Second Sphere

Whatever the reason

I don't know what I was expecting when I came back to the avengers complex, but it wasn't this. Natasha and Steve both greeted me with open arms. Banner was now fused with Hulk, is it Dr. Hulk now? I'm still not sure. Even Thor gave me a big bear hug. But despite the warm greetings I still felt like I was out of place.

"They aren't judging you kid." Barton says walking up beside me.

"I know. But I still feel guilty in some way." I respond.

He puts a hand on my shoulder, "Look I just spent longer than you did doing the same kind of work. We can tell ourselves it was for some good reason, that they were bad people. But they're still people. And we are still the ones that pulled the trigger, whatever the reason. Now we're just going to have to live with that fact. You want to wipe the red off your ledger? This is a good way to start." He gestures to the group who were surrounding Tony's time machine.

"I have a lot of making up to do then." I sigh.

"How many?" He asks.

"What do you mean how many?" I respond. He just looks at me. I sigh. "186"

Barton pats my shoulder, "I got you beat by a long shot kid. You're going to be alright."

Barton was the one to test the time travel. And after we all sat down for a meeting.

"Okay so the how works now we gotta figure out the when and the where. Almost everyone in this room has had an encounter with at least one of the six infinity stones." Steve begins after we all sit down.

"Or substitute the word "encounter" for damn near been killed by one of the six infinity stones."

"Well, I haven't but I don't even know what the hell you're all talking about." One guy says.

I lean over and whisper to Natasha, "And who's this?"

"Antman, he's the one who got really small and really big back in Germany." Natasha whispers back and I nod.

Banner carries on, "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."

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

"Which means we have to pick our targets." Barton surmises.

"Correct." Tony responds.

"So. Lets start with the Aether. Thor, what do you know?" Steve ask.

We all turn to him but he is seemingly passed out in his chair.

"Is he asleep?" Natasha asks.

"No. No. I'm pretty sure he's dead." Rhodey replies.

Being the closest I shake Thor on the shoulder until he grunts and wakes up.

"What? What? I'm awake." Thor gets up and we ask him again about the Aether.

He gets up, "Uh, where to start? Um. The Aether, firstly, is not a stone. Someone called it a stone before." He points at Steve who just furrows his eyebrows. "It's more of an angry sludge sort of thing so someone's gonna need to amend that and stop saying that. Here's an interesting story, though, about the Aether. My grandfather, many years ago had to hide the stone from the dark elves. Ooh." He chuckles waving his fingers for effect, "Scary beings. So, Jane, actually." He pulls up a picture of her on the screen. "Oh, there she is. Yeah, so Jane was an old flame of mine. You know, she stuck her hand inside a rock this one time and then the Aether stuck itself inside her and she became very, very sick. And 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 and I got to introduce her to my mother," at the mention of his mother Thor gets a bit weepy, "who's dead and, um. Oh you know, Jane and I aren't even dating anymore, so. Yes these things happen though. You know? Nothing lasts forever. The only thing that-"

Tony cuts him off trying to save him from more embarrassment. "Why don't you come sit down?"

But Thor continues, "I'm not done yet. The only thing that is permanent in life is impermanence." He laughs, he's the only one as we glance between ourselves.

"Awesome. Eggs? Breakfast?" Tony asks.

"No. I'd like a Bloody Mary." Thor responds.