Intergalactic

When they arrived, NAF looked like another world, Tony helped with the upkeep, but he never came back to the facility, it felt like the place where his greatest wishes and his greatest fears had come to life. It was like coming home after being away for a long time, but the grounds were barely upkept, and the darkness of the early morning made it feel like it was another world altogether.

“We can turn around and act like we don’t know anything,” Tony said quietly, the kids in the back seat of the car asleep in their seats. “We don’t have to be here,” he kept going, it was fear that was running through his mind. They lost everything once, he couldn’t bare losing everything all over again.

“We have to try Tony,” Steve said to him, taking his hand, while Tony’s other hand gripped the wheel of the car. “I know you’re scared, I’m as scared as you are, but we can’t live like this anymore and you know it. It’s the reason why you worked on the time travel paradox or whatever that is.”

“It’s Quantum Physics Steve,” he said, and he knew it sounded childish while he said it, but Steve just smiled at him.

“I don’t understand half the things you say, I can remember all of it, but in the end,  I just like hearing you talk when you’re excited about something, but this, Tony this could fix everything, not just for us but for all the people that lost something that day.”

He wanted to grumble, he knew that even if they brought everyone back, if they changed everything, it would create more problems than any of them could think about. But in his heart, he still wanted to bring Peter back for May, to bring Laura back for Clint, T’Challa for Shuri, Bucky and Sam for Steve and Natasha. Who had surprised him when he had heard about her past with the Winter Soldier, a past that hadn’t come true for them. They all needed something, but for the Avengers, they needed their family back.

“Steve, what if trying to fix everything brings more problems? What if trying to change what happened costs us what we love the most?” he didn’t say it, but he was afraid that even Steve would leave him, if they tried to change everything.

“I don’t think that we’d lose anything Tony,” Steve said to him. “We’ve already gained so much, maybe we’d just get something even better.”

They were quiet as they drove towards the facility, Natasha, Bruce, Scott, Hope, as well as Vision and Shuri, were standing there, none of them looked like they had slept at all. Tony sighed as he got out of the car, leaving all of the windows down so the air would circulate while the kids slept. Steve followed him, hugging everyone as he got to them.

“Are we really going to try this?” Bruce said skepticism in his voice. “Because honestly it sounds crazy, hell when I told Thor where I was going and what we were thinking of doing he just laughed in my face.”

“We have to try something,” Shuri said to them, hope in her voice. She had grown up too much too fast in the last five years. “I want my family back, I want my people to have not suffered the loss of two kings so close together.”

“We have to try,” Scott added, a hopeful look in his eyes, one that Tony had seen when he had come to the house.

He sighed before leaning into his husband, “We’ll try, but the first thing we’re going to have to do is get everyone here, we’re not doing this alone, we need a team.”

“Together,” Steve said with a smile, even after that argument five years before, even after everything that had happened, there was something about them being together, all of them working towards something better, that made it all the worth wild.

“Let’s get to work then,” Natasha said with a smile on her face, Tony walked up to her and hugged her. They had been close once, they still were, but not like they had been before, grief can consume a person, and he knew he had failed her, but this was the way to make it up to her.

Everyone went off towards the lab, Tony stayed behind with the kids, as Shuri stood next to him. They were silent for a while, the sun rising in front of them, nothing but possibilities, an endless future, one that they were going to alter for the sake of saving billions of lives.

“My brother once told me,” Shuri said as the sky turned purple, “That no matter where I am in the world, I will always have the skies of Wakanda with me. When I became queen I understood what he was saying, as I watched that first sunrise in front of my people, and it hurt more than anything because it was something we had once shared.”

“We can lose a lot doing this,” he said his eyes on the kids in the car, Morgan somehow draped over Miles and Riri, while Kamala’s head was on Riri’s shoulder. “I’m going to lose a lot in doing this, and it hurts to think that we won’t know the outcome until we risk everything we have.”

“But if you could give them their families back,” she said but he knew where she was going. She lost her family, her people suffered great losses from the battle.

“If I can give them back their lives, and keep them at the same time I would,” he said with a sigh.

He was going to drop them off with Pepper and Happy, she was going to keep them at her house until they were finished, but Tony wasn’t sure if he would be able to say goodbye to them knowing that he might never see them again. They were his kids, in this universe, in any universe, Steve thought so as well, they were a family, and he knew that a parent would sacrifice anything for their children, and that’s what he was going to do.

“Did you bring the vibranium?” he asked, she had taken what had been left of what he had gotten from his little space adventure, and he hoped that she would bring more. He needed to make something to stabilize their trip, and the vibranium would be useful in creating what he needed.

She placed a box in his hand, “This is everything you asked for, but take care of it because I am not sure if we can get anymore of the one you brought with you.”

“Thank you Shuri,” he said with a small smile. “You have my notes to get started, if anyone asks, I’m going to take them to Pepper’s, I’ll be back soon.”

With a nod she walked off leaving him alone with his thoughts, it was their one shot, he had told Steve that he had figured it out, but he hadn’t worked on what they needed to ensure that the trip would be successful.

The drive to Pepper’s was quiet for the first fifteen minutes, and then the kids woke up one by one, Tony knew that they had been listening, they’re nosy little bugs, but they were curious all the same. The only one that was still asleep was Morgan, she was slumped over in her car seat her mouth opened just a little bit as she softly breathed.

“Why can’t we help?” Kamala was the first to speak after the three oldest kids talked in hushed voices. “We want to help.”

“Yeah Dad, we can do a lot of things, I can lift the heavy stuff,” Miles added and Tony knew it was the truth.

“Miles I have your dad for that,” Tony answered keeping his eyes on the road, he wanted them somewhere safe, nowhere near where they were in case something happened.

“But Dad the Ironheart armor is safe, and you’ve upgraded every single protocol for all of our suits,” Riri started, it felt almost as if they had planned on ambushing him with their intent on helping.

He knew he was in for another round of this as he pulled into the McDonalds that was in between the New Avengers Facility and Pepper’s house, and if he had to hear them arguing their point, he was going to need some coffee. He was going to need a lot of coffee to deal with three superpowered teenagers. He ordered breakfast sandwiches for all of them and two of the largest coffee he could get for himself. Even after his conversation with Steve the night before he had stayed up all night working on the safest way for them to time travel. FRIDAY was fabricating the devices so that he would be able to pick them up on his way back.

Miles moved forward, sitting next to Tony, giving him that puppy eyed stare that he had learned from Steve, “Please dad we want to help.”

“And I want you all to be safe,” he said to them his voice a little quiet. “I don’t know what I would do if I lost you all, and we don’t know what’s going to happen, so for now just stay with your Aunt Pepper,” they were quiet, it probably had something to do with how raw everything felt, he rarely showed sadness towards them, they had had enough of it over the last few years. “If we need you, if we’re desperate, FRIDAY will call you.”

They all nodded, Miles throwing his arms around him, “We’ll wait for the call then,” he said before the girls joined in. They were his family, just like the Avengers were, carefully stitched up together.

There was something about watching the Avengers work, they were still only half of a team, Rhodes was off getting Clint, Nebula, Rocket and Carol were all on their way, Thor and Valkyrie were driving down, Bruce had told him that Thor had taken the last fight horribly and they had been trying with him.

“He’s a little depressed Steve,” Bruce said the last time he had seen him. “He lost a lot before Thanos showed up, and lost even more since that first fight.”

“Do you think he would step back from helping us?”

“I don’t know it’s entirely up to him, but he’s trying to move on and it’s not my place to stop him, even if he has some rather self-destructive tendencies lately.”

Steve wondered just how far Thor’s grief had gone, but they had all been grieving, and while Steve had Tony, Thor had Bruce and Valkyrie with him. Now as they stood there helping out with the calculations that Tony had given them, trying to figure out what they needed to do, Steve had to wonder if he had tried hard enough with everyone. He knew it wasn’t his place, they all needed to grieve in their own way, in their own time, but it still hurt to think that he had let a least one of them down just a little.

“Five years ago,” Bruce started as Steve sat down next to him. “Five years ago, we got our asses beat. Except it was worse for me, because I lost twice. First, Hulk lost, then Banner lost. Then, we all lost.”

“No one blamed you Bruce,” Natasha said looking at him with something in her eyes, their relationship hadn’t worked out, but their friendship still stood there in the ashes. They were a family, one that that stuck together.

