Avengers: Whatever it Takes

Tony's Retreat

Steve parked the car in the driveway just outside of a big house in the middle of nowhere. The trip had been lengthy enough for him to worry and short enough for him to dread arriving. As he stood outside of the car and looked up at the big house, the sound of incoming footsteps alerted him. He looked to the wooded area beyond the house and found himself locking eyes with Tony. Standing at his side was a little girl with dark hair and a curious disposition. Steve looked at how they were holding hands and knew this was Tony's daughter, Morgan. Through the last five years he and Tony hadn't been in contact at all, but he knew about his life from Natasha and Bruce.

Tony shook his head and forced a smile before waving for them to follow him. Steve looked over his shoulder as Bruce, Natasha and Scott got out of the car to join him in his walk up the driveway and into the house. Sue followed behind them with Franklin at her side.

Tony ushered everyone to a porch and Morgan quickly took Franklin into the house to play. They all might have sat in silence for some time, none of them knowing particularly where to start, if it weren't for Scott's presence. Just as he'd done before at Avengers Compound, he dove right into the topic at hand. He gave a spirited explanation despite Tony's bored expression.

"Well," Tony said after Scott had finished. "I can't thank you folks enough for dropping by and bringing the entertainment with you. It's always a good time thinking about a gruesome death on an inter-dimensional timescape."

Natasha leaned forward. "Is that an objection to the plan?"

Tony scoffed. "Plan? Is that what you guys are calling this? This...really elaborate suicide method? Hell, if you want to kill yourself there are plenty of other ways, quicker ways. Even quicker than Thor drinking himself into oblivion. Not to mention, it's fucking impossible. There. Dreams crushed by. You're welcome. I'm here everyday."

But Scott was like a dog with a bone. "We know what it sounds like."

Steve was quick to chime in as well. "Tony, with everything we've seen, how can we rule anything out as being impossible?"

"Quantum fluctuation kinda messes with the Planck Scale, which then triggers the Deutsch Proposition, can we agree on that? In layman's terms, it means you can cancel your Netflix subscription because you're not coming home.

"I did," Scott said.

"Which was a billion-to-one cosmic fluke. Now you want to pull a...what are you calling it?

"A time heist," Scott stated.

"Oh, right. Neat name. Time Heist. I wonder why that idea never entered my mind. Probably because it's a pipe dream. It's not possible."

Steve wasn't close to giving up on this. "Tony, we know that the Infinity Stones exist in the past. If we could find a way to go back and get them, we could bring them here."

"Then snap our fingers and everybody comes back," Natasha added, a determined flair in her voice.

Tony shook his head and stood up. "Or we could just cock it up even worse than Thanos already has."

"I don't believe we would, Tony," Steve spoke passionately.

"Wow. I can't believe I'm about to say this, but sometimes I really do miss that boyish optimism of yours, Rogers. But your high hopes don't amount to anything if there's not a logical, tangible way for this to happen. I believe the most likely outcome would be we all die."

Scott raised a hand. "Not if we strictly follow the rules of time travel. We don't talk to our past selves. We don't get involved in anything other than what we cam there to do. No betting on sporting events or predicting the future for people."

Tony started to howl with laughter. The others stared at him and scowled. "I'm sorry," he said as he recovered. "But are you seriously sitting on my back porch and telling me that your master plan for saving the universe is basically a knockoff of Back to the Future? Because that would be beyond horseshit. Scientifically speaking, your brother's picture doesn't disappear just 'cause you went to the dance with your mom. That's not how quantum physics works."

Natasha was unsettled by Tony's continual dismantling of this hope she'd grown attached to in spite of herself. "We have to take a stand."

Tony looked at her and a flash of sympathy swept over him. "We did stand. And we did our best. No one can say we didn't, no matter what we may blame ourselves for. But we took our stand and now we're here." He paused and swallowed the emotion that was creeping up. "We're here and they aren't. And don't any of you dare tell me that I don't care about them just because I'm not going along with this. Not a day goes by when I don't think about Goosey...Peter...Reed. All of them."

Silence fell over the porch as Tony dabbed at his eyes.

Scott finally broke the silence once more. "I get it. I understand where you're coming from. You've got a lot that you could lose. A wife, a daughter. A whole life that you've been able to build for yourself. But I lost someone very important to me. A lot of us did. And now we have a chance to save them and you won't even..."

"No, Scott. I won't. Even." He then looked at Bruce and grinned. "Anyway, let's talk about this big green elephant on the porch. What is this shit, man?"

Bruce, who had been silent and observant for the conversation, smiled softly and shrugged his massive shoulders. "What can I say? These are confusing times."

"How'd you do this?" Tony asked.

"Well, five years ago I lost twice. First as Hulk and then as Banner. Then we all lost."

"But not because of you, Bruce," Natasha said reassuringly as she laid a hand on his.

"Well. I did. You guys know. Anyway. I kept thinking, it didn't have to be that way. I started to really search for some kind of solution to the problem. I kept thinking that maybe if the best of Banner and the best of Hulk could collide, then maybe we would have been better-equipped to stop Thanos."

"Okay, but that doesn't tell me how you made this happen," Tony pointed out.

"For years I treated the Hulk like a disease, something to get rid of. But when I started treating him like the cure...things changed. I've spent so much time in the lab, tinkering with this Hulk-Banner situation. And now I think I've solved it."

"You did," Tony said with a warm smile.

Bruce nodded. "That's how I know impossible things can be possible, Tony. That and this," he said as he held Natasha's hand.

At that moment, Morgan stepped out onto the porch with Franklin and jumped into Tony's arms. "Mom told me to come and save you," she explained.

Tony grinned at her. "Well, consider your job a success." He then looked at Steve. "I wish you were coming here to ask me something else. I'm honestly happy to see you. If you want to stay..."

Steve shook his head. "Listen, Tony. I get it. And I'm happy for you. I am. But this is a second chance, Tony."

"Yeah, well, I got my second chance right here. I can't roll the dice on it. The table is set for all of us. If you don't talk shop, you're welcome to stay for lunch."

"He's afraid of losing more than he already has," Natasha said as she sat in the passenger seat and stared at trees as they drove away from Tony's land.

"He has every right to feel that way," Steve agreed.

"So what are we going to do? We need him," Scott said. "We can't stop."

"We won't," Bruce said. "I saw that look in his eyes before we left. That same look when we built Ultron even though we knew we shouldn't have. Tony's interested now. And I know how Tony can be when it comes to this stuff. He won't stop until he can figure things out. And I don't think he's had a puzzle like this in a long time."