A/N: This Chapter is a Summary chapter of what I'd imagined the rest of the story would go as.
This is NOT good writing, I know that.
I wrote how I would write summaries for myself before I wrote actual chapters.
(It helped me write chapters when I note down all I want for that particular arc/chapter in a summary. Like this.)
There aren't as many changes to Canon as you'd probably like. But still, it is what it is and I need to conclude the story so I don't disappoint you all too much.
So now, all that remains is the actual conclusion of the story. A summary of what happens after Age of Ultron.
Why?
For closure, so readers don't feel disappointed at the story that was dropped. So that I don't feel bad at leaving the story hanging. So that I don't give readers hope that I might return soon to continue from the next chapter.
I might return to writing, but not for at least a year, and I'd rather make it a surprising return than a "finally, he's back to write the next chapter and disappear again."
This conclusion was what I had planned for the story, planned for how Mason's life will go for the rest of the time, before my personal life stopped me from actually putting it into words.
What I usually do is write for myself a summary of the next arc, and then write the story one chapter at a time at a pace I find myself comfortable with. Before even writing each chapter, I write a short summary of what I want that chapter to contain, so I don't write too short chapters, or too long ones.
What I'll do now, is basically do that, the Arc Summary thing, except I won't be writing any chapters now. Maybe some dialogues in between, and some comments from the author. Other than that, this is just a short explanation of what I had imagined to happen with my story.
Some parts are similar to some other stories, some are way out there.
Hope you guys like this.
—
Captain America Winter Soldier:
Steve Rogers, Sam Wilson, Natasha Romanoff are joined by Mason Aves and Tony Stark in fighting against Project Insight and HYDRA.
Maria Hill takes over the Communication Systems, Natasha infiltrates as one of the WSC members, and the others go for the Helicarriers. Steve and Sam take one Helicarrier, Mason takes the second, and Tony Stark's Iron Man takes the last.
("When your most precious person, someone you've spent decades falling deeper and deeper in love with, disappears.. You're not a rational person, Steve. I should know. When you dropped the plane.. I.. I didn't even know what I was doing, I just wanted to either find you, or join you in death. Mason.. I've seen how much Mason loves his wife, Steve. I've seen how much they love one another.
I'd been with you for a few years, and your absence hurt me into becoming suicidal. I cannot comprehend the level of pain he must've felt, having been with Selene for decades at the time.
He knows he's somewhat to blame for what happened to Howard, he knows that his distraction had a hand in Hydra's survival. But is it really his fault? I don't consider it to be so.
I place the entire blame for Hydra's survival on us, not on Mason. On myself, and Colonel Phillips, and on the US Government officials that signed off on Operation Paperclip.
Don't blame Mason, Steve. Not when it's not even remotely his fault."
- Peggy Carter/Stevens to Steve Rogers.)
Hydra, once they'd lost Bucky Barnes, brought in the other five Winter Soldiers to protect Project Insight. Steve and Sam are faced with one of them, Tony with two, and Mason with the remaining two.
Mason doesn't hold back and kills his enemies without prejudice, and is the first to place the Chip.
(I, as an author, had debated bringing in Abomination in this fight, but never made up my mind on it. In this summary, he's absent because I don't see any way they can control him.)
Steve and Sam find it a bit hard to fight both Hydra goons and the Winter Soldier, but manage it and place their Chip. Tony just blasts his enemies in the face to take out his anger on Hydra for killing his mom, and places his own targeting Chip.
Natasha leaks all the data on the internet, and SHIELD is disbanded and named a Terrorist organisation. Other undercover Hydra agents are arrested, and Pierce is killed. Rumlow escapes with many injuries.
Steve and Mason talk calmly this time. Selene scares him, he says. Mason says that he admits some fault, but not the majority of it.
"When I said I left the public alone, I really left them alone. I was not a problem solver, there for every solution. That's why Wizards, my ancestors, had to go into hiding, you know."
Steve understands, and apologizes for his anger-filled harsh words. He apologizes to Selene too, and Selene warns him not to see them in the same way as the other mortals. Mason might like to pretend to be one of the others, but he's not.
Mason says nothing.
Steve asks if there are more secrets, and Mason says yes. Not anything regarding Hydra, but personal secrets.
There are a lot of secrets, some that even Selene doesn't know. It isn't about hiding things, but he just has a thing with not telling anyone everything. It's a personal issue of his, but he won't let it get in the way of their job of protecting the world. Someday, he will tell Steve a few more of his secrets, but not right now.