“I did, I couldn’t get the Hulk to help out during the invasion, I had to rely on Tony’s tech without really knowing how to use it. It felt like failure to me, I’ve been treating the Hulk like he’s some kind of disease for years, something I had to get rid of.”

“You can’t think like that,” Steve said to him.

“I don’t anymore,” Bruce said looking at him. “Remember I told you about how Thor was coping with everything, well in the end he also helped me learn more about myself and about the Hulk. We’re not the same, we would never be, but we’re together in all of this, we’re like brothers except we share a single body. So, I learned, and left thing for him to learn, in the end what happened was a coexistence of a kind. I let him out more, he stopped trying to take over, we learned to be.”

“So, what is it like?” Scott asked curiously enough to keep Bruce talking.

“It was weird at first, but I learned that if I needed some stimulus, so did he, so he trained, and I trained, we learned, we shared, he’s not as angry as before, and we’re both calmer than I have ever remembered.”

“Have you ever wondered what would happen if you combined both until you were one being?” Hope asked, Steve knew they were curious, they hadn’t worked with either Bruce or the Hulk before.

“I did once, but I realized that we would lose so much of each other, the Hulk and I aren’t one person, we’re two different people living together, I would rather it be the two of us sharing than one of us alone.”

It was strange to listen to Bruce talk about the Hulk as two different people, but Steve knew it was the truth, he had seen the differences in the two of them, and honestly, he wouldn’t trade one for the other either. They had learned long ago that they needed to treat them as such, and he was glad that Bruce himself had learned to do the same. He could tell that Scott and Hope wanted to ask more questions, they all had questions about something, but they didn’t have the time. Once everyone was ready, they were going to have to move forward with this.

“Let get to work,” he said getting up as Bruce and Shuri began to move towards the door, the two of them talking in hushed tones about the calculations that Tony had been working on the night before. There was no stopping Steve from remembering what his husband had said, the conflict in his eyes, they were risking more than their own lives here, they were risking everything that they had spent five years working towards.

“Steve,” Natasha said from behind him, he hadn’t noticed that Scott and Hope had left, but there was a lot of things happening. “I need to go somewhere first,” she told him and he knew that where ever it was it had to do with Clint. Clint and the kids had been her family a lot longer than the Avengers had.

“I know,” he said wondering where everything had gone wrong when it came to Clint. “Where are the kids?”

“They’re asleep in his room,” she said to him her hands nervously moving to fix something around her. “They’ve been there all night, from the moment I told them that I was going to drag their father kicking and screaming back to the states.”

“Where is he? I mean I know Rhodes has been tracking him, but I don’t really know what he’s been up to.”

“He’s been... well he’s been everywhere,” she sat at the edge of the table. “There were rumors at first, of an assassin named Ronin going around, killing those who he thought shouldn’t have survived the decimation, mostly mobsters, gang members, and the cartel.”

“Clint’s seeing himself as an executioner, is this because he had lost Laura?”

“There’s something that we never told you guys,” there was a sadness in her eyes, it hurt him just as much to see them all suffering but Natasha had taken on a heavier burden when Tony and him had both decided on retiring. This was one of the consequences of that. “Laura had been pregnant when she had, well you know, they had been getting back to being a family again, she had felt betrayed by him joining you during the war, but they had learned to be with one another again, so that day, Clint lost a lot more than just his wife, he lost that second chance.”

“He still has his kids.”

“And he feels like he’s failed them too.”

“Bring him back Nat, those kids need him,” he told her before putting his arm around her. “We’ll get her back for him, we’ll get them all back, but I don’t want Clint to have a guilty conscience because of what he’s done to cope with losing his wife and their child.”

“I’ll try my best, just make sure you guys don’t start without me,” she said giving him a sad smile.

He walked her to the quinjet and got her started when Vision joined them, “I would like to accompany you Ms. Romanoff,” he said, it was the first time since they got there that he spoke. Steve knew that Tony would want to talk to the android, but there was something in Vision’s eyes that told him to let the android go.

“Keep her safe Vision,” he said without giving Natasha the option to say no, she looked at him shocked for a moment, but he knew that she understood. If Clint had more than one person standing in his way, more than one of them reminding him of what he left behind, the man would be more inclined to return with them.

The two flew off leaving him to stand there for a moment and wonder just what they were getting themselves into, there was so much they were willing to do to help the world heal, but for him he knew just how much he was going to lose. If it meant that the kids would have their family back, it would be worth it, but what would it mean for him and Tony, for the Avengers, for the future. There were too many what ifs to ask himself, too many problems that could come from what they were thinking of doing. If they messed up just a little the fate of the world would crumble.

It was a few hours later, as he looked at the device in the back of Scott’s van, with Hope there calibrating the whole device, Bruce and Shuri working around Tony’s theory. Where Steve was wondering if it was a good idea at all.

“Okay, here we go,” Bruce said as he started inputting the data, “Time travel test number one, Hope fire up the uhhh.... the van I guess.”

“The breakers are set, and the emergency generators are on standby,” Shuri said working from her own set of computers, a hopeful look in her eyes.

“Good, cause if we blow the grid, I don’t wanna lose tiny here in the 1950s,” he said wiping his forehead. Steve saw as they alll turned to look at Bruce, they weren’t sure if he was joking or if he was telling the truth.

Scott let out a panicked “Excuse me?”

“He’s kidding,” Hope said as she stood next to Bruce helping him with the machine. “You can’t say things like that!” she told Bruce, Steve’s super soldier hearing picking it up, which only made him want to laugh.

“Just.... it was a bad joke,” Bruce said letting out a laugh.

“You were kidding right?” Shuri asked next to him and Bruce shrugged.

“I have no idea, this is the first time I’ve done this,” he said, and Steve knew that they should have waited for Tony to come back, three geniuses were better than none, plus it would reassure Bruce more to have his friend there with him. “We’re talking about time travel here,” Bruce continued talking to Shuri. “Either it’s all a joke, or none of it is.”

Bruce and Shuri started pressing buttons, Steve wasn’t sure what any of it did, at this point everything was to test one theory or another.

“Get your helmet on, Scott,” Hope said with a smile as she listened to the panicked conversation happening next to her. “We’re going to start by sending you back a week, let you walk around for an hour, and then we’ll bring you back in 10 seconds. That makes sense, right?”

“Perfectly not confusing love,” Scott answered with a smile, but they could all see the worry in his eyes.

“Good luck, Scott. You got this,” Steve said reassuring the man only to have Scott smile at him in that weird fanboy smile had had gotten the first time they met.

“You’re right, I do,” he said hopeful, he said before saluting to Steve. “Because if Captain America is telling me good luck then nothing can go wrong.”

“There’s that fanboy I know and love,” Hope said laughing.

“On the count of three,” Bruce said looking at the group around him before saying, “3... 2... 1!”

The moment Bruce pushed the button Steve felt himself holding his breath as Scott disappeared into the Quantum Tunnel. Barely five seconds passed before Bruce pressed another button and someone appear in the Ant-man suit, from the looks of it, it was a teenage Scott standing there.

“Uh guys?” Scott let out a panicked cry. “This.... this doesn’t feel right.”

“He looks cute as a teenager,” Hope said smiling.

“What’s going on?” Bruce said, only to turn to see Shuri laughing next to him. Steve knew that this was going to be a disaster, just from the smiling and laughing that Hope and Shuri were doing. Bruce started recalculating before pushing a series of buttons.

“You think I’m cute,” Scott says looking at Hope before he gets sucked back into the quantum tunnel.

“He really was a cute kid,” she said smiling. “I’ll tell him more later.”

Unfortunately, when Scott came back the second them, he was an old man “Ow! My back!” Scott said which only made Hope laugh even harder than she had before. Shuri snorted next to her causing Bruce to start laughing too.

“What is this?” Steve said once the trio had gotten themselves under control.

“Can I get a little space here,” Bruce said pressing some more buttons, but Steve was starting to get worried about the whole thing.

“Can you bring him back?” Steve asked, “Or make him normal again?”

“I’m working on it,” Bruce said, and Steve could see the panic in the man’s eyes. So, when Bruce pressed the buttons again, they weren’t expecting a baby to show up in front of him.

“He’s a baby now,” Steve said looking at the drooling infant in front of him.

“Aw, can we keep him,” Shuri said a smile on her face, for some reason Scott’s ordeal had given them all something to laugh about. Steve was sure that FRIDAY was recording because this was something that they were all going to have a laugh over when Scott was back to normal.

