𝐒𝐎𝐋𝐀𝐑 𝐄𝐂𝐋𝐈𝐏𝐒𝐄 ➳ 𝙥𝙟𝙤 // 𝙖𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙧𝙨

xvii

MORAG 2014

Nebula's eyes snapped open as she lay on the floor of the temple. 

"He knows," she whispered, horrified.

She raced to her feet, running as fast as she could to the escape pod. Shit. Shit, shit, shit.

She finally bounded into the ship, quickly opening a communication line and rambling into it.

"Barton, di Angelo, come in! We have a problem: Thanos knows! Thanos-"

She stopped abruptly, seeing a large shadow being cast over the escape pod. She looked out the window and peered up, gasping at what she saw. 

There was nothing she could do before the whole pod was beamed up by Thanos' ship.

NEW YORK 2012

Steve dropped down from a building into an abandoned alleyway. He heard a whistle and turned sharply, relaxing when he saw that it was only Tony hiding behind a car.

"We've got a problem," Tony sighed.

Steve huddled with Tony and Scott while Tony explained the situation.

Steve's eyes flashed. "How could you lose it?!"

"What do you want?" Tony scowled. "I got hit in the head with a Hulk!"

Scott was pacing nervously. "You said we only had one shot. This was our shot. We shot it. It's shot. It was six stones or nothing! Six stones or-"

"You're not helping-" Tony interrupted.

"You ruined the Time Heist!" Scott bit out.

Scott and Steve went back and forth for a bit while Tony was deep in thought.

Suddenly, he had a realization.

"What other options did we have on the Tesseract?" Steve asked.

Scott stopped pacing. "Whoa, whoa. We don't have any other options! We can't go to any other times. No do-overs! We've only got one particle left, each. Use it now, that's it, bye-bye. We don't come home."

"But it we don't try, no one else comes home either," Steve argued.

Tony looked up. "I got it. There's a way to re-take the Tesseract, and acquire new particles." He turned to Steve. "Military installation, Garden State."

Steve's face changed to one of recognition. Scott remained blank.

"When were they both there?" Steve wondered in a hushed voice.

"I have a vaguely exact idea," Tony shrugged.

"How vague?" Steve frowned.

"Hang on, what's in New Jersey?" Scott looked between the two men, raising an eyebrow.

Tony was still speaking to Steve. "I know they were there, and I know how I know."

Steve paused before sighing. "Looks like we're improvising."

"Wait! What are we improvising?" Scott jumped in.

Steve handed Scott the staff and told him to take it back to the compound, before swiftly shrinking down to quantam level along with Tony.

VORMIR 2014

Nico and Clint stood at the front of the Benatar, staring down at the large purple planet.

"Under different circumstances, this would be totally awesome," Clint breathed.

Nico let out a humorless laugh. "I've seen the deepest pits of hell and this is still kind of cool."

Clint looked at him strangely. Nico shrugged it off.

— — — — a few minutes later — — — —

Clint and Nico stood on the sandy dunes of Vormir, staring out at the vast expanse of nothing. How were they supposed to find the Soul Stone here?

Clint fired a Pym Particle at the Benatar and it shrunk down to the size of a figurine. Nico bent down to pick it up and put it in the pocket of his white suit. 

Superhero outfits were quite uncomfortable, was the conclusion that Nico had come to. He would rather dunk himself into the River Acheron than wear this in battle.

"So what do we do?" Nico frowned, looking around at... well, nothing.

Clint pointed ahead at a tall, jagged mountain in the distance. It spiraled up into the foggy clouds.

"Now, we climb."

— — — — Name the time skip! — — — — 

Nico stepped out of the shadows at the top of the mountain right as Clint reached the top. He was breathing heavily, finally stopping as he approached the entrance.

Clint whirled around in annoyance. "The hell, Nico! Why didn't you take me with you?"

Nico, who had refused to climb the mountain, had discreetly shadow traveled to the top without offering to bring Clint along.

Nico shrugged. "You didn't ask."

"I hope you fall off the cliff, di Angelo," Clint scowled. Nico peered down at the ground, which was almost nowhere to be seen. His heart pounded and flashbacks of Tartarus filled his head. 

Falling into Gaea's trap. Being overwhelmed by the monsters. The fucking jar.

His breathing hitched. "I can't- I can't go back there, please, no, I can't-" Nico clutched the collar of his jacket tightly, his knuckles whitening. 

Clint grabbed his shoulder gently, concern filling his eyes. "Nico? What... What do you mean go back? What happened?"

A short sob escaped Nico as he remembered the dust filling his lungs, the feeling of every bone in his body cracking against the impact of the ground. 

"Nico, Nico, hey," Clint said softly. Then sharply. "Nico!"

Nico looked up suddenly, the far away look in his eyes disappearing. He remembered that he had never told Clint about his time in Tartarus.

"Huh?" Nico blinked. "Nothing. I'm fine. Let's go."

"Nico-"

"I'm fine!" 

The rage in Nico's eyes told Clint that he shouldn't bring it up now. But he would for sure be asking about this when they got home.

A hooded figure flew up to them, approaching as unexpected as death.

"I assure you, you have nothing to fear from me," the figure said slowly.

"Creepy," Clint muttered.

The figure turned to Nico. "Welcome, Nico di Angelo, son of Hades and Maria di Angelo."

Nico opened his mouth to say something but stopped.

"Creepier," Clint whistled.

Nico decided to go with, "Who are you?"

"Consider me a guide," the figure replied. "To you, and to all that seek the Soul Stone."

"Great," Nico deadpanned. "You show us where it is and we'll be on our way."

The figure removed his hood to reveal his face disfigured in the shape of a skull, the color a starting crimson red.

"Oh, liebchen. If only it were that easy," Red Skull sighed. 

Nico and Clint exchanged worried glances, but followed the strange figure as he glided up a spiraling path, which the two hesitantly followed.

They had no idea what was in store for them next.