To Love and Lose
Mestin’s ship had apparently been out of power for three days. He and his traveling companion, a woman by the name of Emilia Corvell, had been trying to get a distress signal out but had been too far away from anything for the signal to connect. Had Carol been just a little later, they would have been dead. Seemed familiar, she mused.
“You say that you’re from Enexion… so what are you doing out here?” She asked. Mestin sighed.
“There was nothing left for me there,” he replied. Carol nodded in understanding. Emilia glared at the ground, and suddenly Carol found herself staring at Maria Rambo. Her eyes widened, and Mestin’s head snapped up.
“Emilia, get a grip,” he growled. Maria faded back into Emilia and Carol stared in confusion.
“How did you-?”
“Emilia is often known as the Lady Love for her ability to shift into the exact image of the person you love the most,” Mestin replied shortly. “Whether they are still alive or not,” he added darkly.
“Who did you lose?” Carol questioned. Mestin stared up at her with empty eyes and Carol had a feeling that she knew exactly what he was going to say.
“Everyone,” he replied. “I don’t even know what happened to them. We were just having lunch and they just… Silven vanished right in front of me. I couldn’t stop it, no matter what I did. I ran into the kitchen to find Mineu, but she was gone too. There was just dust left on the floor,” he said. Carol nodded. It was just like what Tony had described when giving his report about Titan.
“I was with my wife, Vesta, when it hit,” Emilia said. “She faded away along with our horses and the cat,” she said.
“It was a being called Thanos,” Carol said, making Mestin and Emilia look up. “He gathered all of the infinity stones together and wiped out half of all life in this universe. My people were trying to stop him, but he was too strong. I doubt you would have heard of him so far out, but he was a pretty big deal where I’m from.”
“Thanos,” Mestin growled. “Where is he,” he demanded, silver and red light crackling around his hands.
“Dead,” Carol said. “We confronted him after he used the stones. We wanted to get them back and undo what he did, but he’d already destroyed the stones to prevent anyone from righting his wrongs. Thor Odinson killed him in retaliation.” Mestin slumped over in his chair.
“So there truly is no hope,” Emilia said.
“We’re looking for a solution back on Earth, and I have people around the nearby galaxies that are doing as much as they can. We haven’t given up yet,” she assured him. “We can’t.” Mestin nodded before taking a deep breath.
“Where is this ‘Earth’?” he asked.
~
Scott Lang’s idea was crazy. Absolutely insane. Tony knew that there was no way that it could be safely executed, which as exactly why he already knew that he was going to do it. In the five years since Thanos, Tony had managed to pull himself somewhat back together. It was hard, and he still felt like he was missing pieces of himself that he knew he would never be able to recover, but he managed. Harley and Kamala were both staying at the compound, their own families having been killed in the snap. May came by a lot as well, though she still wanted to keep living in her apartment.
“How’s it coming, Tony?” Rhodey asked, coming down to join the mechanic in the lab.
“It’s coming,” Tony replied. “Are we sure about this?” he asked. “I mean… we’re talking about ripping apart the fabrics of time itself. The one thing that Stephen told us was beyond dangerous and we’re just up and doing it,” he exclaimed.
“Tony, Strange wouldn’t have given Thanos the stone had this not been part of his plan. We have to this,” Rhodey assured him, putting a calming hand on his arm. “Pepper’s here. She wants to know if you plan n eating dinner tonight or not. Just a warning, she’s gonna force you into the kitchen whether you want to take a break or not,” Rhodey said with a small grin. Tony found himself smiling as well. Some things never changed, no matter how awful the rest of the world became.
“Tell her I’ll be up in a bit, and tell Morgan I’ve got a present for her,” Tony said. Rhodey grinned wider. He knew that if Tony promised Morgan that he’d be up for dinner, then he’d be up for dinner.
About a year after Thanos, Tony and Pepper had decided to give things another go. While they had both decided that they worked better as friends, neither regret their time together as it resulted in Morgan, who became the center of everyone's lives at the compound. The juniors treated her like a little sister, and Kamala added in new protocols to Gina to make her Morgan’s protector as well. Steve knew better than to try and get too close to the kid but found her adorable nonetheless.