“Shuri, it’s Scott,” Hope said with a hint of glee in her eyes. “As adorable as he is this way, I do like him as an adult.”

“But he’ll grow,” Shuri answered before the two started laughing again.

“Bruce bring Scott back before these two get any weird ideas,” Steve said keeping an eye on the other two, as they started laughing again.

“Okay,” Bruce said motioning towards Hope. “When I say kill the power to the tunnel, you kill the power.”

“Oh my god,” Hope said getting ready to do what Bruce told her as baby Scott get sucked back into the machine.

“Ready.... and kill it!” Bruce said, Hope pulling the lever to shut down the power just as Scott reappeared as he was when they had started.

“Someone peed my pants,” Scott said looking down to see if it was coming out of the suit. “But I don’t know if it was “baby” me or “old” me... or just “me” me.”

Bruce held up his hands, doing what Tony often referred to as jazz hands whenever the kids did something, “Time travel.”

“What?” Steve said looking over at the man astonished that they hadn’t killed Scott in the process.

“I see this as an absolute win!” Bruce said, and they all just looked at him with absolute horror.

“How was that a win?” Steve said, his voice hitting a register that was normally saved for when either Tony or the kids did something stupid.

“Well he’s still alive,” was all Bruce said before Steve sighed and walked off, he needed some air, and a moment away from whatever craziness had just happened.

The car was mostly silent, Tony liked it that way, it ran on clean energy, he worked on it like crazy. So, when he saw Steve standing outside of the facility, he couldn’t help but drive by as fast as he could before stopping in front of his husband who looked like he was just tired of everything that had happened.

“Why the long face?” he said while rolling down the window, the trip home had taken longer than it should have, but that was because he had to deal with a cranky Morgan, who wasn’t happy that her fathers were going somewhere without her. She hung out with her sibling's way too much for Tony’s sake, well at that point anyway. “Let me guess, Lang turned into a baby.”

“Among other things yeah,” Steve leaned down to give him a kiss. “What took you so long?”

Tony shrugged his shoulders before getting out of the car and heading towards the trunk. “That’s the EPR paradox,” he said ignoring Steve’s question, because he knew that his husband wasn’t incline to hear the complete story. “Instead of pushing Lang through time, you might’ve wound up pushing time through Lang. It’s tricky. Dangerous. Somebody should’ve cautioned you against it.”

“You did, but then again you weren’t here and all we had were your notes.”

“Oh really? Well thank Thor I’m here. Regardless, I fixed it,” he said holding up his right hand, the device had been ready when he had gotten back to the house, so he knew all he needed was a couple of things, including his suit which was now nestled in its little device. “It’s a fully functioning Time-Space GPS. FRIDAY hadn’t had it ready when we left this morning, plus I needed to go back to the house for somethings.”

He turned to Steve, knowing that he needed to say his peace, especially with what could possibly be the outcome of their lives from this moment forward. “Steve, we’ve got a shot, a real shot at getting these stones, but I have to tell you my priorities, to bring everyone back, definitely yes, but I also want to keep what I’ve got, what we have, I have to at all costs, because I can’t lose you or those kids. And maybe we should try not dying in the process because honestly, I’m sure they would resurrect us just to beat the living shit out of us.”

When Steve let out a laugh as that and pulled him into his arms Tony felt himself relax a little, “Sounds like a deal Shellhead,” he whispered into Tony’s ear.

“Okay now onto other matters,” Tony said as he pulled out Steve’s Shield, the same one that he hadn’t taken with him on the first trip to find the stones.

“Tony, I don’t know,” Steve said, and Tony knew that Steve still had issues with the Shield, he had let go of it once and lost everything.

“Steve, you have to take it, it’s a part of you,” he said knowing that it hurt to look at some days, for both of them. “I cleaned it up for you, painted it and everything. Plus, if we’re talking honestly, we have to get it out of the workshop before Morgan takes it sledding.”

Steve let out a laugh as Tony took the shield and propped it up for Steve’s arm. “Thank you, Tony,” Steve said as he slid his hand into the straps. “For everything, for the life we have, the kids, giving me a home.”

“Yeah well keep it a little quiet, will you,” he felt his face flush at what Steve was saying. “I didn’t bring anything for anyone else... well except the bracelets, but we kind of need them for this little adventure. We’re getting everyone right?”

“We’re working on it,” there was a hint of something in Steve’s voice, which only worried him. “Nat and Viz went to get Clint, the kids aren’t happy about him leaving, Bruce is driving them to Pepper and Happy’s right now, or at least he was going to I’m not sure if he left yet.”

Almost as if they had summoned their friends, Tony saw Scott walk out of the building holding some tacos in his hand. “I guess it’s lunch time,” Tony said and Steve nodded. Before either could say another word the Benatar landed on the front lawn near where Lang was sitting, Tony snorted when the stuff inside the taco fell out.

“Hey, homie!” Rocket said as he walked out of the ship. “Where’s Big Green?” Tony couldn’t help but smile, mainly because even when he wasn’t hulked out, Bruce was still Big Green to the raccoon, who had saw the man as a friend.

“Uh, kitchen, I think,” he said still in awe of their friends, Tony remembered that Lang hadn’t interacted with Nebula or Rocket before. “That’s awesome,” he said when Nebula was near him, her arm shining in the sun.

“Rhodey, careful on re-entry. There’s an idiot on the landing zone,” she said into the earpiece, it had been something Tony worked on that bounced through all of the relays they had sent out during their trip.

Nebula starts walking towards them when Rhodey lands in front of Lang who drops the rest of his taco.

“Oh, God!” Lang says holding onto his chest.

“What’s up, regular sized man?” Rhodey says before walking off with Nebula, as they make their way towards where Steve and Tony were both standing.

Tony couldn’t hold back the laugh he had been holding in while watching the whole interaction play out. Even when Bruce came out with more tacos, giving some to Scott on the way to the ship so that he could leave with Rocket to drop the kids off at Peppers, Tony couldn’t stop laughing.

“It wasn’t that funny,” Steve said a fond smile on his face.

“It was as funny as that day we were playing cards against humanity and you got that Hitler question,” Tony said laughing even harder. “You.... you wouldn’t even look at me, or the kids.”

“Yeah well it was true,” Steve said rubbing Tony’s back.

“You know, you two are made for each other,” Rhodey said as stepped out of the War Machine suit. “They’re two idiots that’s what they are.”

“Aww buttercup, you just miss Carol,” Tony said as he hugged his best friend. “Don’t worry she’s on her way, probably will show up glowing and everything.”

“Yeah, yeah, anyway so what’s the plan?”

“We’ll talk about that once everyone is back, for now just stow away the suit, and apparently get some tacos while there’s some left.”

Nebula was looking at him, her eyes still stoic as ever, but there was something in her eyes, and it just made Tony grab her and give her a hug. She was one of his kids, like Peter, Vision and Harley, like his bots and his girl FRIDAY.

“How’s it going cyborg princess,” he said to her, a reminder of their trip, a reminder of when they became a family. Even though she didn’t say anything, her arms came up around him and held on. It was her way of showing affection, without saying anything, it was her way of saying I’m home, and it was the best thing he could have asked for. “When this is all over, you have to come for a visit, Morgan is so big, and Riri has some designs she wants to show you.”

Nebula nodded at him, “I will,” was all she said. By the time this was all over, she would have her other family back, just like he would, everyone they cared about that they had lost would be back.

“Alright, let's get to work,” he said pulling Nebula and Steve along, Nebula had grabbed onto Rhodey and started pulling him along. She was more, well human in the years since they met, she still didn’t show a lot of emotion, but she held the people she cared about most very close to her. Tony knew some of the reasons why, even after they had all lost everything, the ones left behind needed one another more than anything. Hopefully doing this will give her something more than what she already has.

Gathering everyone took more time that they had anticipated, mainly because they were all scattered around the known universe, Carol didn’t show up until late at night, Thor and Valkyrie somehow ended up showing up with Bruce and Rocket, but it was Natasha and Vision’s return that had spawned a huge fight, when Lila Barton, who had snuck her way back into the ship with Bruce started yelling at her father, much to the surprise of everyone in the room.

Tony couldn’t help but stare at the feisty girl he had watched grow up as she literally yelled at her father, she was shorter than the archer, and looked a lot like her mother.

