—Present, Alternate Universe—

Somewhere in the universe was Earth. It was a different Earth however. There were barely any people living there because of "The Decimation." It was a complete wasteland. People have moved on. There are people who have moved to other galaxies, but have failed in their quest to find a new haven. Only some have reached their destinations and called it home.

But somewhere in the jungle of New York was a man dressed in blue and red. He was sitting in a building, waiting for a message. He hasn't received one in a while. He thought his friend would have answered him by now but, there was no one there. Suddenly the door opened and he lost his train of thought.

"Strange?" Peter called. "You've been in here for the past few hours."

"Peter." Strange sighed after saying his name, "Why are you here? Aren't you supposed to be waiting outside."

"Yeah, but we got bored." Peter said, entering the abandoned room. "So, this is what you use to call Sanctum Sactorum?"

"Yes. But that was in the past." Strange smiled.

"It's been a while since we visited this place." Peter looked at the paintings.

"Are the others there?" Strange asked.

"Yeah. They're waiting." Peter informed. Strange nodded and they both went outside. There were five people waiting for him outside. "Hey, are we going to move?"

"I don't think so." Sam stated, looking into the streets. "We're still waiting for them to finish up."

"So, are you finished with your little adventure inside?" Quill asked. "We've been waiting for hours."

"I'm sorry for that." Strange apologised, placing on his gloves. "What are they looking for?"

"Food." Drax stated.

"And water." Mantis continued.

"I am Groot." Groot added.

"Yes, Groot. That's the same thing as food." Strange corrected.

"Are we still going to stay here?" Quill asked.

"We have to. The last message I got from my friend was a few weeks ago. Now he isn't answering." Strange said, "This must be a sign."

"That they lost?" Drax asked with worry.

"No, that means they're ending it. We may be able to go back home in the next few hours."

"Or a few hours from getting nothing after traveling around the universe for two years." Quill argued.

"Bu-" Strange stopped, "You may be right. But this is it. We either lose now or stay here forever."

"I'm pretty sure all of you are leaning the right way." Sam said.

"Hey!" A figure called from the distance.

There were four figures walking towards the group. It could very well be Skrulls, who have been invading planets for resources, or it could be the people they always knew.

"Any progress?" T'Challa asked.

"Absolutely nothing." Strange said.

"Well we won't go back to the space station empty handed. Especially if my father finds out." Hope said, wearing her Wasp costume.

"Think about Fury." Bucky said.

"Yeah. That man will not back off." Sam said.

"Then what are we supposed to bring back to him?" Peter asked.

"I don't know." Bucky said.

"How about that arm of yours?" Sam joked.

"Very funny, Wilson." Bucky scoffed.

"Cut it." Quill said. He then looked at Wanda. "Did you get anything?"

"Nothing." Wanda responded.

"Then we stay here until we get a slight chance of hope." T'Challa said. "Strange, how long do you think it will take?"

"About seven hours. Seven hours and we're back home." Strange estimated.

"Alright! We stay here." T'Challa commanded, "Cut all communications from space station. We keep the Sanctum protected. No one should get here.

—Present, Original Universe—

Tony was sitting in the ship, leaning on the wall in his room. He excused himself to continue working on the suit, but it was for something else. The suit was also leaning on the floor, opposite of him.

They had made it back to their original timeline, and they were on course for Earth. It would take around fifteen minutes until they got there. For now, they were preparing for a long battle.

Tony tapped the mask on the Iron Man suit. A system scanned him for a video recording. He sighed and looked into the camera.

"I know, I know. This is coming at a weird time but, hey. I'm sorry for forgetting you, first of all. I really didn't mean it. All these things that are surrounding my mind? They're killing me. The only thing that has kept me alive was you. Once I remembered that you were still alive, you gave me hope. Now, this might be my last fight. I promise you, Pep. This is the very last one. No more comebacks. No more surprises. Just a simple life, just like you wanted. How do we escape to that kind of life? We just hide. Farm. Somewhere far away. No one will find us. But I have to finish this first. This last, last battle as Iron Man." Tony chuckled, "God, feels like a thousand years ago. I fought my way out of that cave, became Iron Man... realized I loved you. I know I said no more surprises, but, I was really hoping to pull off one last one. So, when I go out and do what I do best, I will think of you, I will always love you. It's always you."

Tony closed the video and deeply sighed into the wall. The door opened and Bruce was there to greet him.

"We're approaching. Steve's rounding everyone up." Bruce said.

"Alright." Tony walked outside his room.

Clint was getting ready, all of his arrows were on his back and his bow fully repaired. Natasha was opposite of him, maroon hair tied back and looking scared. Clint tried to comfort her by placing his hand on her shoulder. Natasha appreciated the comfort and laid her head on his arm. Steve approached them, geared in his S.H.I.E.L.D. Stealth armour. He was holding the helmet for the suit.

