Walking in the Wind // Avengers

Operation: Time Heist

•••

"Okay, so the how works," Steve spoke as everyone was gathered in a meeting to discuss the mission. "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."

"Or substitute the word 'encounter' for 'damn near been killed' by one of the six Infinity Stones," Tony cut in.

"Well, I haven't..." Scott pointed out, "but I don't even know what the hell you're all talking about."

"Regardless, we only have enough Pym Particles for one roundtrip each," Bruce continued. "And these stones have been in a lot of different places throughout history."

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

"Which means we have to pick our targets," Clint spoke up.

"Correct."

"So, let's start with the Aether," Steve suggested. "Thor, what do you know?"

Everyone turned to look at Thor, who was sat in a chair with his sunglasses on, what Lexie guessed was an empty can of beer in his hand, and a half eaten Pop-Tart resting on his thigh. Most notably, though, was that he didn't react whatsoever to the attention being turned to him.

"Is he asleep?" Natasha asked.

"Either that or he's dead," Lexie shrugged.

Rhodey nodded in agreement. "I'm pretty sure he's dead."

---

They'd woken him up and continued the meeting. Thor was now in front of the group.

"Um, where to start?" he began, taking off his sunglasses. "Um... The Aether, firstly, is not a stone. Someone called it a stone before," he pointed at Steve. "Um, it's more of an angry sludge sort of thing..."

"Sludge?" Lexie frowned at Natasha, who just shook her head in response, tired of Thors antics.

"...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 chuckled. "Scary beings. So, Jane, actually..." He pulled her photo up 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..." He sighed. "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..."

"Why don't you come sit down?" Tony suggested, walking up next to him.

"I'm not done yet," Thor insisted. "The only thing that is permanent in life is impermanence," he finished with a laugh.

"Awesome," Tony clapped. "Eggs? Breakfast?"

"No. I've already eaten," he showed Tony the half eaten Pop-Tart he'd now stuffed in his pocket. "I'd like a Bloody Mary."

---

The meeting continued, and they were still trying to find out where the stones had been.

"Quill said he stole the Power Stone from Morag," Rocket explained, standing on the table where food was lain out.

"Is that a person?" Bruce asked.

"No, Morag's a planet. Quill was a person."

"Like a planet?" Scott asked in surprise while eating noodles. "Like in outer space?"

"Oh, look," Rocket looked at Scott. "It's like a little puppy, all happy and everything. Do you wanna go to space? You wanna go to space, puppy? I'll take you to space."

---

"Thanos found the Soul Stone on Vormir," Nebula explained after they'd finished eating.

"What is Vormir?" Natasha asked.

"A dominion of death..."

"Sounds lovely," Lexie said dryly.

"... at the very center of celestial existence. It's where Thanos murdered my sister."

"Not it," Scott muttered after a few seconds of silence.

---

"That Time Stone guy?" Natasha asked. Only her, Lexie, Tony and Bruce were there at the moment, lying on the table or chairs - or in Lexies case; had her lower half on the table and upper half lying on two chairs in what appeared to be a very uncomfortable position.

"Doctor Strange," Bruce corrected.

"Yeah, what kind of Doctor was he?"

"Ear-nose-throat meets rabbit-from-hat," Tony answered.

"Nice place in the Village, though," Bruce added.

"Oh, I've never been," Lexie said lightly.

"Yeah, on Sullivan Street?" Tony asked.

"Mm... Bleecker Street," Bruce replied.

"Wait, he lived in New York?" Natasha asked.

"Apparently," Lexie frowned.

"No, he lived in Toronto," Tony corrected at the same time as Bruce said Strange lived in New York.

"Guys," Natasha interrupted them. "If you pick the right year, there are three stones in New York."

Lexie sat up quickly, and ended up falling onto the floor with a thud, but she quickly got back up. "Natasha Romanoff, you are a genius," she grinned.

"Shut the front door." Bruce sat up as well as they all saw the operation coming together.

---

They were now all gathered again, and had found that the Space, Mind and Time Stones could be found in New York, the Reality Stone was on Asgard, and the Power and Soul Stones were in space on Morag and Vormir respectively.

"All right," Steve spoke determinedly. "We have a plan. Six stones, three teams, one shot."

•••

I've finally finished writing the book. I've been working on it for so long now, so I'm kinda both relieved and sad to be done. I love these characters so much, and I'm not ready to say goodbye to Lexie.

Either way, I can now tell you that there are six chapters left (not including this one). The next chapter will be the mission, any predictions on where Lex is going?

I've also made new covers for my books, don't know when I'll update them, but just so you know.

I hope you've had a nice weekend <3

Vote and comment xx