[1] ɴᴏᴛʜɪɴɢ ʟᴀꜱᴛꜱ ꜰᴏʀᴇᴠᴇʀ, ᴍᴀʀᴠᴇʟ.

21.| ᴇɴᴅɢᴀᴍᴇ [4]

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.CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE.
[21]. Endgame.
[PART FOUR]
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❝ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴍᴏᴍ ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅ ᴋɪʟʟ
ᴍᴇ ❞
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JAMES MADE HIS WAY outside. He stayed there for a moment just sitting outside the Avengers Compound, staring at the floor, deep in thought. He looks beat, the only possibility of victory now not an opportunity. He looks up as a deafening noise breaks the silence in the distance. As he looks, an Audi R8 speeding towards the entrance. The car pulls over to him, but goes a bit too far, then reverses to him.

That's when Tony Stark rolled down the window and looks at James. "Why the long face? Let me guess: He turned into a baby."

James nodded. "Among other things, yeah. What are you doing here?"

Tony gets out of the car and walks around to the back. "That's the EPR Paradox. 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." he says ignoring the question.

"You did."

"Oh, did I?" Tony says dramatically acting like he did not. "Thank God I'm here. Regardless, I fixed it." He holds up his right hand, with a device on it. "A fully functioning Time-Space GPS. I just want peace." He then makes a peace sign with his fingers. "Turns out, resentment is corrosive, and I hate it. Plus, the witch made you happy and I'd be a really bad uncle if I didn't help my favorite Nephew."

"I'm your only Nephew."

Tony nodded. "Still my favorite. But anyway, We got a shot at getting these stones, but I gotta tell you my priorities: Bring back what we lost? I hope, yes. Keep what I got? I have to, at all costs. And... maybe not die trying will be nice."

"Sounds like a deal."

"Happy you said that, because I've got you something special—" Tony says before reaching into his truck and pulling out James's old battle quiver. "I held onto it—scared I wouldn't have the chance to give you it back."

James smiled before taking ahold of it. "Thank you. I didn't think I'd be alive to hold it again."

"That makes the two of us."

"So you ready to get your girl back?" Tony questions in a serious tone.

James shook his head. "I'm ready to get our family back."

"Let's get to work." Steve smiled

With that, the group split up to go fetch the rest of the remaining Avengers squad while James and Tony stayed behind working on the machine. It felt good to James to work with Tony again, he missed it.

After about an hour almost everyone arrived once again. Thor was in a hoodie, drinking a beer and walking through the compound's Testing Chamber. James is also there, walking in from behind Thor.

"I see the god of thunder really let himself go." The man says before turning to Rocket. "Build a bear, How's it going?"

Rocket huffed. "It's Rocket. Take it easy. You're only a genius on Earth, pal."

"Little Rogers Junior, I see you got bulked up." A voice said

James turned his head and smiled once his eyes fell onto Clint. "Though I'd have to go down there and beat your ass into coming," he says walking up to the man and hugging him.

Clint smiles returning the hug. "I'm ready. Let's do this."

James nodded.

A helmet similar to Ant-Man's but white and more visible face pops on Clint's head, and he goes quantum. Clint flies through the quantum realm and into an opening. After a moment Clint returns, and rematerializes on the glass platform, breathing heavily and sitting on the platform.

Natasha ran towards him. "Hey, hey. Look at me. You okay?"

Clint nodded, holding up the baseball glove and throw it to Stark. "Yeah, it worked. It worked. We're getting them back."

James smiles. "We're getting them back." he repeats.

Tony smilies before going to the lab. The Avengers were now in a room with some hologram displays, showcasing each of the six Infinity Stones, sitting around a table. Tony, James, Steve, and Bruce are pacing at the front, clearly leading the planning of the mission.

"Okay, so the "how" works." Steve starts off. "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"

"Or I'd substitute the word encounter for damn well near been killed by one of the six Infinity Stones." Tony interrupts

James rolled his eyes. "Regardless, we only have enough Pym Particles for one round trip each, and these stones have been in a lot of different places throughout history."

"Our history. So, not a lot of convenient spots to just drop in." Tony adds

Clint hummed. "Which means we have to pick our targets?"

"Correct."

"Let's start with the Aether. Thor, what do you know?"

The group turned towards Thor sitting on a chair with his sunglasses on. It is impossible to tell whether he is awake or asleep.

"Is he asleep?" Natasha questions

"No, I'm pretty sure he's dead," Rhodes says.

James huffed. "Thor!" he shouts causing the god to jump up startled. "Aether, tell us about it."

Thor sighed as he walked towards the stone. "Where to start? Umm... The Aether, first, is not a stone, someone called it a stone before. It's more of... an angry sludge thing, so... someones gonna need to amend that. Here's an interesting story though, many years ago... My grandfather had to hide the stones from the Dark Elves—"

He wiggles his fingers to imitate a spooky ghost.

"Oh, there she is. That's Jane... She's... an old flame of mine... 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 continued on the verge of tears. "and oh you know, Jane and I aren't even dating anymore, these things happen though you know, nothing last forever—"

James shook his head as he pushed the man back into his chair.

"I'm not done yet," Thor argued

"I don't care." James smiled. "It's fine for breakfast. Please and thank you."

Tony nodded in agreement. "That sounds like an amazing idea, Kid."

Maybe things are going to get better.