“How could you,” Lila yelled, she had come from nowhere anyone had seen to a very haggard looking Clint, “You just left us, I’m not supposed to be taking care of everyone Dad.”

The rest of the facilities inhabitants were beginning to walk over to see what was happening, and honestly Tony wasn’t sure if he should intervene or not, considering Clint had been spending less and less time with his kids. The three of them had spent more time over the years at his and Steve’s house than they had with their own father. All of the Avengers were sure that when Clint went back to the farm house he rarely spent time with the kids, even when he tried his best, but the loss of his wife had hit the man very hard.

“You can’t just leave when you want to,” Lila yelled as the rest of the Avengers watched. “You have three kids, Nate’s never sure when you’ll be back, Uncle Tony and Uncle Steve shouldn’t be the ones taking care of us, that’s your job,” she was heaving, as she stopped, fresh tears in her eyes. “You weren’t even there for my first date, Cooper had to act like a dad is supposed to act, and it hurt.”

There was a painful look on Lila’s face, the same look Tony had always had when his father ignored him growing up. He knew what it was to have a parent who wasn’t there, it was one of the reasons he had been okay with the kids spending so much time at his house. When he looked at Clint, the man looked as if she had hit him, even though she hadn’t, and Tony knew that it was because the severity of what he had done, more like what he hadn’t.

“I’m sorry,” Clint whispered as he pulled his daughter into his arms, “I’m sorry,” he continued as the tears fell.

It was painful to watch, and it took everything he had not to breakdown himself, instead of watching as the two continued to talk, he pulled Steve towards the building, motioning for everyone else to follow. The two needed a moment, Clint needed to see what his absence was doing to those who had survived with him.

“Let them have a moment,” Tony said as everyone gathered inside. “We’ll reconvene in an hour, FRIDAY, order some food for everyone here,” he called out to his AI before pulling Steve along with him. “Chinese would be good, and maybe Pizza if people don’t want that.”

“One hour, freshen up, get settled, we have work to do,” Steve said before pulling Tony towards Tony’s old workshop. He hadn’t used it in years, since he mostly worked from home, but it was familiar to the both of them. Steve could tell that what had happened had bothered Tony, mainly because of his strained relationship with Howard, something that still urks him, because he would have thought that the father and son would have been like Tony was with Riri when it came to creating tech, but it hadn’t happened that way.

“Are you okay?” he asked once the doors had closed.

There was something in Tony’s eyes, a mixture of hurt and sadness, “I don’t know,” he said to Steve. “I really don’t know, I mean I sometime wish I had yelled at my dad, told him to pay more attention to me, Lila is stronger than I am in that respect, but I had still had my mom.”

Steve wanted to apologize for a lot of things, he wanted to mostly make sure that his husband was alright. “If you could go back and tell him off would you?”

“I don’t think I would, I mean I hate that I went through so much of what I went through over the years but in the end,” Tony said looking at him as if he knew that the answer wouldn’t change who they were. “I think if I had to do it again, I would because it’s led me to this point, it led me to you and the Avengers, and our kids.”

Grabbing him and pulling him into his arms, Steve knew that this was why he survived being in the ice for seventy years, this life right here, “I love you,” he said kissing Tony’s temple.

“I love you too,” Tony said holding Steve as tight as he possibly could. “Would you change anything if you could?” he asked knowing how much pain Steve had gone through, even if Steve thought about it, going through the whole man out of time thing, he wouldn’t change anything either.

“Not really,” he said smiling. “I have you, our kids, our home, yes I lost a lot, but I think I did pretty well here, even with everything that’s happened,” the everything had been the thing that’s been hanging over their heads for the last five years, their one biggest failure, the one thing that had cost them more than anyone could ever imagine.

They stayed there in each other’s arms for another few minutes before venturing back towards the communal area, where Nebula and Bruce talked in hushed words, while looking over at Thor, who had let his own regrets manifest in other ways. Depression was something that all the Avengers were familiar with, they all dealt with it in their own ways, but for Thor, who had lost so much even before the snap, it had gotten to him even more.

“You know,” Tony whispered into Steve’s ear, “I wasn’t sure of it before, but I’m almost certain that Nebula, Valkyrie, Bruce and Thor are in a relationship with one another.”

Someone behind them snorted out something, as something splashing onto the ground right behind Tony’s feet, Steve turned and saw Clint drinking juice from the carton, something Tony hates with a passion. Clint was looking at them all wide eyed, while holding Lila to his chest, covering her other ear.

“No,” Steve said before Clint could say anything. “We’re not getting into that.”

“But,” Clint said, and it looked to Steve like the conversation with his daughter had helped him a little.

“No,” he said before pulling Tony further into the room. “We’re not having this conversation, whatever they do in their personal time is up to them and if they want to tell us they will.”

“You know I wouldn’t have said anything if I had known someone would have heard about it,” Tony told him before they sat down at the table.

“I know, and while I sometimes think about it, it’s up to them to tell us,” Steve said before settling into the chair next to him. “For now, I’m just worried about Thor, he’s been drinking beer almost nonstop since he got here.”

“I doubt it’s doing anything to him, with that Asgardian metabolism, but I understand why he’s coping like that, I did the same thing, maybe after all of this is over, we can talk to him about it.”

“Are you suggesting that we have an intervention with a God,” Natasha said as she slid into one of the seats across from them. “Because if we are, then all of the Avengers are going to need some kind of therapy.”

“Not all of us,” Tony said pouting, which Steve thought was adorable, even with the heaviness of the subject at hand.

“She’s right Tony, it will be healthy for all of us to get through this by talking, maybe Sam could do it if this time travel heist works,” Steve said while slowly rubbing circles around Tony’s back. Tony who was still pouting leaned into his touch.

Bruce was the next to join them, pulling Nebula with him, “I’m for us doing something now,” he said staring at all of them. “I’ve been trying for a while, he’s been getting deeper into his depression, especially since New Asgard isn’t the same as the old. He’s lived a long life so the last ten years, he’s lost everyone he cared about, his family is completely gone, the whole thing with Thanos was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

“Agreed,” Nebula said as if that was the only thing she needed to say, Steve looked over at her, never really sure if she would say something more, and sometimes afraid to ask her to elaborate, especially since she’s threatened him with bodily harm on more than one occasion, especially when it comes to Tony. He also wasn’t sure if her agreeing was confirming Tony’s theory about her relationship with the others, but again, disembowelment is not on his agenda for the day.

“So, how do we do this,” Tony said next to him, keeping Steve from making a horrible mistake and actually saying what was on his mind. Living with four kids made him honest, maybe too honest.

“Thor,” Nebula called out without giving them the option to think about this further. She motioned for the god to join them, Rhodes walking in with bags of food, Carol behind him with several boxes of Pizza.

“Oh, look an audience,” Bruce said with a half cheery voice, the man had been making jokes lately and acting differently, but Steve realized that it’s what happened when someone was exposed to Tony for a long time. Bruce looked more relaxed around them, and Steve realized it was really because the man was more at peace than he had been in the past.

The group convened around the table, as food was handed out but no one said a thing about what they had been discussing, Steve and Tony shared a look with one another about the whole situation, but they didn’t know how to bring it up until Thor opened a bottle of liquor in front of them.

“Thor,” Tony said stopping the other man from taking his drink, “You’ve been going a little heavy there with the booze.”

The man had not tact when it came to certain things, but Steve knew that this was Tony’s way for bringing the conversation forward before everyone decided to step back. Steve knew that Tony was one of the best people for this conversation, the man had battled addiction on and off for years, it was something that they discussed in detail especially after the kids came into their lives, because the one thing Tony hadn’t wanted was to be like his father in that respect. They had banned alcohol from the house because of it, only buying beer when they had get togethers with their friends and family.

Bruce on the other hand just hit himself with the palm of his hand as if this was the worse way to bring it up. Instead he sighed and looked over at Thor, “Listen Thor, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about this.”

“It’s just a drink my friends,” Thor said but Bruce just shook his head at the comment.

“It’s not really just a drink Thor,” Bruce said turning to the other man and looking him directly in the eyes. “I get that you’ve been in a rough spot, okay, I’ve been there myself, as I’m sure we’ve all had.”

“Then don’t talk of it,” Thor said averting his eyes from them all.