Peggy and her family move back to England under MIS's Protection and Bucky starts his Memory recovery process. He recognises Steve at least. He still decides to stay on Sanctuary until his mind is completely healed, and Selene is the Healer in charge of him.
Steve, Sam, Tony, Natasha return to New York to start planning a fight against Hydra.
Thor : The Dark World
MIS has been keeping an eye on Erik Selvig, Jane Foster and Darcy Lewis ever since they came to England, and they notice when Jane disappears. The Mediators, who were studying the Convergence with the DOM so that the Statute isn't broken, also see Jane disappear through a portal and Mason is contacted by both parties.
Mason only gets the Message when it's time for the Dark Elves to come to Earth. He joins Thor in fighting them, with no time for others to be informed, but the MIS join the fight.
Magic is useless against Malekith, even the strongest spells used by Mason are negated/absorbed by the Reality Stone, and any injury given by Thor's Lightning is healed by the Aether. Mason brings out the Scepter and uses the Energy blasts against Malekith, having some effect in damaging him. Otherwise he doesn't hold back at all. But even still Malekith is fighting the two evenly.
Meanwhile the MIS take care of fighting the other Dark Elves Malekith brought with him.
When the Convergence happens, Malekith creates the cloud of Reality Stone's magic that prevents the pair from approaching quickly. It disintegrates anything physical that touches it, as proven when a Dark elf thrown by an MIS agent just disintegrates. Spells splash on the cloud, but Mason realizes he can slow the cloud down with his Mind Stone enhanced Telekinesis.
They realize he's vulnerable now, having to take the Reality Stone out to take over the Nine Realms.
Malekith is a Sorcerer, Mason says. Not a physical fighter. But the Infinity Stone prevents him from using any of his Sorcery skills. His body is not made for fighting like Thor's, it won't take damage well. Thor remembers how much his lightning damaged him in Asgard, and says yes.
So he is a Sorcerer, which means he has a weaker body than Thor and Mason, who is also unable to use any Sorcery because of the Reality Stone.
Mason hands Thor his sword, Glamdring, and says he'll create a path and try to contain the Cloud of Reality Stone's energy. Malekith can't control the Aether with no hands, or no head.
Mason uses the Scepter to enhance his telekinesis and creates a sphere around Thor that keeps the Aether cloud away from him while creating another Shield around the Aether cloud to contain it.
Thor pushes through the cloud, which resists a bit, and cuts off Malekith's arms first, and then his head. The Aether explodes, sending Thor flying back, but Mason's Shield holds, preventing anything else from being damaged.
Mason condenses the Aether back into the Reality Stone with the Mind Stone's help, and hands it to Thor.
Earth already has two Infinity Stones, Mind and Time, and Mason doesn't want a third one to turn Earth into more of a Beacon. Neither does he want Avalon to come under Thanos's gaze by taking the Reality Stone there. Better he gets it from the collector than then risking Avalon.
Thor takes it to Asgard, where Loki pretending to be Odin sends it off to the Collector.
Malekith's ship is still on Earth, and the MIS calls dibs on studying it before SHIELD could even get there.
(I had imagined there to be a cameo of either Hermione or Sirius's son; I forgot his name, as one of the Mediators helping in the fight.)
Harry Potter returns to Avalon from his Sorcery training, and finally decides what he wants to do in life. He will help the Sorcerers of Earth in protecting the Universe. He will create an extension of the barriers on Earth on Avalon, three Sanctums and one Headquarters included.
Somewhere on Avalon, where people can learn Sorcery if they want.
The second planet with the barriers will mean that unless all the barriers of both planets are destroyed, Demons won't come to their Universe.
Mason helps by giving him access to his Repository of Knowledge, and helps him set the barriers up.
Age Of Ultron
Mason and Thor had joined the Avengers, along with the X-Men to fight Hydra.
(Wolverine had captured Sabertooth, who had also lost his memories, and Mason has been working on bringing his memories back. Sabertooth had taken an experimental drug which enhanced his powers, but in return he lost his humanity and his memories.
He still went back to Magneto, actually believing in Magneto's cause even without his feral behaviour, but he and Wolverine are not enemies any more.)
Avengers as a team has grown now, with a few other X-Men joining, along with Sam Wilson and Rhodey.
Selene has warmed up a bit to the Mortals, but she doesn't fight with the team. She doesn't consider Hydra as someone to waste her powers against. Mason.. he just fights because he's been feeling as if he hasn't done enough.
The last HYDRA base is destroyed by the team, but there are a lot more Powered people in the last base. Mutants, mutates, and even some inhumans. Most of them are defeated, but Pietro and Wanda escape using his superspeed.
