Both/And

Chapter 7: Endgame

When the Bruce Banner snaps his fingers, the world suddenly seems brighter. The emergency shutters lift from the compound windows to reveal birds and flowers that weren't there before. Then Clint's phone buzzes and the reality of what they've done sets in. They won. They stole back life.

One of the Asgardian scientists calls Wakanda to update them on the project – there will be a lot of people and creatures appearing on the plain outside their city, and some of them will be hostile.

It isn't long after that the compound explodes.

*

In Wakanda, Loki rematerializes and immediately panics, "Sleipnir?! Sleipnir?!" He looks frantically for his son before it dawns on him that the forest looks different. He looks out over the plain and notices more differences, and more confused people seem to be clustering together. Loki drops to the ground, still too stunned to make sense of what's happened.

A man with a metal arm finds him a few minutes later, "Hey...you alright?" he asks.

"No," Loki says.

"OK, yeah, bad question. You have any idea what's going on?"

Loki shakes his head, "Thanos won. We shouldn't be here. Why doesn't the world look the same as I remember it?"

A gold sparking circle appears in the air not far from them, "Know what that might be?" his guest asks.

"No," Loki says, drawing his daggers, "And I'm not very keen on surprises at this point."

"Huh. Guess we hope it's good news, then," the man with the metal arm says. He turns to Loki, "Name's Bucky Barnes. You?"

"Loki."

Bucky nods, "Well, nice to meet you Loki. Let's hope our guests' got a good explanation for what the hell is going on around here."

A man dramatically floats through the circle as Loki stands, "It's been a year since Thanos snapped us all out of existence, but he's back we have one chance to defeat him. On my mark, you're going to need to come through a portal like this to save the universe."

Bucky shrugs, "Guess that explains why the landscape's changed. Care to tell us how we all just lost a year of our lives?"

The floating man touches down, "There's not time. Infinity Stones. But they also brought you back. And there was some time travel involved to get them. But anyway...get your weapons and stay here until another portal like this one opens. Then step through."

Loki shakes his head, "Thanos will kill me the moment he sees me. He thinks he's already done so. The rest of you lot can fight this. I need to find my son."

"Technically, that wasn't this Thanos who tried to kill you," the no-longer-floating man replies.

Loki stares, confused, "Excuse me? Do I know you? And what does that mean, that it wasn't this Thanos?"

Their visitor extends his hand, "Dr. Stephen Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts. There's no time to get into all the details. But this Thanos came forward in time. The Thanos from this timeline's dead. But the new guy's not any more friendly."

"Ah," Loki says, "And just how close in time to the Battle of New York is this Thanos?"

Dr. Strange pauses, "Ah. Yeah...that's going to be pretty fresh in his memory."

Loki stands, "Well, thank you, Doctor, but you haven't convinced me to stay. In fact...a Thanos with a closer memory of New York is decidedly more dangerous to me than one who has had a little distance from it. And still has tried to kill me...and succeeded."