Capítulo 1530: 29
Chapter 29Summary:
The Ancient One's origins
Welcome to the mess that is the Avengers, Dr Betty
Scott and the Pyms join the madness.
Jane doesn't deal well with losing Thor again.
And why can't Couslon find the Black Widow and Hawkeye's files?
Chapter Text
"And SHIELD has the Space Stone." Tony said.
"When you're ready to act, let me know and I'll see about getting you an appointment with Fury." Hill said.
"You don't really think that he'll just hand it over, do you?" Tony snorted.
"Of course not, but if you're in a meeting with him, somewhere that's clearly not SHIELD, how can you possibly have broken in and stolen it, at the same time?" Hill replied. "I'm thinking that we give Fred, George and Peter the chance to fetch it. Fury wouldn't expect them to sit in on whatever meeting, so he's not likely to pick them as being the culprits."
"Maybe with Happy and May on transport and comms?" Steve offered.
"That'd work." Hill nodded.
"Very well." Pepper agreed. "We'll leave that for those mentioned to plan. And perhaps, Darcy and Buck should be in that group, too. Anything else?" She waited for a few moments. "No? Then I close the meeting. Thank you for attending and keep an eye on your inbox for further information." She smiled and sat down. "Gods above, I need a coffee."
~~~
February 4th 2011
The Ancient One stood calmly, her bright yellow robes catching the light, as she opened the door to the sanctum to Tony and Bruce.
"Dr Banner. Dr Stark. Welcome to the New York sanctum." She stepped back and gestured for them to enter.
"Thank you, honoured one." Bruce gave her a half bow and with a deep breath entered the door. There was a lot they had to explain, if they were hoping that she would help them.
Seven hours later, he shook her hand. "Thank you." He said.
"Do not thank me, doctor, the idea of destroying the Time Stone is… abhorrent…" The woman said. "But the destruction that this Thanos could cause with it is… worse. The destruction that he could cause with all seven Stones is…"
"Half of everything… Gone…" Tony said. "I know. We lived through it."
"Indeed, you did." The woman gave him a sad smile before closing her eyes and sighing. "So did I."
Both men jerked their heads around to look at her.
"What?" Tony asked, his eyes wide.
"I was but a young child when Thanos was destroyed." She said. "My parents were spared by his Snap but my father died as a result of the Returning."
Tony winced, he remembered Bucky telling him that nearly a quarter of the population died in the Returning, most due to Returning the place they'd been Snapped away from. For many it had been in mid-air or mid-ocean. For others it had been on highways or railways. The Returning was nearly as lethal as the Snap had been.
"I'm sorry…" Tony hadn't realised what his actions would cause.
"No. No, do not be sorry." The Ancient One shook her head. "My parents were… recluses… I suppose you would call them." Her precise pronunciation eased and an odd accent became evident. "I spent many hours watching many homemade films. I knew my father, I knew what he looked like when happy, I knew what he looked like when sad, I knew what he sounded like when angry, even though I barely remembered what he smelt like. I… to this day I can only imagine what his arms felt like, but my brothers, aunts and uncles told me that every hug they gave me was from him. I was loved and I knew it." A single tear ran down her face.
"I… I'm sorry…" Bruce said, his head falling forward.
"You did not kill him, Thanos did." She argued. "If Thanos hadn't sought the Stones, my father would have lived. That is why, many years after his death, I sought out the Sorcerer Supreme."
"Strange…" Tony whispered.
"Yes." She nodded. "I begged him to teach me, to train me. I thought that those that were left, those that lost loved ones to the Stones, in turn became responsible for the protection of the Stones. I felt the need to be one of those protectors." Her gaze dropped from them to the floor. "But I over estimated my skills, as many young people are want to do. I miscast a spell on the Time Stone. I had intended to create a mirror-verse and secure the Stone within it. Instead… Instead, I created mirror-versions of myself and the Time Stone threw me into the past. But like you, I was not thrown into my own timestream, but a parallel one and a mirror of me joined my original timestream."
"Oh, hell…" Tony muttered.
"I cannot die of natural causes, because in this timestream I am not natural." She went on. "I have watched as, in timestream after timestream, my mirror-selves die at the hands of Kaecilius and his acolytes. In timestream after timestream, I have seen Dormammu defeated by the words of a pacifist. In timestream after timestream, I have seen the destruction that Thanos left in his wake. In timestream after timestream, I watched as you and your… colleagues defeated Thanos. In timestream after timestream, I watched as you died." Her face went hard. "And I came to realise that until the Stones are secure, this will continue to happen."