(Since HYDRA didn't have the Scepter, they used the Chitauri Power sources and the old HYDRA weapons in their human experiments, allowing for a lot of variety in Energy based powers, while also allowing Wanda and Pietro to unlock their own Mutations.
Yes, they're mutants.)
Tony and Bruce gather the Chitauri Power sources, and all the tech Hydra has kept there, and they return to the Tower to celebrate the end of the fight against Hydra.
One of the items they picked up is the central computer for a Chitauri Leviathan, which Tony studies to create Ultron. Ultron goes wild, the Chitauri computer and the Power sources corrupting his programming, and he takes over.
Jarvis dies, and Ultron starts making the escape plan by hacking the Legion.
Up at the party, everyone tries picking up the hammer, and Steve comes close to moving it. Natasha refuses, and of the X-Men, Storm actually lifts it. Thor offers Mason the chance, and Mason finally decides to tell them one more secret.
He lifts the Hammer, shocking Thor, and says that Mjolnir and Mason actually have a history. Thor asks how, and Mason says that he fought the previous wielder of the hammer, Asgard's Goddess of Death, 2000 years ago.
How?
"Time travel accident took me from 1945 to 56 BC, during which time I managed to become an enemy of Asgard. The Goddess of Death and I fought, I lost, then we fought again, I won, and Odin came down to make a deal."
"Asgard doesn't have a Goddess of Death." -Thor.
"Asgard doesn't have a Goddess of death anymore. There was one, frankly a bitch and I hope I never have to see her again if she's still alive." -Mason.
Ultron appears and makes his "Strings on me" speech, and then after a short fight, he escapes with the Chitauri computer, and many of the Hydra weapons and even some Chitauri crystals.
(I was basically going to replace everything that the Scepter did in canon with the Chitauri computer. Just for convenience.)
He doesn't have the Scepter though, so remember that. It means that while his computer is complex, it isn't an actual mind like in canon.
The X-Men blame Tony, saying that he should not have played with the Chitauri computer. Who knows what HYDRA did with it, and let's not forget that it belongs to a Chitauri Leviathan. They say they will not join this fight, because if it goes south, there needs to be someone that can stop Ultron from the outside.
Tony argues that his Program wasn't finished, the Chitauri computer must've taken over somehow.
Ultron recruits the Maximoff Twins, who are wary of Ultron since Wanda can't read his mind. But when given the opportunity to kill Tony Stark, they join him.
Canon goes the same for a while, but when Wanda makes Hulk go wild, Mason is there to fight him. The destruction doesn't happen as Wanda had wished.
People had still seen Hulk get angry enough to almost attack people, and so, the Avengers go into hiding at Clint's home.
Canon resumes, and in the end, Sokovia flies. Pietro doesn't die, and Magneto appears from out of nowhere to keep Sokovia afloat. He had somehow found out that Wanda and Pietro were his grandchildren, and so he came to help them.
(Peter Maximoff, the Speedster from X-Men movies, was the brother of Wanda and Pietro's mother, who kept her last name after marriage and passed it down.)
Ultron dies, Magneto slowly brings Sokovia down with Mason's help, and Vision is never born. Either that, or Ultron successfully upgrades to his Vision body before they kill him.
(Let's just say that a technopath like Sage, Cypher, or someone locked Ultron out of the Internet before they killed him.)
Magneto tries to recruit Wanda and Pietro, and Pietro joins him to go to Genosha. Wanda refuses. She doesn't want to fight, not for the Brotherhood, not for the X-Men, and not for the Avengers.
But she knows she has very few options, since she just tried to help an AI destroy the world.
Mason takes Wanda with him to Avalon, and explains about Witches, Wizards, Sorcerers, and other Magicals. After leaving her at Harry Potter's School of Sorcery (Name undecided still), Mason returns home.
Thor returns to Asgard, wondering about the change in times. Heroes and threats have been appearing faster and faster since a few decades ago. And when Heroes start appearing in droves, it means the Universe is feeling threatened from some unknown threat.
Plus, Earth has only recently seen four out of the six Infinity Stones, two of which are currently still on Earth. Someone's playing games with the Stones, and he intends to find why.
—
Civil War
Sokovia Accords happen the same. The Mutants say a hard NO to the Accords, and Charles Xavier finally makes the decision to have the X-Men completely split from the Avengers. He warns the Governments, and Tony, that they will not be forced to register to any database. Consider the X-Men, and mutants, retired from Superhero business. Anyone that forces the accords on young people, Mutant or otherwise, is not their friend, and the X-Men will retaliate in kind.
