15. Together Again

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 Her footsteps are almost silent as she walks through the Avengers compound, but she does little to hide herself. Her face is on display, she purposefully walks past cameras, and, worst of all, she moves towards the voices.

She finds them all in the briefing room, no one paying attention as she leans against the threshold, crossing her arms and staring. Six infinity stones—mind, space, time, power, reality, soul—and they are still just as clueless.

"...Regardless, we've only got enough Pym Particles for one round trip each plus one, and the stones have been in a lot of places throughout history," Hulk says.

"Our history," Tony replies. "So, not a lot of convenient spots to just drop-in."

"Which means we've got to pick our targets," Barton sighs.

"Exactly." Steve nods as he lifts his gaze. He almost goes to look at one of the boards when he pauses, his eyes on her.

"Yo, Cap?" Tony calls out. "Whatcha waiting for?" He snaps in front of Steve's face.

"Hope those extra particles are for me," she says. Everyone in the room turns to her as she arches her brow and sighs. "I'm assuming you already tested it. Anyone turn into a baby?"

Scott hesitantly raises his hand. "I...I turned into a baby. And an old man."

"EPR Paradox," she says. "You get it functioning, Stark?"

"Did you doubt me, Mal?" He smirks. "Now get in here with your genius. We're gonna need you on this."

She frowns. "Do you? Do you really? I'm just here to make sure you don't get yourselves killed."

"You're part of the team," Natasha replies, a small smile on her face. "Get over yourself and sit down. We're in the middle of a briefing."

With a sigh, Malka stalks across the room and plops into a chair beside Natasha, swinging her feet onto the table with a loud thump. She digs into her pocket and pulls out a small bag of candy before tossing it to Thor. "I didn't forget."

"Yes!" He exclaims as he catches the bag. "Oh, perfect." He tosses a candy in his mouth. "Wonderful, Lady Malka. Wonderful."

Malka sinks into her seat as she grabs a pen and paper from the table top. "Just an FYI, we already know where we can find two of them. Mind stone and the Tesseract are both on Earth in 2012. Tesseract's been here since the eighties, I think, so let's hope that makes this time heist easier on all of us."

Barton lets out a small laugh, clasping Malka's shoulder. "Good to see you again, Laska. Rough few years?"

"Yep."

Steve shakes his head, tearing his gaze from her to say, "Let's start with the Aether. Thor, what do we know?"

Malka purses her lips but does not turn to see Thor slouched in his seat. "Is he asleep?" Natasha asks as she nudges her.

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