“Thor, you’ve lost a lot in the last few years,” Tony said next, “We’ve all lost a lot, but we’re here for you.”

“You don’t know what loss is,” Thor said, and Steve saw the moment where even Thor realized that he was wrong, the moment when Tony flinched, because he had lost more than most of them had.

Before Tony could say anything, Bruce grabbed Thor’s face and made the man focus on him. “Thor, you’ve helped me out of what I had gone through more time than I can count, you’ve always helped me. You’ve encouraged my relationship with the Hulk, you helped me.”

“Why don’t you ask all of the Asgardians how much my help was worth, the ones that are left, anyway, because honestly I don’t think my help was worth much,” Thor looked close to tears, and they all saw that he was trying to pull away, but Bruce held firm.

“No,” Bruce said to him. “No more pity, we’re going to try this, we’re going to bring them back.”

“Stop. Just, stop...” Thor said pulling away slamming the bottle down on the table, “I know you think I'm down here wallowing in my own self-pity, waiting to be rescued and and saved. But I'm fine, okay? We're fine, aren't we?”

“We’re not fine,” Steve said looking at not just Thor but at every one of them. “Thor we’ve all suffered a lot, you more than most, but we want to get there, we want to try and fix all of this, if it means going back in time and finding the stones we will,” he didn’t know if the words were worth it, but it was the only thing he had at the moment. “We will get you your families back, your people, our lives, no matter what, because they all deserve a chance, we all deserve a chance.”

Thor was quiet for a moment, before he began to cry, Bruce pulling him away from the table, Steve not really sure if his words were worth the effort, he tried and it was all he could do.

“He’ll be alright,” Valkyrie said next to Nebula. “He needs to let out everything he has inside of himself, everything he’s been holding back. So, this was actually good for him.”

They ate in silence after that, it wasn’t until later, when Thor had come back that they saw just how much he cared for their opinion. “You’re the only family I have left,” Thor had said sadness in his eyes, “I am afraid of losing you all as well, Asgardians live very long lives, and after everything that had happened, I realized just how much it would hurt me to lose you all as well.”

“We just want you to take better care of yourself,” Bruce said to him. “We don’t want you to hurt anymore, because when you’re in pain, we all are.”

“Like you said,” Steve added, “We’re family, and in families we take care of one another, because what use are, we if you continue to hurt yourself just because we couldn’t stop Thanos. We all suffered Thor, but this is why we’re here, we’re going to try to fix everything, including ourselves.”

“It’ll just take some time,” Tony said with a smile.

The rest of the dinner was a quiet affair, everyone sticking to regular conversations, no one really talking about the plan, or anything too heavy. About half way through Clint asked the one question that was on all of their minds, and Nebula threw an apple at him, hitting him a little too hard in the chest, which only made Tony laugh. The truth was, that Nebula and Valkyrie had a weird kind of relationship, one that no one dared ask more of from fear of losing a limb or two, and Bruce and Thor had a relationship of a sort, but it was their private business and no one else’s, though they could all see that the four also had something else going on altogether, but no one dared ask another question fearing Nebula’s knives, which Tony had given her, both of which were made of the same metal that made up her arm, and Steve’s shield, Thor’s hammer which had been scary before but with the axe on the other end was now downright scary, Valkyrie’s sword, or even the Hulk’s rage.

Tony didn’t really care what the four of them did, he cared more about Thor’s mental state, because while they all dealt with the fallout of the decimation their own way, Thor’s way of dealing reminded Tony more of how he had dealt with his parents’ deaths when he was twenty-one. He wanted to make sure that Thor didn’t end up going down that route, and if the other three kept close to him, and helped him, it didn’t matter how, as long as Thor knew that there were people there for him that was all that really mattered.

In the days it took for them to work on the machine that would essentially take them through time, Tony found himself keeping an eye on Thor, who while still drank, had actually slowed down. Thor was standing in front of him in a hoodie and sweats watching as Rocket worked on the machine with Bruce in the background talking with Scott. There was a fondness in Thor’s eyes when he looked over at Bruce, who had worked the last few days on several calculations with all the data they had.

“How’s it going Ratchet?” Tony said walking into the room, patting Thor on the back as he passed the god.

“It’s Rocket,” the raccoon said which only made Tony smile, it was a little fun when no one understood his pop culture references. “Take it easy, you’re only a genius on Earth, pal.”

“Yup,” was the only thing he said back before getting into the machine itself. He could automatically feel Steve’s presence as he walked into the room. They were so attuned to one another that it was instinct when the other one came in. “Hey,” he said as Steve kissed him on the cheek.

“I’m going to go help them,” Steve said pointing at the others on the far end of the Testing chamber. “Before the Hulk decides to put in an appearance because Scott did the wrong thing.”

“Okay, but remember the kids are all coming over for dinner, so we all have to stop before they come over, I don’t want them messing with anything,” Tony said, when they had started working on this project they all put time aside for the kids to come visit, a moment for all of them to not have to think about what they were about to try and pull off.

“You act like we’ve never done this before,” Steve said it as a joke, because Tony knows the last time that they had tried to do something before the kids got back, they had almost gotten caught with their literal pants down.

“Yeah well we didn’t get away with it completely last time either,” Tony said to him before pulling him down for a kiss. “This is different though.”

“Would you two quit it,” Rocket said to them reminding them that they had an audience. “We got work to do.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Tony said before getting back into the guts of the machine.

There was something about watching Tony work, on anything at all, whether it was a machine or even cooking dinner for the family, that made Steve happy. He knew that Tony was always at his happiest when he had a project that excited him, especially if it was something that he could share with others. Steve knew that Tony looked at him the same way when he had his own projects, but Steve knew the differences, mainly because he liked watching Tony get dirty even more than seeing the man in a three-piece suit.

“Time travel suit?” Rhodes said as Steve walked over to join the others. Steve saw the suit that Scott was wearing, it was designed by Tony, using the same nano particles as Tony’s Iron Man suit, so that they would be able to change into any outfit that would be needed where they were going. It was durable, but it also conformed to the suits that they all normally wore. “Not bad, though the color could be different.”

“Hey,” Tony yelled out from across the room. “You want to come over here and say that to my face.”

“No worries Tony, I’ll let it slide since we have a time limit,” Rhodey yelled back, but Tony’s response was muffled, as the genius went back to work.

“You really shouldn’t get him all worked up,” Bruce said as he touched the suit Scott was wearing.

“Hey, hey, hey. Easy, easy,” Scott said pulling back a little.

“I’m being very careful,” Bruce said inspecting a red tube on the suit.

“No, you’re being very Hulky,” Scott replied, and if anyone else hadn’t known that Bruce was the Hulk, they would have thought it was a joke.

“I’m being careful,” Bruce said, but they all watched to see if there was a hint of green in his eyes, but there wasn’t. Bruce was very proud of the fact that him and the Hulk had learned to coexist with one another, and it showed more and more.

There had been a moment the other night where the Hulk had been walking around, but they had stayed away, mostly because the Hulk was talking with Thor while the other man cried. Tony had pulled him away not wanting to intrude, but something must have happened because Thor had been quiet the next day.

Scott held up the vial that had been strapped onto the suit, “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 calm down,” Hope said next to him.

“Sorry,” he said holding onto to her hand for a moment, “We’ve got enough for one round trip each, that’s it. No do-overs. Plus, two test runs,” his hand accidentally pressed a botton on the suit activating the particle and shrinks down, Hope sighing next to him before he grows back to his normal size. “Okay one test run.”

“This is why I told you to calm down,” she said before taking the last vial off the suit before he could make another mistake. “We’re all under pressure right now, and you tend to freak out a little when there’s too much happening at once.”

“I do not,” he said in his own defense.

“Really, remember when we pulled you out of your house because you spoke with my mom, and you worked hard yes, but at the same time you were freaking out about being at home in time before the Marshals came and you ended up in back in the raft, but we got you back in time, no problem.”

“Well I had a right to freak out, I wouldn’t have been able to see you or Cassie, and I didn’t want to go back to jail, I had just gotten my life back together.”

“I know, but now is not the time to have a mini crisis, right now is the time to be the man I know you are and work with us to find a way to fix this.”

“Okay,” he said before turning back to the group. “Sorry Bruce, for you know.”

“It’s no problem, we’re all under the same amount of pressure right now, so don’t worry so much, but if we only have one chance at a test run, who should we send?” Bruce asked knowing that this was going to be their one shot to make sure the machine worked, if not they would have to pare down the teams, even though they were already pushing it with the amount of people going.