The remaining Avengers are split in half, like canon, where Tony and Steve ask the others to pick sides. Natasha, Tony, Rhodey, and Spiderman on one side, Steve, Bucky(who's healed now), Sam, Scott, on the other side. Clint has retired after being given the option.
Thor and Hulk are off-world.
Mason is asked to choose a side, and he says, "I've been protecting this planet from threats since 56 BC, I don't need anyone's permission to do it again."
Zemo kills T'Chaka by pretending to be Bucky, and Steve runs away with him. They don't have a destination to go, so no Airport fight, but since Steve refuses to hand Bucky off to the UN for his trial, A fight still happens.
Mason watches them fight with disappointment, and after stopping them, he calls them children. He sends Steve, Bucky, and their half of Avengers to Sanctuary, and says to Tony,
"Friends.. comrades.. and fighting your allies at the drop of a hat. If all it takes is for the Governments to order you to fight your friends for the Avengers to do so.. I don't want to be part of it. I quit."
Tony reveals that an arrest order for Mason, Selene, and Wanda(who has entered into a relationship with our very own Harry Potter) is also out, and Black Panther attacks Mason to ask for Bucky so he can have his revenge.
Mason knocks T'Challa out, and deeming him unworthy of Bast's blessings, he takes the Power from T'Challa. He warns Tony not to come after any of the other Avengers, and to make sure to first read the Accords before signing it, before leaving.
T'Challa is taken back home, and he takes the Heart Shaped herb again. Bast meets him this time, and tells him that she's disappointed in him. Bast, the Goddess who went and faced Odin AllFather to defend a man, and her champion, who tried to kill an innocent out of false vengeance.
He will not die today, but he will have to prove that he's worthy of her powers before she'll bestow them on him again.
T'Challa leaves Wakanda, tracks Zemo down, and when Zemo tries to kill himself, saves him and talks him into giving up, thereby proving his worthiness to Bast and regaining his powers.
Tony learns about Zemo's plans from T'Challa, and about the extent to which the Accords will inhibit any child with superpowers. And so, to protect Spiderman and other people like him, he starts fighting them from the inside, changing them so they can actually help the world defend itself.
---
Thor Ragnarok.
When Odin dies, and Hela appears on Earth, Mason is there to make sure she leaves Earth. He follows Hela to Asgard to try and kill her but focuses on fighting her instead of saving Asgardians. Her Powers have grown in seclusion, and keep growing as long as she's on Asgard, and she almost proves too strong for him before he is rescued by Selene.
Heimdall had taken the time to rescue more people than in canon, and when Thor contacts him, he explains about Mason and Hela's history.
Thor, Hulk, Valkyrie, Loki come back to fight Hela and rescue Asgard, and Mason joins them. While they're enough to fight against her, Hela, being the eldest Odinchild, keeps getting stronger thanks to Asgard. So, Loki brings about Ragnarok, Hela dies, and Mason returns home, not caring about Asgardians too much. But he does warn Heimdall and Thor that they needed to escape asap.
He just wanted to kill hela.
(Asgardians are what threatened the Magical world 2000 years ago, and they haven't changed much. Still arrogant. What happens next is on them.)
—
Infinity War.
Asgardians are attacked by Thanos for the Space Stone, and Heimdall rescues the rest, leaving only Thor, Loki, Hulk, and Heimdall back. Loki gives the Tesseract to Thanos, and Thanos "kills" Loki.
Thor is found by Guardians, and the rest doesn't change much.
On Earth, New York is attacked by the two aliens, Tony and Spiderman go to space, join the Guardians in fighting Thanos.
The other two go for the Mind Stone that they track down in London, and attack Mason who is there to visit the MIS. He easily fights them back, and they promise to return with more force. Mason kills them to prevent them from ever leaving, but knows that the Chitauri will somehow still come to attack wherever he goes.
Seeing the attack on New York happen, Steve calls him and learns about the attack on Mason's life.
Steve asks where they can bait the aliens to, to prevent damage, and Mason decides on an island or something, somewhere with zero people.
Wakanda joins them, and so does the MIS, and the Mutants. Mason has the Mind Stone encrusted on his sword Glamdring, which he uses to fight.
The Chitauri come, led by Cull Obsidian, and they try to overwhelm the Avengers with numbers. But Mason is a one man army and holds his own, until he's attacked by Cull Obsidian and kept busy while the Chitauri overwhelm the rest of the fighters.