"Oh, gods." Bruce whispered.
"What do we need to do?" Tony squared his shoulders.
"Kaecilius may kill me, but my death against that of half the universe? That is something that I can accept." She said.
"But would that effect the version of you, that is natural to this timestream?" Bruce asked.
"No, it would not. The mirror-versions of me that the Stone created and threw into various timestreams are complete, they will have no bearing on the version of me that is naturally born in each stream. Just as I have no impact on the child born to my parents in this timestream. Unless I were to deliberately interact with her, of course."
"Like us, when we used the quantum realm to time travel?" Bruce asked.
"Precisely." The Ancient One replied.
"And what of that child, here?" Tony asked. "Will she go on to train with Strange?"
"She will have the talent, but whether she will take that path, I will not say. Having a father may change what she wants and I refuse to look into her future, it will be what she makes of it, not what the Time Stone decrees."
"Agreed." Tony said. "So, you'll send the Stone with us to the Norns?"
"No, but I shall bring it with me, when I travel with you to the Norns." She corrected.
"Huh…" Tony grunted, having her join them, hadn't occurred to him. "Yeah, okay, we can do that."
~~~
February 5th 2011
"Hello, Betty." Bruce smiled at the young woman, as she opened the apartment door.
"Bruce Banner." She narrowed her eyes at him. "The General told me that you've handed the project back to him, something about not knowing enough to complete it... But I remember Hulk. What did you and Stark do?"
"Ah, not us." Bruce ducked his head. "We think it might have been a cause-and-effect from a miscast spell, the Ancient One was trying to hide the Time Stone and… Well…? Instead of creating a mirror verse, just for the Stone, she ended up creating mirror versions of herself, that were sent to other timestreams. The 'original' her was thrown from her timestream, into this one and a mirror version, left in her place. But how that sequenced into us being time-travelled and also thrown into this timestream, we haven't worked out, not yet." Bruce blurted out.
"Who else is here? Who else remembers?" Betty asked.
"Tony, the Avengers, their families and a few others."
"And who have you told?"
"Tony and Bucky told Howard and Maria." Bruce winced.
"That's it?"
"Oh, T'Challa told his father and Frigga knows." Bruce frowned. "But I think that's it."
"You're here to recruit me, aren't you?"
"I was hopeful, yes."
"Good, I'm packed, let's go." She indicated to a trio of suitcases, in the hall behind her.
~~~
March 2nd 2011
"Hello, Hope, Scott, Hank, Janet. I'm Pepper, Tony's wife." Pepper gave the four people waiting in her office, a smile. "Welcome to Iron Tech."
"Pepper Potts." Hank nodded to her. "Do you have any idea what's coming?"
"Excuse me?"
"I sure hope that Stark kept a couple of those suits for himself, we're going to need them." The older man went on, ignoring Pepper's question and his wife's sigh of exasperation. "I didn't go wading back through the quantum realm looking for my wife, just for Thanos to kill her."
"Wait." Pepper held up a hand. "Thanos? What does the name Thanos mean to you?"
"Hnn…" Scott made an odd noise, part moan and part whine.
"Grr…" The sound that came from Hope's throat could not be called anything but a growl.
"Ah." Pepper nodded. "You know."
"Big… Purple… Killed… millions…." Scott muttered.
"Billions." Pepper corrected. "And that was just here on Earth. Billions, trillions, quadrillions and who knows how many more, out there, in the rest of the universe."
"And how does Stark plan to stop him?" Hank asked.
Pepper studied the man before answering. "We have one Stone in our control. Access to a second and know the location of a third."
"And?"
"And once Loki brings the Mind Stone to Earth, we will be taking it and the three from Earth to the Norns. At the suggestion of the queen of Asgard."
"Why?"
"She believes that they may help us." Pepper said. "Either by destroying the Stones or by telling us where we can hide them that Thanos can never find them."
"Without them, he can be defeated by a combined army." Hank nodded.
"Also we have Uru chains that have been created specifically to restrain Titans." Pepper's smile went sharp, with too many teeth showing.
Hope's smile matched Pepper's. "Why can we not just remove his head? Didn't Thor do that?"
"He did." Pepper nodded. "But we are unsure if it he was weakened by using the Stones or if Thor was actually strong enough to decapitate him. And we may be forced to try that, anyway. But he's killed so many, he deserves punishment and killing him? Is not truely punishment."
"Imprisoning him is." Hank nodded.
"But is there anywhere that can hold him, if he were to free himself of the chains?" Janet asked.