“I would do it, but I’m honestly not ready for it,” Scott said looking out at the group. “I don’t know if I can do it without messing something up.”

It was understandable to them all, Scott wasn’t ready for the pressure that would come from going back, he wasn’t ready to know if he would be able to do so without messing something up. None of them were prepared for the consequences of what would happen if they messed up so early into testing the machine.

“I’m game,” Clint who had been sitting at the other end of the table messaging his kids answered them. “I’ll do it, I need to make amends for messing up my kids’ lives because I couldn’t let go enough to take care of them.”

“We’ll get you your suit, but remember you can’t change anything at all,” Bruce said to him, and they all knew the reason was because if Clint so much as changes something it could have repercussions for them all.

“I’ll try my best,” Clint said before walking out of the room to get the suit. Shuri had been the one working with Tony’s nano tech to make the suits a reality, Tony have given her most of the notes in regards to the suits so that she could adjust them to what they needed.

The machine was done right as Clint arrived wearing the suit, his hair pushed back, but they could all see the worried look on the guy’s face. They weren’t sure if any of this was going to work, and Clint getting stuck in the past, or wherever the machine left him was going to be horrible on so many levels. Everyone had come to the room to see if it would work, Shuri leaving her lab, Thor sitting in a corner with Nebula and Valkyrie, Carol standing next to Rhodey, while Tony stood next to Steve. Bruce at the machine adjusting everything they had worked on, while watching the people in the room.

“Are you okay?” Natasha asked Clint as he ran his hand through his hair.

“Yeah, it’s just... Nat I have to prepare myself for this, because if I see Laura, I don’t know what I would do,” he said and they all knew it was something any of them would have struggled with if they were in his shoes. “Let's just get this over with,” Clint said looking at all of the people who had gathered around them.

Bruce nodded from behind the console, “Clint, now you’re gonna feel a little discombobulated from the chronoshift,” he said as Clint took his place on the platform. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Wai-Wait a second,” Rhodey said interrupting them. “I have to ask you something.”

It was Tony rolling his eyes that go Steve’s attention, “No honeybear, just no,” Tony said but Rhodey ignored him, and continued his train of thought.

“If we can do this, you know go back in time, why don’t we just find baby Thanos, you know, and...” Rhodey made as if he were suggesting that they go back in time and strangle baby Thanos with a rope.

Bruce looked over at the other man disgusted at what he was suggesting. “First of all, that’s horrible...”

“It’s Thanos,” Rhodey said and Tony snorted next to Steve.

“...And secondly,” Bruce continued before Tony could say anything. “Time doesn’t work that way. Changing the past doesn’t change the future.”

“Wouldn’t it though?” Steve asked, wondering what they were getting themselves into if they couldn’t change the present by changing the past.

“Most likely no, it would just create an alternate timeline, and that timeline wouldn’t have to deal with Thanos, it wouldn’t change our past at all,” Bruce answered.

“What if someone here used the stones and decided to change everything, what would happen then?” Shuri asked the room, which was now silent as they thought about what they were attempting.

“Our future probably wouldn’t exist,” Bruce said to them all.

“Look, we go back, we get the stones before Thanos gets them... Thanos doesn't have the stones. Problem solved,” Scott said to them.

“Bingo,” Clint added, both of them on the same wavelength.

“That’s not how it works,” Nebula said, her voice echoing around the room.

“Well, I thought that’s what we were doing,” Clint said, which was what they all thought that they were doing.

“What?” Bruce asked. “By who? Who told you that?

“Star Trek,” Rhodey said before counting off movies. “Terminator, TimeCop, Time After Time -”

“Oh god it’s like Peter got in his head,” Tony said rolling his eyes.

“Quantum Leap,” Scott added.

“A Wrinkle in Time, somewhere in time,” Rhodey continued.

“Hot Tub Time Machine,” Scott said.

“Hot Tub Time Machine, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Basically, any movie that deals with time travel.”

“Wasn’t there a guy in Hot Tub Time Machine that looked like the Winter Soldier,” Clint said making everyone stop and look at him. “What, you know I’m right, hell I’m sure if we gave the guy Barnes’ haircut it would be an exact replica.”

“Anyway,” Tony said stopping Clint from going on a rant about how there’s an actor that looked almost exactly like all of them.

“This is known,” Rhodey said before Tony could say anything else.

“I don't know why everyone believes that, but that isn't true,” Bruce said turning the conversation back to what they were doing. “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 said in the way they had known her to be, short answers and to the point. Tony had once told Steve that it was just the way she was, she hadn’t had the chance to have actual conversations with people until recently, and when she was on mission for anything she wanted to get straight to the point so that they couldn’t deviate from their objective.

“So,” Scott said looking at the group. “Does that mean that Back to the Future’s a bunch of bullshit?”

Everyone in the room groaned at Scott’s question, none of them wanting to answer, instead Bruce turned to Clint and pointed at the platform, indicating that he should get going before they diverged into something in even more ridiculous.

“You won’t be there for long, for us it’ll be seconds, for you probably a few minutes,” Bruce explained as he started adjusting the console, Shuri standing next to him, while Scott gave Clint a thumbs up. “Don’t change anything, you’re only going to be there to observe, may grab something to see if you can bring it back with you.”

“Can it be anything, or should I grab something specific?” Clint asked.

“Anything small would do,” Tony said while Bruce nodded.

“Alright, Clint, we’re going in 3... 2... 1!” Bruce said as Clint vanished in front of them.

It had been barely a few seconds before Clint rematerialized on the glass platform, he was panting, his hands on his knees before he buckled and hit the glass panels on the ground. Natasha was the first to get to Clint while the rest of them hovered over them.

“Hey, hey. Look at me. You okay?” she asked him as Clint held up a baseball glove.

“Yeah,” he said a smile on his face. “it worked Nat, it really worked.”

They needed a plan, which was something Steve was good at, Tony knew this, but trying to make the plan work was an entirely different thing, they needed to figure out where the six stones were, and what time would be the best time to go and get them. They needed to make sure the teams that were going would have someone here to make sure that they would come back. They also needed to make sure that Earth was protected while they were all gone, these were all the variables that Tony was working through in his head. All the while he was thinking about his kids, his life, and just how much was going to change in such a short amount of time.

“Don’t think about it too much,” Steve told him as they set themselves up in the conference room, they were going to brainstorm until the kids arrived for dinner.

“It’s a lot to think about,” he said to his husband. “We can’t mess it up or those timelines would be changed, like Bruce said their past would become our present, we don’t know just what we’re getting ourselves into.”

“We know that, but for now we just have to go into this with the knowledge that we won’t change anything, because if we start thinking that we’re going to mess up then we will, and we can’t go into this with that mentality.”

“You hang out around me too much, because you’re starting to sound like a smart person... I don’t like that, go be the artist you are, because if you become rational then I’ll have to actually eat my vegetables and be responsible, and I don’t want that.”

“You should still eat your vegetables, because if you do Morgan will eat hers and then I wouldn’t have so many problems trying to get her to eat healthy.”

“Well there you go again,” Tony said before sighing and putting his head on Steve’s chest. “I just don’t want to mess this up.”

“I know, and we’ll try our best,” Steve told him before pulling away and kissing him. “Now let's do this and when the kids come over, we’ll watch a movie and ignore the fact that tomorrow morning while they’re in bed, we’ll be attempting to change the universe.”

“Yeah sure,” Tony said before they both watched the displays light up.

“Okay, so the "how" works,” Steve said to the room of mostly superpowered people. “Now we gotta figure out the when and the where. Almost all of us has had an encounter with at least one of the six infinity stones.”

Tony lit up the first hologram with the image of the stones that he had seen when he had first met the wizards. “Well I'd substitute the word encounter for damn well near been killed by one of the six infinity stones.”

“I haven't,” Scott said raising his hand. “I don't even know what the hell you're all talking about.”

“I’m pretty sure out of all of us, you, Hope, and Shuri are the only ones who haven’t been near one,” Steve said to them. “The rest of us have in one way or another.”

“Regardless, we only have enough Pym Particles for one round trip each for only a handful of us,” Bruce said bringing forth their other problem. “And these stones have been in a lot of different places throughout history.”

“Our history, so there’s not a lot of convenient spots to just drop in,” Tony said as he started pulling up dates and locations from each encounter.

