"Elaina, you can't keep pretending the Soul stone doesn't exist. You are going to have to tell us what we need to do to get it no matter what that means for us. Not everyone can be saved, and if one of us dies in the process... at least the whole world doesn't have to suffer." I looked at Tony, not wanting to believe what I was hearing. I had known that telling the avengers everything that happened in infinity war hadn't been the best idea, but I had had to explain how Thanos went about his plan to take out half the worlds population. I had told them about the whole battle of Wakanda, and everything that happened with Vision—everything that we had to change. "Elaina, Steve and Sam have already left to find Barnes. I've contacted Shuri who will be meeting with us here in three days time. All thats left is the Soul stone. We need to get it."
I closed my eyes, turning away from all the faces watching me as I walked over to one of the huge glass windows in the meeting room we were stood in—focusing on the view of snow falling outside for a second to calm myself before replying. "Thanos uses Gamora as the sacrifice on Vormir. He gets the stone... he gets all of them. He manages to do the snap—half the world dies. Tony, you figure out literal time travel thanks to Scott getting stuck in this thing called the quantum realm, and the avengers who're still around go on a 'time heist' where you go back in time in teams to retrieve the stones from different parts of the world. Natasha and Clint are the two people to go after the Soul stone... only one comes back. Thats all I'm saying. The Mind stone isn't taken out of Vision in time as the battle in Wakanda starts just as Shuri starts working on it. You guys were so close... Wanda destroys the stone, but Thanos already as the Time stone with him and just-just goes back in time and stops her form doing it. He takes it himself, instead, and... everything was gone. We can stop Thanos from taking Gamora to Vormir, sure, but I'm sure he could just find a random person from anywhere—a couple or something... and make one watch as he throws the other off the edge. We can't... we can't stop him from getting it if we don't get it ourselves before that. I just... I don't know how."
I turned back to face the rest of the avengers, who were all watching me with a pained look in their eyes. I could see Wanda whispering something to Vision who seemed like he was consoling the girl. Clint had turned to Natasha and they seemed to be arguing. Pepper was talking to Tony about time travel, if I had heard right. I knew what everyone was thinking without anyone having to say a word. I hated it. What was I here for if I couldn't even save anyone? Natasha could not die. Neither could Tony, or Loki. I wouldn't let that happen... but only in that moment I realised that I probably couldn't even sacrifice myself on Vormir, because who in the world would have to be there to be the one to 'let me go'? I was pretty sure my parents wouldn't even agree to go there, and none of the avengers could claim I was someone who really mattered to them, I was pretty sure. Was I a friend of theirs? Maybe. But the sacrifice was someone who truly meant something to the person getting the stone. You had to care for them deeply—and I knew that other than my parents and maybe my cat, there was no one else out there who could do that. And... a small part of me knew that I would rather a random stranger die for the stone than one of the avengers.
"How many of us die? Kid, we need to know. Maybe we can keep the people safe, away from the war, you know? But we need to know what happens. I know it must be hard trying to tell people their fate the way we're asking you to, but we need it. You can't put everything on yourself, Elaina." I met Tony's eyes for a second, and knew in that moment that he was right. I couldn't keep it from them forever—especially after everything that Strange had told me about some things not being changeable. What if I couldn't save Tony? Or Natasha? What if I could have saved them by telling them their fate the way I already had done with Loki?
"Natasha on Vormir. Loki fighting Thanos. Tony... performing the snap yourself. Gamora getting the stone the first time round. Vision when Thanos rips the Mind stone from his body. Those are the people w-who don't come back. Ever. As for who all you lose in the first snap... Peter Parker, Wanda Maximoff, Stephen Strange, Bucky Barnes, Sam Wilson, all the Guardians other than Rocket, Nick Fury, Maria Hill, Hope Van Dyne along with her parents, Shuri, and T'Challa. Those are all the names I can remember off the top of my head, they could be more." I paused for a few seconds to catch my breath and a deafening silence filling the room—the lack of sound making my heart tighten in pain for a second. "The rest of the avengers are the ones who usually build the time machine to find the stones. You manage to gather them all and Bruce snaps, bringing everyone who had been thought lost back, after five years, mind you. Strange gathers everyone with his portals to the location Thanos is and a huge battle ensues. It ends with Tony managing to get the stones off of Thanos's gauntlet and snapping with them himself, dusting all the monsters on the battlefield along with Thanos himself. That's basically how the movie ends." I purposely left out everything that happened when Steve went back to return the stones to their rightful places—wanting to leave that detail only to him.
YOU ARE READING
ACATALEPSY ➺ loki
Aventureelaina wasn't meant to be dead, yet here she was, six years in the past, living with parents who mourned a death that had never happened. her death. on top of that, she may now have the chance to save the lives of people who she'd spent years watchi...