Mason is faster than Cull, and physically just a tiny bit stronger, so it is a bit of a tough fight. But in the end, Mason has a bigger bag of tricks, and so, he kills Cull and returns to fighting the Chitauri.
And then, Thanos appears, five Infinity Stones in his Gauntlet.
He easily dispatches the fighters, without killing them for some reason, until Mason attacks him and takes him to the Mirror Dimension to finally let loose.
"You think one Infinity Stone will be enough to combat the other Five?" Thanos asks, sounding amused.
Mason says, "The One is just in case. Otherwise I'm more than enough to deal with someone like you. You, on the other hand, will need all Six to kill me."
Thanos holds his Infinity Gauntlet up, and looking at the green gemstone, he says, "I have seen it all, you know. I've seen every moment of your life. From the moment you were born, to your time in the Past, to this very moment. I have seen all you can do."
Mason smiles, and says, "And I've seen all you've done in your thousand years of life, and all you'll do till the moment you die. The Time Stone isn't the only thing that allows for peeking into the past."
Thanos had just enough time to look into the past to learn about the enemies he might face. He didn't get the time to look into the future, or maybe the Time Stone didn't allow him to.
They fight, and while the Power stone destroys any defense Mason might put up, Mason's very large bag of tricks, along with the mental attacks by the Mind Stone is more than enough to keep up. All goes well, and Mason and Thanos keep fighting without one gaining the upper hand.
Until.. something happens.
(I hadn't made up my mind about what exactly yet.)
Either Thor appears inside the Mirror Dimension using the Bifrost, or Thanos brings someone inside the Mirror Dimension using the Space Stone. Maybe Steve, maybe Selene, maybe Harry, or one of the other wizards.
If it's Thor, Thor's anger filled destructive fight distracts Mason and Thanos lays a trap. He attacks Thor with the Infinity Stones energy beam while Thor is axe-less, and Mason jumps in with his sword to absorb the attack. Thanos disarms Mason of the weapon, and before Mason can get the sword back to himself, Thanos stabs Mason with a conjured dagger, since Mason's sword doesn't work against him, and steals the Mind Stone.
If it's someone else, Thanos just attacks them the same way, forcing Mason to defend them and leave himself open.
Thanos puts the 6th and Final Stone on the gauntlet, and exits out the Mirror dimension to do his snap.
Mason too exits, but is too late, and the snap happens.
(Why not have Mason prevent the snap? Mason is strong, but Thanos is more evil, more dedicated to his cause. Mason took the fight to the Mirror Dimension to prevent casualties, and Thanos knew it, so he brought casualties inside. Mason would definitely try to save whatever hostage Thanos brings, and Thanos knew it.)
Mason.. is dusted off, which he did not see coming at all, leaving Selene behind to feel his death and rage at the world.
—
Endgame
Enraged and extremely vengeful, Selene tracks Thanos down to his planet, and kills him, but he's already destroyed the Stones. When the other Avengers and Captain Marvel come to the Garden, it is to see Selene standing over Thanos's corpse, no Infinity Stones.
Five years go by, Selene has completely hid herself in Sanctuary, considering Mason's death her punishment for leaving him without telling anything. Candra keeps in touch with her, and with the MIS, who are in touch with the Avengers.
Scott Lang returns from the Quantum realm, and brings forth the Idea of Time Travel. Steve remembers Mason telling him that one of his Spells or something allowed him to travel through time, so he asks the MIS to contact Selene. It takes a while to convince her that there's a chance, but she comes to Earth with Harry Potter. He'd lost Wanda, his girlfriend, in the blip and if there's a chance to get her back, he will take it.
Steve asks Selene about Mason's time travel spells which he had learned about, and Selene reveals a brown coloured sand, which used to be gold.
"This.. used to be Time Sand, particles of Sand charged by the Power of the Time Stone which allowed it to manipulate Time. As soon as Thanos destroyed the Infinity Stones, destroyed the Time Stone, the Sands lost their Power. There is no way for me, or any Mage, to travel even a single second back in time."
But Scott has already proven that he can Time Travel through Pym particles. While Magic can't do it, Science can. Selene, Harry, and Wong stay with them to remind them of all the Laws of Time and to make sure they don't somehow bring anything harmful back from the Quantum realm.
So the tech group creates the time machine with Tony Stark's last minute help, and they decide to use Pym particles to go back in time to bring all the Infinity Stones to the present.
Harry stays back to defend the machine, along with Storm, who had lost Scott, and Jean, who had returned to Earth when she'd learned about Mason's death, while Selene goes with the others.