“Which means we have to pick our targets,” Clint said looking at them, for Clint the mind stone had fucked with him enough that Tony didn’t want Clint near their first battle together, he could only imagine what the man would do if he encountered Loki again.

“Correct,” Shuri said as she looked through all of the stones on display.

“Let’s start with the Aether. Thor, what do you know?” Steve said getting straight to work.

Thor was on the other side of the room quiet his body slack, “Is he asleep?” Natasha asked.

“No, I’m pretty sure he’s dead,” Rhodey added.

“Sorry,” Bruce said getting up, “We stayed up last night talking, and then the Hulk talked to him, so it was a little emotional.” Bruce made his way over to Thor and gently shook his away, “Thor, time to get up.”

The blond got startled for a moment before his eyes came into awareness. “I apologize,” he said looking at the center holoscreen.

“The Aether,” Shuri said motioning towards the display. “Tell us about it.”

“Where should I start?” he said as he sat up and looked at the stone. “The Aether, first, is not a stone, someone called it a stone before. It's more of a... and angry sludge thing, so... someones gonna need to amend that. It’s also known as the reality stone, it has the ability to manipulate reality as it stands. Anyway, here's an interesting story though, many years ago...My grandfather had to hide the stones from the Dark Elves...” he started wiggling his fingers as if he were a ghost. “Wooooh, scary beings. So, Jane, Oh, there she is. That's Jane... She's... an old flame of mine...” he said as a picture of his exgirlfriend appeared on screen. “She... she stuck her hand inside a rock this one time... and then the Aether stuck itself inside her... And, she became very, very sick. So, I had to take her to Asgard, which is where I'm from. And we had to try and fix her. We were dating at the time, you see. I got to introduce her to my Mother... who's dead...”

Thor stopped for a moment, he hadn’t broken down when the image of Jane appeared, but the moment his mother had been mentioned, Tony could see the hurt in the man’s eyes. Bruce gently rubbed Thor’s back trying to make certain that the god didn’t break down before he finished.

“Oh, you know, Jane and I aren't even dating anymore, these things happen though you know, nothing last forever,” he said as a way to move away from thinking about his mother’s death. As Bruce makes sure that he stays seated. “I'm not done yet, the only thing permanent in life is impermanence,” Thor finished but Bruce just stayed put, making sure that the god would be alright.

“Maybe there’s somethings that are more permanent than others,” Bruce told him. “We’re all here, we all care about you.”

“Anyway, let’s get some snacks in here,” Tony said trying to keep the moment that Bruce and Thor were having between the two of them.

“I would like that, thank you,” Thor said to him.

They moved from their spaces and gathered snacks, Tony went to the fridge in search of some blueberries, because if Steve was going to force the healthy stuff on him, then he was going to have something he liked. Shuri set up the next stone on the screen, a bag of treats already in front of her. Tony walked over and sat down next to her, placing some fruits in front of her as well.

“Thanks,” she said smiling at him.

“No problem,” he told her, it was the least he could do at the moment, since she had been working on the suits mostly on her own.

The purple power stone floated in front of them, almost like it was taunting Tony, it had been the same stone that had forced a moon onto him during the fight with Thanos. He had seen its power first hand, as well as the power of the other stone’s in the madman’s possession.

“Quill said he stole the power stone from Morage,” Rocket said as he sat on the table.

Scott raised his hand like they were in a classroom taking notes which was weird on it’s own. “Is that a person?”

“Morag’s a planet, it’s located in the Andromeda Galaxy at the Eclipsing Binary Star, it’s mostly oceanic, and they have these little annoying rodents that get into everything,” Rocket answered Scott, which only made Tony curious because there was so much out there that he could study. “Quill is a person,” he said as an afterthought.

“Wait, when you say a planet, you mean like in outer space?” Scott asked his eyes wide which only gave Rocket an opening to mock the man.

“Oh, look. It’s like a little puppy, all happy and everything,” he said before making his voice sound like he’s talking to a puppy, “Do you wanna go to space? You wanna go to space, puppy? I’ll get you to space.”

Hope laughed from next to Scott before holding back the man so that he wouldn’t go after Rocket. Instead, Nebula cleared her throat and pushed them to the next stone, she clearly wasn’t in the mood for Rocket’s antics. She moved the soul stone forward, and Tony could see just a hint of sadness in her eyes.

“Thanos found the Soul Stone on Vormir,” she said never looking at anyone in the room, the stone floating around in front of her was the only thing holding her attention.

“What is Vormir?” Natasha asked, her voice in full business mode as she took notes on everything they were saying.

“A dominion of death,” Nebula said the stone still holding her attention. “at the very center of Celestial existence. It's where... Thanos murdered my sister.”

“Noted,” Scott said, and Tony threw a blueberry at him.

Tony more than any of them, other than Rocket, knew the severity of Nebula’s loss, her sister was her only family outside of a murderous titan, losing her cost Nebula everything she cared for. The Avengers adopted her, but Tony made sure she didn’t have too many bad memories since, Valkyrie, Bruce and Thor helped whenever she visited New Asgard, but Tony was always the first one to greet her whenever she came back to earth. Even setting up one of those intergalactic video screens at home so she could call him whenever she wanted. They were a family now and he was going to protect her as much as he could.

An hour later, they were all laying around the room, no one moving as they all thought about the other three stones that they needed to locate, they knew that they would have to go back to the day the Avengers first formed, but they also had to figure out the time stone as well. Both Tony and Natasha were lying on the table, papers scattered all around them, Bruce on the floor Thor soundly sleeping on his lap, Steve was off making dinner for when the kids arrived, Shuri was with Scott and Hope adjusting the suits, while Rhodey and Carol went off on a walk. Nebula had disappeared, and Tony was certain that Rocket was making a bomb outside.

“That Time Stone guy....” Natasha said breaking the silence in the room.

“Doctor Strange,” Bruce said to her.

“Yeah, what kind of doctor was he?” she asked them and while Tony knew the answer was buried somewhere in his brain he wasn’t entirely sure.

“Neurostuff meets rabbit from a hat,” he said staring at the ceiling. “He had a nice place in the village though.”

“Yeah... Sullivan Street... hmmm... Bleecker,” Bruce said to them as if it would help.

“Wait,” Natasha sat up and looked at both of them. “He lived in New York?”

“No, he lived in Toronto,” Tony said sarcastically, which only earned him a glare from Natasha.

“Anyway,” she said turning to Bruce. “Guys, if you pick the right year, there are three stones in New York.”

“Shut the front door,” Bruce said startling Thor out of his nap, the god smacking his head on the table. “Sorry Thor... sorry,” he murmured

“Did you guys figure it out?” Steve asked him when he walked into the kitchen. The smell of mac and cheese in the air, which meant that Steve was nervous and a nervous Steve starts baking everything he could.

“Yeah we did,” Tony said as he wrapped his arms around him. “We found out that there are three stones in New York during the invasion back in 2012.”

“I guess that’s where we’re going isn’t it?”

“Yeah, you and me, along with Scott and Bruce, because a rampaging Hulk is easier to hide in plain sight.”

“Where’s everyone else going?”

“Thor and Rocket are going to get the Aether, Nat and Clint are going to get the soul stone, and Nebula, Rhodey, and Carol are going to get the power stone.”

“Those are good teams, hopefully this will go the way it should,” Steve said to him before pulling a casserole pan out of the oven. 

“So, how big is this army we’re feeding?”

“Very funny Tony, but with our kids, Clint’s kids, Pepper and Happy, as well as all of the other Avengers, we basically have a family to feed, and I want everyone to be full and happy before we head out tomorrow.”

Tony nodded his head before looking around the room, “Have you seen Vision?”

“Not really, he wasn’t at any of the meetings, which was strange, I’m not sure where he is.”

“FRIDAY,” Tony called out.

“Boss, Vision has been in the lab with Shuri, they’ve been working on fixing something in his neuropathways.”

“Why,” he asked while trying to take a bite out of the food on the counter, before Steve hit his hand.

“Vision has stated that he would like to use the powers that he had lost,” Friday said to them. “He wants to be of use if another battle should arise.”

Tony was quiet for a moment, and Steve knew that he was thinking about whether there would be another fight, there was so much that they hadn’t thought about, especially if they brought everyone back, because they would also bring back any enemies that they may have made over the years. Before they could have a conversation about it the loud giddy scream came from the hallway as their youngest daughter came barreling into the compound’s kitchen.

