End of an Era - Avengers: Endgame

Twenty - Assemble!

Avengers Facility Ruins, Upstate New York - Earth

2023

Meanwhile, beneath the destruction, Clint was in possession of the reason behind all of this: their own Gauntlet bearing the Stones they had collected during their Time Heist. 

After being chased through the dark tunnels by some sort of creepy space creatures, he found himself relieved to be meeting up with one of the team, Nebula.

"Hey, I know you," he panted, passing the Gauntlet over to her.

She said nothing to  him, only took the Gauntlet and pressed the radio in her ear and spoke into it.  "Envie, you can tell Father that I have located the Stones." 2014 Nebula had fooled them again. She pointed her blaster at Clint.

"Stop-" Gamora entered the tunnel, with a blaster of her own in her hand.

"You betray us?" Nebula hissed.  "Just because of something you were shown about one possible future?"

"That's not the only reason." Gamora turned to another figure stepping out of the shadows. 

"Nebula."

Nebula whipped around to face the other figure who had spoken, a voice she hadn't heard in far too long. "M-Mother?" she gasped.  

Adonia gave her a smile.  "Hello Daughter."

"H-how?"

"In the other timeline-"

"We succeeded."

"Yes. But you were changed." She gestured to said changed Nebula, from the 2023 timeline.

"No."

"Yes."

"You don't have to do this," 2023 Nebula insisted. 

"I am this."

"No, you're not," said Gamora.

"You've seen what we become," 2023 Nebula reminded her.  

"Nebula, listen to her," begged Gamora.

"Daughter, listen to yourself," agreed Adonia.

"You can change," added 2023 Nebula. 

"He won't let me." Nebula moved her blaster to point at Gamora.

"No!" Adonia jumped in, aiming to throw up a shield between them to block Nebula's shot.

BLAST!

But Nebula herself was quicker.  2014 Nebula was struck through the chest by a shot from her future self. 

"I'm sorry, Daughter," Adonia said as Nebula looked down sadly at her fallen past self.

"So am I, that I couldn't see then."

Up on the battlefield, Thanos raised his arm, blade in hand, and from the ships hovering above, his army descended.

Corvus Glaive, Proxima Midnight, Cull Obsidian, Ebony Maw, the Chitauri, and the Outriders. 

His shield was broken in half now, but Steve forced himself to his feet, tightening the shield's strap around his arm, ready to fight till his last breath as he had vowed to do for this cause. 

"I can do this all day," he whispered, mostly to himself.

He knew he didn't stand a chance against this army, but he wasn't just about to stand and do nothing. They had fought and died for this, in order to get this far.  He had to do something, even if it meant sealing his own fate. His life had always been on the line anyways.  

"Hey Cap, you read me?"

Just as he was taking a step forward towards the approaching army, a sudden voice in his ear radio made him stop in shock.

"Cap, can you hear me?"

There it was again.  He knew that voice, but that was impossible, wasn't it? "Sam?"

"Cap. On your left."

A bright glow out of the corner of his left eye caught his attention and turned his head. A swirl of light appeared behind him, from which Sam swooped through - one of Dr. Strange's portals. Through it, out stepped King T'Challa, Shuri, and Okoye, behind them the battlefield in Wakanda where they had vanished from following the Snap. Adonia's snap with her own set of Stones had succeeded, had brought them back.

One by one, each of their friends and teammates who had been snapped away five years ago returned, all suited up and ready for battle, ready to face down Thanos's army together. And one by one, each portal grew until they all merged into one giant portal, connecting the fields of Wakanda to the ruins of the facility grounds. 

Sam, Bucky, Dr. Strange, King T'Challa, Princess Shuri, Okoye, Wong and the other Masters of the Mystic Arts, Quill, Drax, Mantis, Groot, Wanda, Peter, Pepper, Wasp...

"Earthlings! Your saviour is here!" A familiar horned silhouette appeared through a portal.

"For Asgard!" Sigyn dashed over to join them right behind Loki - as well as a whole Asgardian army, including Valkyrie flying on the back of a pegasus, Korg, and Meik. 

"YES!" cheered Thor. 

"We used it wisely," Sigyn told Steve. 

He  grinned. "I knew it."

"Is that everyone?" Stephen asked.

"You wanted more?!" cried Wong.

Everyone was back, alive and well and ready to fight for the whole of the universe. 

Scott, giant now, rose up, crashing through the rubble, having retrieved Bruce, Rocket, and Rhodey from the wreckage. Literally everyone was here to form an army, to fight back.

The newly-returned Avengers came to merge with Adonia's Infinity Gauntlet, as well as her daughters, all lining up behind Steve, Tony, and Thor. 

Adonia herself landed at the front of the army, between Cap and Tony.  "Captain, would you care to do the honours?"

"Yes, Ma'am. It would be my pleasure. Avengers - ASSEMBLE!"

(There it is, the iconic line we were waiting forever for! And I did promise I would have Loki return somehow, didn't I? ;)

As always, thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :))