𝐒𝐎𝐋𝐀𝐑 𝐄𝐂𝐋𝐈𝐏𝐒𝐄 ➳ 𝙥𝙟𝙤 // 𝙖𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙧𝙨

xvi

NEW YORK 2012

Past Tony, Hulk, Steve, Clint, and Natasha stared down at a bloodied, defeated Loki.

"If it's all the same to you," he breathed, "I'll have that drink now."

Present Tony peered at them from behind a pillar. He spoke into his comms. "Cap, I've got to say, that outfit does nothing for your ass."

"No one asked you to look, Tony," Steve replied on the comms. Tony could almost hear him scowling.

A miniscule Scott was perched on Tony's shoulder in his Ant Man suit.

"I think you look great, Cap," Scott encouraged. "As far as I'm concerned, that's America's ass."

"Who gets the magic wand?" Past Natasha asked all of the Past Avengers, holding up Loki's scepter.

"SHIELD's coming up now," Past Steve nodded towards the door.

Present Tony eyed the scepter. "Ball's in play. Heads up, Cap."

MEANWHILE, WITH BRUCE

"It is the duty of the Sorcerer Supreme to protect the Time Stone," the Ancient One shook her head at Bruce. He had found her on a rooftop, and was currently trying to get the Time Stone from her.

"Yeah? Then why the hell did Strange give it away?" Bruce scoffed.

The Ancient One froze, staring at Bruce in disbelief. "What did you say?"

"Strange gave Thanos the Time Stone," Bruce repeated.

"Willingly? Why?" she frowned.

"Don't know," Bruce sighed. "Maybe he made a mistake."

"Or I did," the Ancient One looked down at the city. "Strange is meant to be the best of us."

"Then he must have had a reason," Bruce shrugged.

"I fear you may be right," the Ancient One waved her hands intricately over the stone's pendant and it opened, revealing a glowing green gem.

She removed it from the pendant, placing it in Bruce's palm.

"Thank you," Bruce said sincerely.

The Ancient One pressed her lips together. "I'm counting on you, Bruce. We all are."

THANOS' SHIP 2014

Past Nebula hung from the ceiling, cables connected to her head leading to a glowing screen on the other side of the room.

"Run diagnostics. Show me her memory files," Thanos ordered Ebony Maw. The bony alien scanned her information, and Nebula's body involuntarily twitched.

Gamora watched from the side with a frown on her face.

An alert flashed on the screen.

"Sir, the file appears... entangled," Ebony Maw explained. "It was a memory, but not hers. There's another consciousness sharing her network. Another Nebula."

Thanos' face darkened. "Impossible."

"This duplicate carries a time stamp... from nine years in the future," Ebony Maw whispered in awe.

"Where is this other Nebula?" Thanos mused.

"In our solar system. On Morag," Ebony replied.

"Can you access her?" Thanos asked.

"Yes, the two are linked." Ebony Maw began to type something into the screen.

Thanos stared into Nebula's eyes. She shifted uncomfortably. "Search the duplicate's memories for Infinity Stones."

MORAG 2014

Past Peter Quill danced around, wearing a red leather coat, badly belting the lyrics to a song that was playing in his headphones.

"So he's an idiot," Rhodey wrinkled his nose. He, Natasha, and Nebula were hiding behind a tree.

Nebula grimaced. "Yes."

"You're telling me this is the guy who killed his own father?" Natasha whispered.

"He has his good days," Nebula shrugged.

Quill spun around for a bit before he saw Rhodey standing in front of him. Quill's eyes widened. "Oh, fu-" 

Rhodey punched him in the face and Quill crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

— — — time skip — — — 

The temple doors slid open to reveal an eerie looking chamber.

"Hang on," Rhodey frowned. "This would be about the time the spikes come out, y'know, with the skeletons still on them?"

"Yeah, Nebula, it's honestly giving me major Indiana Jones right now," Natasha agreed.

Nebula stopped in her tracks. "What are you talking about?"

Rhodey shrugged. "I'm just saying, when you break into a place called "The Temple of the Power Stone," there are usually..." His eyes wandered to the power stone in the center of the chamber, a web of lasers surrounding it. "Traps and stuff."

Nebula stepped inside.

"Okay, don't say I didn't warn you," Rhodey muttered. He and Natasha exchanged glances.

They walked towards the laser web together, and Rhodey examined it.

"These are photovoltaic lasers on a constantly shifting matrix. Gonna be damn near impossible to neutralize unless we-" 

Nebula stuck her hand inside the lasers, grimacing as it scorched the metal on her hands, and removed the stone from the web.

"Whoa!" Nat's eyes widened.

Rhodey stared at her charred hand.

"I wasn't always like this," Nebula murmured.

He sighed. "Yeah, me neither. I guess we do the best with what we've got, huh?"

She handed him the orb containing the stone.

"Let's get out of here. Place gives me the creeps. Sync up. Three... two... one..."

Rhodey and Natasha tapped their cuffs, and they shrunk away, immersing themselves back into the quantum realm. Nebula, however, remained full size. She reached for her cuff, but her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she collapsed, seizing and writhing on the ground.

Her eyes snapped open all of a sudden and she went still. A projection of Thanos came out of her eyes. 

The last thing she remembered before everything went black was herself thinking, Oh shit.

A/N:

And that's a wrap for this chapter! I know you guys probably want to see how Nico and Clint are doing, and I promise, we're getting there, but for now, enjoy this chapter pretty close to how the movie played out. This is to give some background for the events that are about to follow.

Sorry for the delay! Writer's block is super hard to overcome, and if any of you guys write, you would know lmao. Thanks for being patient with me and I hope you're enjoying this fic! Keep commenting and voting, I love reading and interacting with your comments, it keeps me motivated. Thanks!