Selene, Tony, Steve, Scott, Bruce to New York 2012, for the Time, Mind, and Space Stones. Rhodey, Nebula to Morag for the Power stone. Clint, Natasha, to Vormir for Soul. And Thor and Rocket to Asgard for Reality.
Selene casts spells to prevent past Mason, and Jarvis, or any technology/magic from sensing or seeing any of them unless they purposefully bring attention to them. They see Mason fight a group of aliens right in front of them, as he pauses for barely a second thinking he saw something, but then returns to fighting.
Selene is happy to see him alive, but says that she might not be able to handle being in close proximity to him again. So, she leaves the Mind and Space Stones for Tony, Steve, and Scott, while taking Professor Hulk to New York Sanctum for the Time Stone.
She talks with Tilda, the Sorceress Supreme, about the future, and how they plan on returning the stones to the exact moment. Tilda is still reluctant to do it, despite knowing Selene all her life, and Selene is about to fight Tilda for the stone, old friend or not, before Bruce reveals that Dr Strange gave Thanos the Time Stone.
Tilda gives it to Selene, but not before getting a vow that the Stone will be returned within a minute of her letting it go. Selene promises.
The second group fails to get the Tesseract while Steve manages to get the Scepter, and past Loki escapes with the Tesseract.
They all return to the present, sans Natasha RIP, and create another Gauntlet. Selene is prepared to snap, and so is Harry, but in the end, Hulk does it and brings everyone back(Natasha optional).
Past Nebula brings Past Thanos to the future, and he attacks the base.
The Avengers, the X-Men, Wizards, Sorcerers, Wakandans, MIS, Shield, remnants of Xandar, Ravagers, everyone joins together to fight Thanos.
They fight him, and he once again gets the Gauntlet in his hands. But before he can Snap again, Mason appears and fights him.
He gets Glamdring from Selene(which she had taken after Mason blipped), and one by one, takes the Infinity Stones out of the Iron Man Gauntlet from Thanos.
This time, Thanos didn't have the Time Stone long enough and he hadn't seen Mason's entire life play out, and so, he did not know what powers Mason has, or what kind of person he is. So after a long fight, which is because Thanos is still one hell of an enemy, Mason wins and gets all the Infinity Stones in his possession.
He conjures his Kavach, which he hadn't felt necessary last time, and fixes the Infinity Stones on the hand, and snaps, dusting Thanos and his entire army off, winning the War.
The Kavach protects him from dying, but it still takes a lot out of him, and his healing mutation is temporarily slowed. Selene keeps her magic going and saves his life. But it's not over for him.
Not yet.
He snaps his fingers again, and from all over the Universe, cosmic energy gathers near him, and forms into Six more ingots. Six new Infinity Stones, brought into being from the remnant of the destroyed Stones, and powered by the Past Stones.
With 12 Infinity Stones in his possession, he steps into a different level of consciousness for a moment, and senses all the beings keeping an eye on him, including the Watcher, the Living Tribunal, Eternity, and Death.
The other humans just watch him warily, as all his wounds reheal on their own, and he stands up to look into empty air, and then speaks with it.
For Billions of years the Infinity Stones had remained separate. At most, two Infinity Stones were seen in the same Galaxy, let alone on the same planet. But then, in the last ten thousand years, Andromeda and Milky Way galaxies became the only two Galaxies with any Infinity Stones in them.
The Dark Elves found the Reality Stone, Asgardians found the Space Stone, and Humans already had the Time Stone. Mind Stone was lost, Soul was lost, and Power was purposefully hidden away.
And then, someone made sure Thanos found all of them, one by one. Someone made sure Thanos had no choice but to destroy the Infinity Stones out of some noble cause he put himself on. Someone gave him the ability to sense Infinity Stones.
Someone who manipulated him in childhood, someone who he was infatuated with.
Death.
Death wanted the Infinity Stones destroyed, for some reason. Mason doesn't know what, even his higher level of existence doesn't allow him that knowledge. Mason asks the other Cosmic Entities if that would be just let go?
The other, Living Tribunal included, force Death to talk, and she explains that the Infinity Stones are the backbone of the Universe, it cannot exist for long without them. And Death will not cease to exist until the Universe comes to an end.
She wanted to die, but she couldn't, and she couldn't live either, and so, she created two schemes. First one with bringing the Infinity Stones as close to a planet (she knows is important to the Universe) as possible. Earth. All so someone destroys all six Infinity Stones.