Tony worked for about fifteen more minutes before shutting everything down and heading up to where Rhodey, Pepper, and Morgan were waiting.
“Daddy!” she said happily. Tony smiled as he picked her up and let her wrap her small arms around his neck. “I found mommy’s helmet in the garage, and she let me wear it around the house, and then Happy made cheeseburgers for lunch!” she said happily.
“Well that sounds better then my day, I was locked down in the lab doing the work of a mad scientist,” he said.
“Yeah, because you insisted on doing so,” Rhodey said, lightly bumping his shoulder.
“So you’re really doing it?” Pepper asked. Tony sighed and nodded he put Morgan down in her seat. He knew that she had been opposed to the idea. She didn’t want to lose their current timeline any more than Tony did.
“I’m looking into it. I promised the others that I would, but I never said that I’d do anything else. Shit, it might not even be possible,” he said.
“Shit,” Morgan echoed. Tony’s eyes widened comically and Rhodey choked on his drink
“No, no, no, don’t say that- forget I ever said that! Ignore me, don’t copy me, copy your mother,” Tony said. Morgan giggled, and Pepper hid her smile behind a glass of water.
“Tones, you’ve gotta work on your language,” Rhodey said.
“Who do I look like, Captain America?” Tony asked. “I can’t help it!” Rhodey snorted but said nothing else. The rest of the meal was spent talking about anything other than Tony’s time travel project, although it was on everyone except Morgan’s mind. Tony thought that perhaps he would get away with not having to talk about it at all until Pepper cornered him after the meal.
“Tony… I know that you’re getting further with Scott’s theory than you’re letting on,” she said gently. Tony sighed and looked around wearily.
“I solved it, alright?” he said. Pepper’s eyes widened a fraction, but other than that she didn’t look at all surprised. “I figured it out yesterday. I’ve just been fiddling with old data ever since so that no one would know.” Pepper nodded.
“What do you want to do?” she asked. One thing she’d learned from all her years with Tony was that the problem solved best out loud.
“I want to lock it in a box at the bottom of the ocean and go say goodnight to Morgan. I want to go to the compound and tell Rogers and Scott that time travel is only possible in movies and that it won’t work. I want to just delete everything I found in the past week and go to sleep,” he said with a hollow laugh.
“But would be able to rest?” Pepper asked gently. Tony sighed and Pepper put a hand on his shoulder.
“Tony, I am the last person that wants you to attempt this. So many things could go wrong and you’ve created a good life from all this. You have a good life,” she said. “That being said, as good as this life might be, I know that it won’t be great unless they're in it. Stephen, Peter, the other juniors… you need them. Maybe as much as we need you.”
“What are you saying?” Tony asked, and Pepper pursed her lips.
“I’m saying that I think that deep down, you already made your choice, and I’m telling you that it’s okay. You have my blessing to do it… Morgan’s blessing to do it,” she said. “Bring them home, Tony,” she said, forcing herself to hold back her tears. “Bring them home for us all.”
~
Nebula watched as Tony pulled up to the tower. He had called her last night to alert her to what he had discovered. To tell her that he would be arriving to deliver his findings to the Avengers.
“He here yet?” Natasha asked. Nebula gave a short nod and heard Steve leave the room to meet Tony. She clenched her fist, having heard much about what Steve Rogers had done, but said nothing. The two shared a brief exchange, and Nebula glowered at Steve through the window. She watched as they come inside the building, and was ready for them when they entered the room.
“Nebula! Good to see you're still hanging around!” Tony said happily. Nebula gave him a nod, which they both knew to be a friendly greeting for Nebula.
“You have our solution?” She asked.
“Yup!” Tony said, popping the ‘p’ sound. “Got some new gear for everyone too. If you want to head down to my lab I can get you fitted with a new arm-”
“It’s alright,” Nebula said quickly. He had already given her so much, and she felt wrong accepting any more. Tony looked a little putout, but he didn’t say anything.
