The Soulmate Initiative: Book 2

5. Bad timing

LOCATION: AVENGERS MANSION

All the Avengers gather in the lounge to discuss the stones and a plan. Stacey takes the lead "Okay, so the how works. Now, we gotta figure out the when and the where." Prisha winces a little and shifts uncomfortably, only a few of them notice, one being Lavina, who whispers to her "Are you alright?" Prisha nods "Baby's kicking." She takes Lavina's hand in her own and places it on her stomach, which Stacey continues "Almost everyone in this room has had an encounter with at least one of the six infinity stones." Ashley interrupts "Or substitute the work encounter for damn near been killed by one of the six infinity stones." Scott pipes up "Well, I haven't. But I don't even know what the hell you're all talking about." Regina then says "Regardless, we only have enough Pym Particles for 10 round trips. And these stones have been in a lot of different places throughout history." Ashley nods "Our history. So, not a lot of convenient spots to just drop in, yeah?" Penelope concludes "Which means we have to pick our targets." "Correct." Stacey continues "So, let's start with the Aether. Tasia, Ashley, what do you know?" Ashley gives Tasia a gesture.

"Uh, where to start? Um… The Aether, firstly, is not a stone. It's more of an angry sludge sort of thing." Lavina rolls her eyes "Here's an interesting story, though, about the Aether. My Grandfather, many years ago had to hide the stone from the Dark Elves. So Ashley, actually, she stuck her hand inside a rock this one time, and the Aether stuck itself inside her-" Everyone looks at Ashley, who just ignores them "-and she became very, very sick. And so I had to take her to Asgard, which you already knew, and we had to try and fix her." Tasia smiles a little "I got to introduce her to my mother…" But her smile falls "Who's dead and, um… and my father… who's also dead." She hangs her head as Ashley gets up and walks over to her "Everyone's dead." She pulls Tasia over to a couch and holds her in her arms.

They all sit around the dining room table eating, Rocket gets up on the table to explain the next stone "Quill said he stole the Power stone from Morag." Warren asks "Is that a person?" "No, Morag's a planet. Quill was a person." Scott asks, with wide eyes "Like a planet? Like in outer space?" "Oh, look. It's like a little puppy, all happy and everything." He pats Scott on the head "Do you want to go to space? You wanna go to space, puppy? I'll take you to space."

Nebula takes the next stone "Thanos found the Soul stone on Vormir." Nian, who's taking notes, as they're all sitting on the couches, asks "What is Vormir?" "A dominion of death, at the very center of the celestial existence. It's where Thanos murdered my sister." They all stare in silence, then Penelope comments "Not it."

The Avengers are updating everyone on the Chitauri, watching some old footage, Rocket asks "How long did you fight these guys?" Nian replies "About, uh, two or three hours." "Hours? The Chitauri are the suckiest army in the galaxy. Why didn't you just blow up the mothership?" Stacey responds "We didn't know that was a thing." Rocket laughs hysterically "YOU DIDN'T KNOW THAT WAS A THING? EVERYONE KNOWS-" Ashley, who had picked up an electric shaver, turns it on and shaves a strip of hair off Rocket's head "HEY!" Making everyone else laugh.

Warren is asking Stacey about the tesseract "And what happened to the tesseract after that?" "It's at the bottom of the ocean. It fell out of the plane after I had to crash it." "Yeah, I've been meaning to ask, why did you have to crash the plane anyway?" Stacey sighs "There were bombs onboard." "Bombs onboard. And you couldn't have jumped out of the plane before you crashed it?"

They've called in a friend, Christine Strange, Doctor Stephen Strange's wife, she and their 12 year old daughter Melina survived the snap. Over the five years, the Avengers have taken care of Melina when her mother didn't have anyone available to look after her while she worked. While Melina is playing with little Frigga, Lucy curled up in Stacey's arms, Christine explains the Time stone. Afterwards, the team discuss and Regina comments "You've got a nice place in the village." Ashley nods "Yeah, on Sullivan Street?" Christine shakes her head "Bleecker Street." Nian realises something "Wait, you live in New York?" "Yeah." "Guys. If you pick the right year, there are three stones in New York." Ashley turns to him "Shut the front door."

Steve stands in front of her team "Alright, we have a plan. Six stones, three teams, one shot." 

LOCATION: AVENGERS TOWER

Prisha, who's been finding it difficult to be on her feet for more than a few minutes at a time for the past day or so, hugs everyone from where she's sitting on the couch, then gets carried to a car by Tasia. While Warren and the children get up to give everyone hugs, as they leave the house to drive to the Avengers Tower as a precaution. Unbeknownst to those about to time travel, but Prisha has gone into labour. As soon as Warren realises this, though Prisha is adamant she isn't because she isn't due for several more weeks, Warren calls Christine. When Christine tells them stress can induce early labour, reality hits. Christine brings a colleague with her to the tower to help Prisha through the labour.