Time Stone."
"Thumbelina should come with," Tony said, "I have a plan that involves a really small pair of hands."
"No trying to kill yourself," Maisie rolled her eyes. "Think of something else."
Tony scoffed, but the rest of the team gave him a look, "Yeah, alright fine!" he finally agreed.
"Thor, you bring back the Aether from Asgard," Steve instructed.
"Rabbit, would you join me on my journey back to my old home?" Thor chuckled merrily.
Rocket avoided a smack to his back from the god, but he sighed, "Yeah, okay, pal."
"Nebula should lead the mission to Morag," Maisie spoke again, and all eyes were on her. Nebula nodded once.
She knew what would happen there. Thanos would find her through her past-self's data server and take her hostage, sending a duplicate in her place. As much as Maisie didn't want that to happen, she knew that without it, they'd never fully defeat Thanos in this timeline. And besides, when Maisie and Natasha went to Vormir the first time, Nebula never told them what was required to obtain the Soul Stone. She sent a steely look at the blue alien, knowing she should be fine in the end, unlike Natasha had been.
"Okay," Rhodey gave Maisie a weird look, adding, "I'll go, too. Kinda wanna see a new planet, you know? Is that cool with your futuristic timeline of events?"
Maisie cracked a smile, "Yeah, it's cool."
"Where are you going then, little one?" Natasha asked, quirking an eyebrow.
Her smile faltered, "Vormir. I'm going to Vormir."
The room was silent, wondering why the time-traveler decided to choose Vormir as her destination. Clint and Natasha, the only two left without a mission, exchanged a look.
"You're going to need some form of adult supervision," Natasha stepped forward. "Clint and I will come with."
"I really only need one of you..." to bring the stone back after I'm dead, she finished in her head.
"Then you'll have more than enough help," Clint crossed his arms, giving her a nod.
Tony caught her eye from across the room, quirking an eyebrow as if to ask, What's the problem?
"Alright," Maisie relented.
"Okay, we have a plan," Steve sighed, looking up at the hologram monitor displaying the stones, and their location in time and space. They'd get the Power and Soul Stones in 2014 on the same trip using Rocket's spaceship, the Benatar. The Space, Time, and Mind Stones were all in New York in 2012, and the Reality Stone was in 2013 on Asgard. "Six stones, three teams, one shot."
Maisie tried not to think about this being her second trip to Vormir despite his words.
"Let's get it done," he finished, saving the rest of what would surely prove to be an inspiring speech for the next day.
******
Early the next morning, the team assembled their suits and prepared the time-travel tech for their missions to the past. Maisie had her Mischief nanosuit in the housing device alongside the Quantum Realm suit, and she stared at it for a while before finally getting ready.
That morning, she spent as much time as possible with Tony, from helping him get the tech ready for transport to just eating breakfast with him. She wondered if once she died she'd see her old Tony, the one who became someone she'd call a father to her. She hoped she would.
She hoped she'd see Peter, too. This was the longest they'd ever been apart in the entire time they'd known each other. Maisie wasn't sure she could live anywhere he wasn't, and that went for whatever afterlife existed, too.
At two o'clock that afternoon, the team put their suits on, heading for the Quantum Tunnel. They formed a line of determined people wanting nothing more than to get back what they'd lost. Maisie walked behind Tony and next to Natasha, praying that unlike last time, they'd make it out alive.
When they reached the center of the glass floor, they formed a circle, matching their time and space coordinates on their wrists.
Maisie turned to Tony, whispering, "Just to save you some time and uncertainty... April 7th, 1970."
Tony furrowed his brows, waiting for her to explain.
She only gave a small shake of her head, "You'll know what I mean."
Once everyone was physically prepared for their journey, Steve began to speak.
"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," Cap's words striking a chord with everyone standing on that platform. "You know your teams, you know your missions. Get the stones, get them back. One round trip each. No mistakes, no do-overs. 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," Steve gave Maisie a look. "Whatever it takes. Good luck."
Tony smirked, shaking his head as Maisie gave him a small smile.
Rocket sighed, "He's pretty good at that."
"Right?" Scott looked a little too excited to be on the receiving end of one of Captain America's famous pep talks.
"All right, you heard the man," Tony looked over at Bruce, who stood by the control panel. "Stroke those keys, jolly green."
"Tractors engaged," Bruce noted, and the team knew that it meant it was time to go.
A few of the team members spoke among themselves, but Maisie looked to Tony, "Be safe, okay? Don't do anything stupid, reckless, or Tony-like. Make it back, okay?"
"You got it, Little Red," Tony nodded.
After a moment of debating, he opened his arms in a tentative hug. Maisie smiled and stepped into it, and Tony kissed her atop her head. She'd missed this, the family bond the two formed so effortlessly.
Maisie turned her head to see Natasha smile brightly at Steve, "See you in a minute."
And then, they went subatomic.