“Alright, I can get us through time so long as Scott provides his Pym particles. According to him, we only have a limited amount though, so we need to figure out where the most infinity stones were at one given time,” Tony said. Nebula nodded.
“I’m guessing that your sorcerers will have some lore, and I can look back at my data archives to see if there are any notes left from my time with Thanos,” she offered.
“Well we better get looking,” Steve said. Nebula nodded once and, without looking at Steve, grabbed Tony’s arm and dragged him out of the room to join Natasha.
“You really don’t like Rogers,” Tony observed.
“I don’t like people that remind me of my father,” she said. Tony looked at her in confusion and she sighed. “The belief that one is right even when an entire universe is saying no, manipulating those around oneself in order to remain in charge, not caring about the death toll; these are all attributes that I associate to Thanos. They are also very dominant traits n Rogers. While he may not realize what he does, I do,” Nebula said.
“Well, then it’s good that you won’t have to be working with him much. It’s going to be us and Banner,” Natasha said as they entered the room.
“Where is Brucie-bear?” Tony asked. “I haven’t seen him at all in the past five years.”
“He’s been finding his zen,” Natasha said with a small smile. “He’ll be here in a bit. In the meantime, we should get studying.”
~
Peter and Wanda sat watching Jax trace the signal she had caught in search of Silven. A more accurate way of putting it really was that Wanda glared wearily at Jax while Peter hid behind her. They had been watching for the past three hours while Stephen explained to the other what they were doing. Wanda felt Peter jump slightly when Jax’s eyes snapped open. They were dark brown rather than pure black, so she took that to be a good sign.
“Anything?” Wanda asked.
“Yes, but not anything that will help us now,” Jax said. “I found the source of the signature, but it wasn’t Silven. It was his lover, Mestin,” she said. “It seems that he survived Thanos. He is no longer on Enexion though, he is with a woman that glows gold,” Jax said.
“Carol!” Peter yelled excitedly. “I bet he’s with Carol!” the other’s heads snapped up at Peter’s yell, and Stephen floated over.
“What about Carol? What did you see?” the sorcerer asked.
“Jax saw another Enexion mage named Mestin. Apparently, he’s with a woman that glows gold! That has to be Carol, right?” Peter said. T’Challa nodded thoughtfully.
“From what she’s told me, she is the only one with such powers as they came from the tesseract,” he said. “The chances are high that it’s her.”
“Well that’s good, right? I mean, maybe he’ll know something that could help,” Wanda suggested. Jax shook her head, though.
“Enexion knew nothing of Thanos or the infinity stones. At most he will be able to help fight, but I believe that’s it,” Jax said. They all considered her words until Riri spoke up.
“If the signature you felt was actually Mestin, then where the Hell is Silven?” she asked. Jax shook her head.
“I’m not sure. He is in the soul realm, that much I believe is true. I don’t think that we are meant to find him yet though. I believe that we must wait for him to come to us.” Stephen nodded in acceptance. If the soul realm wanted them to wait, then he really didn’t think that they had any other option.
“Why does it not want him here, though?” Wanda asked. “Wouldn’t it make sense to let us all plan together?”
“I’m not sure,” Stephen answered. “For now we can just wait.”
~
Silven Drascoue had been in many difficult situations, but this was by far the strangest. Magic pulsed around him in the form of golden-orange light. From that magic, he learned of what Thanos had done, and where he was. The soul realm.
He made a tally of where all of his allies from Enexion were; Mestin was alive with Emilia and currently being brought to earth by Captain Marvel, Orûk of the Winter was also alive and already on Earth, Mineu of the River Valley was in the Soul Realm, as was Vesta, and Tordion was still on Enexion with Zamirion.
He also knew that Jax Simone was in the soul realm as well, and was planning an escape with Earth’s mightiest heroes. The universe hid him from her though. Eventually, she would find him, but he was still needed where he was. There were a few jobs he needed to do before he could help make the plan to defeat Thanos. He had already completed one of them: figure out Emilia’s location. The next step would be a bit harder, but he knew it was possible. He was going to need to get in contact with Mestin and set him on a path that would lead to heartbreak, with a small chance of success.