"There is." Pepper remembered watching a recording that Tony had made of his and Bruce's visit to the Ancient One. "And discussions are underway to with the one person that can access that place."
"What do you want from us, then?" Hank asked.
"Meet with us, up at the lake and see what we've planned. Add your ideas to it and be ready to fight, if things go wrong." Pepper said. "But mostly…? We want you to live. Live the lives that were taken from us, live the lives that we would have if Thanos hadn't attacked."
"The best revenge is a life well lived." Scott said and Pepper smiled.
~~~
August 19th 2011
Darcy heard a quiet knocking sound and looked up from a sleeping Jane to see Bucky and Tony standing in the hall, just outside of Jane's room on their medical floor. She gave them a sad smile and the two men sidled into the room.
"How's she doing?" Tony asked, shocked at how small the astrophysicist was.
"Not great, but better than I expected her to be." Darcy whispered back.
"She's going to be okay, though?" Bucky asked, wrapping his metal arm around Darcy's trembling shoulders.
"She will." Darcy's voice was quiet but firm. "Even if I have to blackmail Odin into sending Thor back."
Neither Tony nor Bucky smiled or laughed at her threat, they knew Darcy well enough to know that if push came to shove, she'd do it. And having listened to Thor talk about Odin after the fall of Asgard, Darcy knew a lot of things that Odin didn't want – or hadn't wanted, in the other timestream – exposed to his sons or the people of Asgard. If he forced her hand, she knew enough to ruin him.
"Right, then…" Tony bit his lip and nodded.
"What do you need, doll?"
"I'm fine, Buck, but Janey's going to need something to occupy her for a while." Darcy tilted her head to press a kiss to Bucky's cheek. "Maybe Nebula and Bruce would work with her, she's close to cracking the Bifrost. Or well… closer than she's ever been…"
"It would keep the three of them out of the suit workshop." Tony nodded. "I'll talk to them."
"Thanks, Tony." Darcy gave the genius a smile and watched the two leave the room.
~~~
January 2nd 2012
He studied the desk in front of him and frowned. Why were there pictures of Natasha, two young women and an equally young man, on his desk? Should he know who they were? A few taps on the keys and his computer was up and running.
"What on Earth…?" His frown deepened. "Where are Widow and Hawkeye's current mission statements?" Another few taps and he sat back, blinking in confusion. "What?" He reached over, picked up the telephone receiver and pressed a single button. When the call connected, he spoke. "Hill, why can't I locate the Black Widow and Hawkeye's files?"
"… Ah…" The woman answered. "Say nothing more about them and meet me in the parking garage in five, be prepared to be out of the building for the rest of the day."
"Why?"
"You want to know about them, that's the deal." Hill said.
"Ten minutes." He countered. "I need to get a coffee."
"Ten minutes." Hill agreed and ended the call.
He looked at the phone as he laid the receiver back in its cradle, then tilted his head to look at the wall. He picked up his cell-phone and opened up a web-browser. A minute spent tapping on the screen and his frown was almost a glare. He deleted the search and stood up, taking a few seconds to clear his mind and blank his expression, before he left the office. In the kitchen at the end of the hall, he poured himself a coffee in a travel mug and headed for the garage.
He saw the tall brunette woman standing beside a large black SUV.
"Not taking Lola?" He asked.
"Lola's not here."
His glare suddenly reappeared. "Who touched her?"
"Get in and I'll explain." Hill said, climbing into the driver's seat.
His glare didn't lessen as he opened the passenger door and settled in the other front seat. "Explain. Now." He ordered.
"Check the date on your cell." She said. "Not just the date but the year, too."
He narrowed his eyes and pulled his cell back out. A tap on the screen had it lighting up and his eyebrows rose as he saw the date.
"What?" His voice was flat.
"Yeah…" Hill sighed.
"Are you serious?"
"Yeah…"
"2012." He said. "January 2012."
"Yeah…"
His eyes narrowed again. "How?"
"We're not certain." Hill said. "We're working on the hypothesis that one of the Ancient One's spells went wrong. In 2070, or there abouts."
"What?" He repeated.
"Oh, it's worse than that." Hill sighed. "Stark was the first back, him and Barnes. They've been working on this since 1991. They even pulled the Captain in on it. And Asgard. And the alien, Nebula. Although, she's Tony's daughter, now. And get this… The Captain does counselling for the Bayonne PCYC."
"Huh…" He grunted. "And Barnes?"
"No-one gets to Stark without going through him." Hill answered. "He's Stark's bodyguard, Coulson."
~~~
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