Not just in this Universe, but in more than half of them. If the Majority of the Universes don't have Infinity Stones, the Multiverse becomes unstable, and as soon as the Stoneless Universes die, the others follow.
Manipulating Thanos was easy, putting him on the quest to kill half of all life even easier. And Thanos, fearing that the other people will try to reverse it, would most definitely destroy the stones. At most 100,000 years later, the Universe will collapse in on itself, killing all Cosmic Entities. They will only return when the next Cosmos starts.
Either they.. or their Successors.
This leads to her second scheme, the Deathly Hallows. She created the Hallows and put her Cosmic Energy inside them so that when the time comes, her Successor will be chosen by Cosmic Laws. Mason being a reborn soul was just the best Successor for Death to choose, and so, she manipulated everything to make him the Master of all three Hallows, making him her Successor.
The Death of the Next Cosmos, that was his fate.
Mason tries to use the Infinity Stones to make him not the Master of Hallows, tries to discard Death's Mark on him, but the Cosmic Laws prevent him from doing it. When the Universe ends, Mason will take his place as the Next Death.
The Living Tribunal judges Death guilty of breaking Cosmic Laws by interfering with the Universe. Her choosing her Successor was allowed, many other Cosmic Entities do it, (sometimes even before the Universe ends) but her trying to manipulate the Universe into ending early is not allowed.
And as her Successor, the Living Tribunal makes Mason something the myths had promised after Death had spread lies about the Hallows. He makes Mason the Master of Death, giving him the authority to order Death around.
His next life as Death cannot be changed, but this way, the one who brought it about won't go unpunished. There is no reward to Mason for preventing it from happening, except for Death's Mastership.
Mason returns back to Earth, but the others had already seen him talk it all, and they're all grim faced at learning that there are cosmic entities that manipulated Thanos of all people. Mason reassures them that Cosmic Entities don't interfere in the Universe at all..
What about Death?
She won't be interfering in anything at all for the rest of her miserable existence.
Mason sends the repaired Infinity Stones out into the Universe, all spread out for everyone to see, and then hands the Past Stones to the Avengers so they can distribute it back in their own times.
"Can't you do it yourself?" Tony asks, not wanting to go back in time again.
Mason says, "I've just returned from being Dead, and have just gotten the news that I'll be alive until the Universe ends, and then join the Next Universe as its Death. I think I deserve a bloody vacation."
Steve goes back to the past and drops off the Infinity Stones one by one, and then stays back in 1950. He meets Peggy again, changes his name to Roger Stevens, and marries her. (That's why I named her Peggy Stevens lol.)
He meets Mason in the past, Mason recognises him obviously, and Steve asks him if he knows what all is going to happen in the future. Past Mason says he knows some, but some things aren't clear. He can't see anything beyond 1973.
But even if he could, he can't. Past Mason gives him the same explanation that future Mason gave him, about Time travel and how every second has multiple variations it can go through.
When the first Assassination attempt on Peggy is foiled and Steve, Peggy, and their children are hidden away, Steve understands why Mason can't act on the knowledge he's had about the future, since he can't do it either. He forgives Mason for hiding everything, and asks for forgiveness for how his younger self will act in the future. Mason doesn't understand then, but when Chapters 120-122 happen, he understands.
Back in present, Steve returns to the Avengers, names Sam Captain America after talking with Bucky, and asks for forgiveness for not coming back for him. Bucky grins and asks, "But you got the girl, didn't you?"
(I still think Steve betrayed Bucky by staying in the past, btw. But I know Bucky will accept the decision by faking happiness. God Bless that cinnamon roll.)
The world celebrates the others coming back, but problems are still brewing. Not that I'd even thought that far.
Mason visits Kamar Taj, to meet with the new Sorcerer Supreme, Wong. He hands Wong the Time Stone, saying that Kamar Taj needs the Time Stone to fight threats yet to come. And Mason would like Kamar Taj to be by his side when it happens.
Wong accepts the hand of friendship, and later gives the Time Stone back to Dr Strange, asking him not to lose it again.
Mason distributes the other Stones too, while the general public believes the Stones to have lost in space, no one knowing where they are.
Power- Thor.
Space- Carol Danvers.
Reality- Wanda
Time- Kamar Taj
Soul- Selene/himself
Mind- Emma Frost.
Not the Illuminati, but to fight against whatever new threats come.
Two Stones on Earth, two on Avalon, and two in space.
Mason brings another small planet where Asgard used to be, and Thor returns Asgard to life, becoming its King.