"Here they are." Steve muttered into Natasha's ear.

Thor and Scott exited the cockpit and stood to the side. Bruce followed and stood beside Steve.

"Alright, this is it." Natasha spoke. "In a few minutes, we're going to face the biggest bastard we have ever face. We don't know what to expect, we don't know what to do. All we know is that we should be prepared." Natasha sighed, "We have to win. Even if there's a small chance, we owe this— to everyone not in this room, to try."

"We will," Steve said with intimidation, "Whatever it takes."

"Whatever it takes." Scott said.

Bruce leaned forward, "Whatever it takes."

"Whatever it takes." Thor continued.

"Whatever it takes." Clint muttered in his cold breath.

"Whatever it takes." Natasha said.

In the back, Tony appeared with his Iron Man suit ready. He was wearing it and the helmet was the only thing off. Everyone was looking at him.

He looked down and took a long sigh, "Whatever it takes."

The Avengers arrived at Earth. Their destination was New York, which was a barren wasteland when they got there. Storm clouds dominated the skies. On the ground, it was all rubble, lava, and ruins. There were thunder and lighting striking the different metal poles. It was a complete wasteland.

Suddenly multiple Chitauri soldiers shot the ship. Steve and Clint jumped out of the ship early to distract the soldiers. Natasha and Bruce tried to find a better landing position.

Steve and Clint hid behind a pile of rubble and scouted ahead.

"Signs of life?" Steve asked.

"I don't see a racoon nor a blue coloured woman. So no signs of life." Clint muttered.

"Just distract them, will ya?" Steve said, running towards the battle.

Steve took contact with the Chitauri, fighting them with his bare hands. He was ripping their weapons apart and kicking them into sharp ruins. Clint got a better position on a pile of rubble. He started shooting the soldiers that were trying to snipe Steve.

"Cap!" Clint shouted.

Steve punched the soldier that was creeping up behind him. At this point, the ship hadn't found a way to land. There was virtually a impossible way to land the ship. Suddenly a powerful beam shot the ship down and everyone had to evacuate.

Luckily, Natasha and Bruce jumped off the side. Bruce was closer to the land so he successfully landed on a piece of light rubble without hurting himself. Natasha hurt her arm a bit but no problems. Thor and Tony jumped off the ship and landed on both feet. Now, there was only Scott. The ship crashed and no one could find Scott.

"Sightings on Scott?" Tony asked Thor.

"I haven't seen him." Thor said, moving around the rubble.

"Steve?!" Natasha shouted. Steve raised his hand in the distance as a storm passed by. Dust was flowing past them.

Suddenly a large group of Chitauri soldiers started surrounding them. Thousands and thousands were pressuring them into the center. Steve and Clint rejoined the group in the center and they were forced to being faced back to back. It was only the six of them, against a thousand soldiers. They were going on top of the rubble, going near the Avengers, and basically trying to get the upper hand.

"Any plans, Rogers?" Clint asked, readying his arrows.

"Stark?" Steve asked.

"Well," Tony said shakily, "Like the old man said, together."

The Chitauri soldiers started rushing towards the Avengers and they stood their ground. Bruce turned into the Hulk and started decimating the soldiers one by one. Thor was in his most powerful state as he gained the thunder of the storm. Steve and Natasha were attacking the soldiers in hand on hand combat. Clint moved behind Hulk, shooting down the soldiers. Tony was using the powers of the Power stone to push back the soldiers.

They continued to hold their fort, as thousands kept on pushing. Hulk and Tony were dealing the most damage. Steve and Natasha fell back when more soldiers came on their side. Thor shot down thunder to push the soldiers backwards.

"Stark! We have more on Rogers's side!" Clint noted, shifting his focus towards Steve's side. They were being heavily shot by the soldiers positioned on higher grounds.

A large explosion occurred in the middle of Steve and Natasha. Natasha had a softer landing as Clint caught her. Steve on the other hand, landed on dirt and experienced some deftness in his ear. His ears were basically ringing and he was in pain. He couldn't get up.

Meanwhile, Tony was releasing many missiles towards the waves of soldiers. Hulk was throwing the rubble to make them move away from the high ground. Scott suddenly appeared near the rubble of the ship with something in his hand. It was a circular object, and without saying a word, threw it towards Tony.

Tony caught it with his hands and it was Steve's shield. It was placed along with the crate but he didn't want to give it to him. Now was the time. Tony landed on the ground and ran towards Steve. Steve was still laying on the ground, until he saw Tony. Tony extended his hand towards Steve, and he pulled him upwards. Steve, who was still deft, looked towards the waves of soldiers left. Tony discreetly gave him the shield, and flew back up to help Thor.

Steve, still shaking from the explosion, placed the shield on his arm. There was dirt in his face after landing on the ground. He was shaking, all of the memories of the shield are coming back to him. As he fought through the pain in his head, he reached the cloth of the strap, and tightened it.