Writing Contest Entries

Avengers: Endgame - WWYD?

"Do you trust me?"

"Yeah"

It had been years since Steve and Tony had seen each other. She didn't know what she was expecting, for the two to hug it out or for Tony to slap Steve or what. All she knew was that the team was back together, though there was a heavy weight resting on all of their shoulders. Somehow, the team had survived the snap, alive, but most certainly not okay.

Once the mad Titan had disappeared into a wormhole to god knows where, Natasha's immediate thought was her best friend, Clint. The Titan said he was going to wipe out half of the universe, and there was a very low chance that all of Clint's family had survived. After she checked on her team in Wakanda, she called him. He didn't pick up. She called again. No answer. She made a habit of trying at least once every day, praying that he was alive, but he never answered.

Six days.

Six days with no word.

Then, suddenly, she got a location. Tokyo? She thought, what could he be doing there? Without weighing the consequences, she boarded one of the royal jets —after telling Steve where she went— and flew to his location.

Twenty-three hours later, she knew that he was alive.

But he was different.

She took him back to Wakanda, to the rest of the team, and they stayed there for another couple days. It was nice to see Clint again, as a friend; she hadn't seen him since the airport in Berlin.

Then the team decided to go back to the avengers compound in upstate New York, or, in the case of the new sentient raccoon with a gun fetish, go to the avengers compound. The raccoon was an interesting character; he was snarky and stubborn, but she could tell that he lost a lot. They all had.

He reminded her of Tony.

The avengers compound was more or less the way they left it. It was a little bit messy, but not too bad. Their rooms hasn't been touched, and Nat was thankful that the little shard of the home she had was still hers.

-X-

"Where are you going?"

"To kill Thanos."

The new girl, she called herself Captain Marvel, she had fire. She also had a lot of power, judging by the fact the she carried Tony's ship through space single-handedly. 

"Hang on," Nat started, "I know you're new here, but we do things as a team. Do you even know where to find Thanos?"

"I know people who might."

"Don't bother," piped up the cyborg on Tony's ship, "I know where he is."

-X-

"The garden."

"That's cute, Thanos has a retirement plan."

"Do you know what planet he's on?"

"A few days ago, Earth became ground zero for an energy surge of cosmic proportions. No one had seen anything like it, until two days ago," the talking raccoon said, zooming in on the hologram, "on this planet."

"Thanos used the stones again." Nat murmured, staring at the hologram.

-X-

"So the time machine works."

"Yeah. Now we just need a plan."

"I don't follow."

"Now that we can go back in time, we have multiple ways to potentially stop Thanos. We could kill him as a baby, or we could take the stones for ourselves, or—"

"We could destroy Vision's Stone before Thanos gets to Earth." Nat said. The room quieted down and looked at her. 

Steve sighed. "I hate to say it, but destroying the Mind Stone before Thanos gets his hands on it is probably our best bet."

-X-

A long debate later, it was decided that Natasha, Steve and Tony would go back and convince Wanda to destroy the Stone. It wasn't a perfect plan, not by a long shot, but it was all they had.

"Going subatomic in five. . . four. . . three. . . two. . . one. . ." Their suits snapped shut and they were sucked into the quantum realm.

Nat really had no idea what to expect. It was like she was traveling down a wind tunnel at impossible speeds, getting smaller and smaller every second. It felt like she was being compressed, and it was very disorienting. Before she knew it, she, Tony and Steve were spat out into the normal world, right outside the avengers compound in 2018.

"You ready?" She asked

Steve nodded. "remember, the mission is to get Wanda to destroy the Stone." Nat and Tony nodded, and the three of them walked up the road to the avengers compound.

-X-

"How long will this take?" Asked Scott. He had been impatient ever since the three avengers left.

"As long as they need." Replied Bruce, keeping an eye on the machine. 

Eighteen seconds later, the equipment started picking up the three avengers. "Returning in three. . . two. . . one. . ."

But the platform was empty.

"Where are they?" Scott asked. 

"I don't know!" Replied Bruce, perplexed. "They went back further!"

"Well, get them back!"

"I'm trying!"

Ten seconds later, people started appearing in the avengers compound. It was like their ashes had bonded back together to reform the person.

"They succeeded." Thor said.

"Yeah, but where are they?" Scott repeated, still anxious.

"I don't know!" Bruce replied, fiddling with the machine. "Wait, hang on, I think they're coming back!"

One second later, the three avengers rematerialized on the platform

"What happened?" Scott asked, running up to the platform.

"Wanda was more stubborn than we remembered. She wouldn't destroy the Stone." Tony said, removing his suit.

"So what happened?"

"We went back three weeks earlier and got Wanda and Vision from Scotland," Steve responded, "we flew straight to Wakanda, and Shuri had enough time to successfully remove the Stone."

"Nat?" Came a familiar accent from behind the group, "what happened?" The group turned around to see Wanda standing behind them, arm in arm with a stoneless Vision. Nat smiled. 

"We won."