Mason then returns to a life full of hiding away with Selene, leaving the mortal world completely behind. Until the Universe ends, he will stay with Selene, his Mastership over Death meaning she doesn't die either, and when the Universe ends and the next starts, he will try to bring her with him.
This.. is the end of the Infinity Saga.
—
Apocalypse.
I don't know when this should happen, exactly, but I assume some time after Mason brings the Dusted people back. Mutants start rising in numbers, and seeing sufficient numbers, Apocalypse decides to come back.
He recruits some other Externals, and other mutants, and they help him come back in his own body. Mason, Selene, and Candra sense his return, but he blocks them from finding him.
Apocalypse is as physically strong as Thanos, but has a lot more powers. Mason is the perfect match for him, since Mason has a counter for every power of Apocalypse. Selene, Candra, and the X-Men and Brotherhood join together to fight Apocalypse's allies and servants.
But in the end, Selene and Mason come together and kill Apocalypse, ending the reign of En Sabah Nur.
Shorter than the others, but I hadn't thought too much about this part. I was actually going to leave Apocalypse's fate unknown, or maybe have Selene fight him during the 5 years between Infinity War or Endgame.
Anyway, he loses, the good guys win, hooray!
—
Now, time to explain some things I introduced but never explained properly. If there's more, please point them out and I'll do so immediately.
Explanation for 1973 and why the Time Stone couldn't see past it before 1973.
1973 is when Days of Future Past happened, it is when a Future got erased and Time changed completely.
There's a big change with the original movie plot.
Apocalypse somehow woke up after Endgame, and where in the canon timeline he lost, in this one he won with the help of the Sentinels that Wolverine didn't prevent from being invented.
He rules over the world, mutant supremacy to the win, as its King. Mason, Selene, Candra and other Externals that oppose him are killed first, followed by other Superheroes.
Wolverine goes to the past with Kitty Pryde's help, and changes the timeline since the X-Men had determined that the Sentinels are what caused their defeat. Sentinels enhanced by Celestial tech are what allowed Apocalypse to win against and kill Mason, Selene, Thor, etc. So, the plan is to prevent Sentinels from being invented.
Wolverine succeeds, Timeline is erased, and in this timeline, Apocalypse doesn't have Sentinels to take over and enhance using Celestial tech. So, he loses.
How did he stop the Time Stone from sensing his Timeline? Idk, Future Time Stone? Celestial Technology? Take a pick.
But when 1973 passed, and Future Wolverine managed to change time, the Timelines returned back to normal, and allowed the others to see through the Time again.
—
Sylvie Odinsdottir
I had imagined her returning to Selene after killing He-Who-Remains, maybe bringing Loki along with her. Loki reunites with Thor, and Sylvie joins Mason's family as his adopted daughter.
—
Wizards
I hadn't imagined anything about them, at all. No, really.
I did envision them joining the battle of Endgame, but not what they actually do later. How their lives adapt to the new planet, how they progress after 50 years of using Magic without fear of persecution.
There was a dialogue I'd imagined between a dying Dumbledore and Mason Aves, which I never put into words. Dumbledore has somehow figured out that Mason and Atharva are one person. Mason fulfills the dying man's wish and explains about his time travel.
Dumbledore then realizes, "So Grindelwald did win that day. When he sent you back in time you made sure Wizards had a world solely for ourselves."
Mason reassures him that it's not Grindelwald that won, but him. Grindelwald just used this event to fulfill his own satisfaction of having a hand in the Win for the Wizarding race.
Grindelwald knew he couldn't win that war, couldn't win against humanity, not with Sorcerers and mutants still on their side, and so, he did the next best he could. He gave Wizards a champion that he had already seen succeeding.
Mason Aves/Athreos Aetos.
Nothing else with Wizards.
—
Why Tony Stark wanted to talk to Wolverine.
Tony only learned about Hydra because he went to the X-Men, because he wanted to talk to Wolverine about something. Many of you might have asked what that is.
Well, it's Adamantium Poisoning.
After learning that Wolverine has Adamantium covering his bones, Tony starts to study its properties, because it hits too close to home. He's had metal inside his body, and he knows that it might have far reaching consequences.
He finds out that Adamantium will poison Wolverine's blood, slowly, but surely. And he wanted to warn Wolverine of it. Healing factor or not, a consistent dosage like that might kill him if it doesn't allow him to adapt first.
Why? Just because he's had such a previous experience.
—
Any more plot points I missed that you might need answers for? I probably thought of something to end those plots but forgot about them lol.
Feel free to ask any questions, anything at all, and I'll answer them.
—
Thank you for your support! Tata!