“Daddy,” she yelled as her screeching sneakers came looking for them, “Papa,” she called out and Tony groaned.

“I’m burning those shoes,” he said, and Steve couldn’t help the smile on his face.

Morgan Stark-Rogers' favorite pair of shoes were light up sneakers, they were cheap, and if Tony had his way they’d be in the trash just because they made what Tony dubbed and unholy screeching sound. The shoes were never thrown out, even with the threat constantly being made, but it was one of those things that Tony endured for his family, just like Steve’s need to draw in the lab, even though he had a studio. Miles’ need to tag up half of New York, even though Tony would have to pay the fines. Riri’s weird obsession with making her father into an A.I., which Tony found creepy and weird, but didn’t stop her. And Kamala’s need to follow Carol and Rhodey around like they were her gods, because Tony hadn’t expected to not be his kid’s favorite anything.

Steve kissed his husband just as a five-year-old Morgan rushed towards them, nearly toppling them over, because as small as she was, she knew exactly where to hit to bring everyone to their level.

“There’s my little girl,” Steve said to her as he picked her up. “Where are your siblings, they were supposed to be with you.”

“We’re here,” Miles said plopping himself down on the ground. “She’s faster than she looks and I have superpowers.”

“She’s a superstar this one,” Tony said smiling at his little girl.

“Yeah well next time, I’m putting one of those kid tether things on her,” Miles looked up at his parents and smiled. “She’s too all over the place.”

“Yeah well, she’s five, what's your excuse?” Riri said as she walked in Kamala, Pepper and Happy right behind.

“I’m not all over the place,” Miles said defending himself.

“Yeah that’s a lie, I saw like three of your tags all over campus, and it was my school’s campus,” Kamala said, and Miles just glared at her.

“It’s not really a secret Miles’, I have FRIDAY alert me when you break the law,” Tony said, while Steve tried and failed at laughing out loud about Miles getting caught. “Hey Pepper.”

“Hey there, you two, how’s everything going,” she asked them, which meant that she knew what they were up to. Steve looked at Tony as if he had given out their secret.

“Yeah you try and keep something from her,” he said with a smile. “Now everyone go wash up for dinner and make sure you drag the rest of the Avengers with you on your way back.”

“Wait they’re here,” Kamala said sprinting out of the room, most likely in a rush to find her godparents.

“No loyalty with that one,” Tony said to Steve before walking over to Pepper and giving her a kiss on the cheek. “I’m going to go find the rest of them.”

Pepper nodded and then walked over to Steve, when the two of them were left alone, he knew he was in for something. “You’re going to travel through time,” she said as a fact and not a question.

“How much did Tony tell you?”

“Enough, I just want to make sure that you take care of each other if you’re going to do this,” she told him. “I don’t want something to happen to either of you, it would devastate those kids, but I also know how badly either of you would take it.”

He knew she was right about that, especially since the last time they had a huge fight it felt more like a divorce than anything, and they hadn’t been together at that time. Since then they built a family, rebuilt their lives and their relationship, losing Tony would be like being thrown seventy years in the future all over again, and he didn’t think that he could deal with that and survive.

“I’ll make sure we both get back, alive and well,” he said to her, it was more of a promise to himself than to anyone else.

“Good,” she said smiling at him. “Now let’s go eat some dinner, so you and Tony can have your time with your kids.”

“Have you and Happy ever thought about having your own?” he asked curious since they hadn’t had a kid, but dotted on Morgan like she were her own.

“We’ve talked, and I talked to Tony about taking some time off,” she said smiling. “Who knows maybe after you guys come back we can talk about it more.”

Steve couldn’t help but smile, it was good to hear that even Pepper was thinking of the future, even when he was afraid of telling her that that future might not be real, they don’t know the outcome of the mission they were about to embark on, and he knew more than anything how worried Tony was about everything.

Dinner that night had been a loud and rowdy affair, mainly because they had a full house of people, friends and family alike. Tony was worried, Steve knew this because he felt the same way. They had both put a picture of their family in their suits, close to their hearts, because they needed the reminder of why they were trying to do this. Tony needed to bring back Peter for May Parker, Steve wanted Sam and Bucky back. Shuri, Hope, and Nebula wanted their families back, Natasha wanted her second chance with the man who had gotten away. Thor wanted to write a wrong, and Clint just wanted his wife back, as for everyone else, they were fighting for the family they had built together and lost at the same time. There was no turning back, not for any of them, they had invested their time into making this happen, and they were going to make sure nothing went wrong.

When morning came, and Tony could only feel Steve behind him on the bed all he could realizes was that this was it, either they fixed everything, or they lost for good. He wanted this moment for himself just for a moment, because somewhere out there, there was a universe where they weren’t together. Just the thought of losing that, losing what he had was enough to make him turn around burrow himself further into Steve embrace.

“I’m scared too,” Steve said to him, while running his hands up and down Tony’s back, it was something they did when one of them had a nightmare, something to remind them of the present.

“Just don’t die out there,” Tony said, it had been hard enough saying bye to the kids the night before, but the thought of not just losing them but Steve as well was weighing down on him and he felt like he was drowning even though he was on solid ground.

“I promise, I will do everything in my power to make sure that we come back,” Steve said as he held Tony tighter. “I don’t want to lose you, or anyone in our little family.”

Somewhere in the compound, Tony knew that there were other couples having the same conversation, they were all on a preverbal suicide mission. They all had people who loved them and cared for their safety, Tony wasn’t sure if he would survive if something happened to any of them. They were his family, the one built from scraps. Losing wasn’t an option, not anymore, because they had already lost, and once had been enough for all of them.

They all got ready for the day, eating breakfast, talking like they weren’t about to do something incredibly stupid, before they ended up sitting in the conference room, Tony watched the holographic displays, the stones displayed along with their times and locations, each team under a stone. The biggest team going out there was Tony and Steve’s because they needed to get three of the stones, and one screw up would end this mission before it began. They couldn’t fault themselves if something went wrong, they had to get in and get out, and when the stones needed to get back to their time, that person was responsible for it landing in the right place at the right time.

“All right Avengers,” Steve said standing in front of the display, “We have a plan. Six stones, three teams. One shot.”

“Everyone get ready for a wild ride,” Tony said trying to make himself feel a little better about what they were about to do.

The moment they all walked off and got into the suits though, he could feel his hands shaking, even having Shuri help mass produce the suits with the same nanoparticles that he had for his Iron Man suit, well it hadn’t helped. Yes, they would be protected, and yes, the particles could adjust to whatever they needed, but they wouldn’t be safe at home, and he could lose everything. Hell, he could get stuck somewhere in the Quantum Realm and never come back.

This is all on his mind as he walked next to Steve towards the Quantum Time machine, Tony looked at the team standing around him, Rhodey opting to have his suit look more like his War Machine Armor, Scott’s looks like the Ant-Man suit, the rest of them in a generic suit, which would change when they needed it to. He wanted them all protected, because in all of these timelines, Thanos still existed. He wanted his family to be safe no matter what, even if it meant creating suits for them that would protect them when they needed it most.

“Five years ago, we lost. All of us. We lost friends... We lost family... We lost a part of ourselves,” Steve said pulling Tony out of his thoughts. “Today, we have a chance to take it all back. You know your teams, you know your missions. Get the stones, get them back. One round trip each. 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,” Tony couldn’t help but look at his husband, always with the speeches, it made his heart race, he wanted to kiss the man for luck. “Whatever it takes. Good luck.”

“He's pretty good at that,” Rocket said with a smirk.

“Right?” Scott answered a little too excited now, but that’s what Steve did when he gave those speeches.

“All right. You heard my man,” Tony said before turning to Steve and planting a kiss on his lips. “When we get back, we’re going back to our room and having words,” he whispered to Steve with a wink before turning to Shuri, “Hit those keys Shuri.”

Shuri nodded at them, “Tractors engaged.”

“You promise to bring that back in one piece, right?” Rocket said to Clint who was holding the shrunken down Benatar in his hand.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. I'll do my best,” Clint said as he kissed a picture of his kids and put it into the suit.

“As promises go, that was pretty lame,” Rocket said back before turning towards the rest of them.

“See you in a minute,” Natasha smiled at them just as they all shrank down into the Quantum Realm.