What If... Clint Didn't Grab A Glove?

The time travel idea was weird to everyone. When Tony came back with the drawn out plans on how to build the machine, it was still weird, but a kind of weird where people are like, "Woah, that's happening."

Everyone worked hard getting the machine together, but also getting a plan together.

"We need to do a test run and make sure we can actually bring something back with us and that we will come back," Steve said. The Avengers stood around the dining table in the facility, taking a physical break to go through the mental work.

"Well, who's going? And when?" Natasha asked. Asking someone to try time traveling (after what went down with Scott) was asking a lot. No one knew how it would be this time around. Tony's a genius, but time travel was a strange subject.

When no one spoke up for a moment, Clint started really thinking. He had nothing to lose, not anymore. If things went badly, he'd be okay with it being him.

"I'll do it."

Everyone looked at him, slightly shocked. But no one objected, they just moved to the next phase: figuring out when he'd go and what he might try to bring back.

While they were all brainstorming, Clint had another thought. With everyone being gone, they could use an extra set of hands to help out. But, he didn't want to face the team's objections. He thought Tony would be the only one to get it.

So, when everyone decided to turn it in after coming up with a very loose plan, Clint pulled Tony aside.

"I hope this won't be long, cause I'm pretty exhausted," Tony admitted.

"I have a different idea for the test run, but didn't want to run it by everyone in case they didn't see the risk was worth taking."

That perked Tony up, and suddenly he wasn't so tired. "I'm listening."

The next morning, everyone was ready to get the rest of the plans solidified for the test run, but they came in to see Clint and Tony already getting ready. "We got things sorted out, we both got up early," Clint said offhanded.

It wasn't exactly a lie.

Scott was (badly) getting Clint prepped with how to not waste his one shot. Smart-Hulk was trying to change their perception of time travel. Clint was going over the secret plan in his head.

When he got up on the platform, Clint gave Tony a small nod, and the test began.

Unfortunately, Steve saw the nod, and didn't like the feeling it gave off. "So, what details of the plan did you guys solidify?" Steve asked, not wanting to outright attack Tony. Their relationship was still rocky.

Tony, also knowing their relationship was rocky, didn't really want to lie to them. Plus, at this point, what's the harm in telling them the truth? Clint was already off in time.

"We... may have... adjusted it a bit... last night," Tony finally got out. Others started getting ready to protest, but Tony stopped them. "I promise it's nothing bad! And it was bird-brain's idea."

That had Natasha stepping forward. "Then why didn't he tell us about it?"

"He didn't know if it would work, or if it would be as widely accepted by the group. But Clint knew if it did work, it would be amazing," Tony said. Looking over at the controls, he could see the countdown was nearly over.

Steve stepped forward again. "What is it?" he asked, also very aware that Clint would be (hopefully) coming back any time now.

Tony opened his mouth to answer, but then it was time to bring Clint back. Him and Smart-Hulk got to work with the controls, and everyone was crossing fingers in hopes that it would turn out okay. That whatever this plan is worked out.

Everyone stared at the platform. Natasha went ahead and moved around the control panel to get ready to help Clint. Scott, off to the side, had a container of orange slices ready to go.

When Clint appeared on the platform, people immediately rushed him. It took an entire four seconds before they realized he wasn't alone.

At first, no one spoke. They were just in awe.

Finally, Tony breathed, "It worked."

Pietro Maximoff looked at all of them, confused. "Can someone please tell me what is going on?"

Natasha helped Clint up to his feet, and he clapped Pietro on the shoulder. "Look, I'm sorry for pulling you out of your time and into ours, but it's important." He wouldn't say it out loud, but seeing Pietro alive in front of him again was almost... healing.

The Avengers left the platform and went to their planning room (that's what they're calling it since they keep going back to the same room over and over).

Everyone sat down and explained things to Pietro. Steve started, awkwardly deciding not to focus on the fact that in their time, Pietro Maximoff is dead. That would be too big of a can of worms to open.

Soon enough, everyone was hopping in to help tell their parts of the 'Thanos Story' to get it all across to Pietro. When Natasha brought up Wanda, they all saw Pietro's fist clench.

"We figured we could use your help to go through time and get some of the stones," Clint said, finally sort of getting to the reason he brought Pietro back with him.

"Okay, what do I need to do then?" he asked, slowly coming to just accept that this was real and he didn't have much else to do other than help them.

Tony looked at the others, landing on Steve. "We haven't gotten that far."

So, now it was time for that part of the planning. There were six stones: Time, Soul, Reality, Power, Space, and Mind. They knew for a fact the Soul stone and the Power stone hadn't ever been on Earth, so they had to send a team to space for that one, and by the sound of it, they both could go back to the same time and then just diverge from there.

That left four other stones, though. The Reality stone would be it's own mission, because it wasn't ever really on Earth (except for a very brief couple stints while being inside a person), so the team decided they'd go to Asgard to get it.

Finally, there were three. Natasha was the one to say they were all in New York at the exact same time during a day in their history. That's how they decided to send Pietro to New York, along with others to make sure it all went okay.

Smart-Hulk said he'd still need to talk to the Strange to get the Time stone, because Pietro wouldn't be able to get it as easily as he thinks he could.

Still, he would be able to get the other two, he just needed to speed in there, grab the scepter and tesseract, and they'd go.

That's what they did. Steve, Tony, and Scott waited in the ally by the old Stark tower as backup, just in case something went awry. When Pietro arrived back to them within ten seconds of leaving, they realized not a single other person needed to come, really. It was still a cool experience.

Everyone showed back up on the platform, ready to revel in their second victory of the mission as a whole. That's when the news broke.

No one knew how to properly handle Natasha's death. The science-y people, in charge of getting the stones in a new gauntlet of their making locked themselves away in the lab. The others locked themselves away separately.

Except for Clint. He couldn't bear leaving the dock. Pietro didn't know what to do with himself, so he sat on the dock with Clint.

Moments passed where neither spoke. Finally, Pietro had to get the question bouncing around in his head out in the open.

"Why me?" he asked. Clint turned to look at the kid, lost. "I mean, you had the opportunity of going back to any point in time and getting any person and you got me. So, why?"

"We told you, we could use your speed. And it helps that we already knew you and you knew us," Clint explained, trying to move on.

But Pietro was insistent. "But I'm sure you could have found anyone to do that. You honestly could have gone back and grabbed my sister, but you didn't. You got me."

Clint sighed, giving into the demand to know. "All right... I hope I don't royally screw up the timeline..." With another sigh, Clint turned and faced Pietro. "You died. Were killed, really. But it happened because you were saving me and this kid. And- call me selfish... but I just wanted a chance to... the chance to give you a chance to do more. Because you could have done so much more..."

Pietro had no idea how to respond to any of this. First of all, how does anyone react to learning they get killed. It sounds like its in a good way, but that still leaves Pietro dead, and that means Wanda lost yet another person in her life.

When he looked at Clint again, he saw the guilt in his face, and saw how he'd been carrying a lot. Pietro had no idea the specific things everyone had lost because of this 'Thanos' guy, but he could tell Clint lost a lot.

So, Pietro pushed his own struggles aside with grappling with his death, and focused on the task at hand. "Well, thank you. I think that's the right thing to say, I've never been in a situation quite like this before."

This made Clint chuckle just a little bit, but Pietro still counted it as a win.

A while later, they got the news that the gauntlet with the stones was ready to go. Everyone gathered around and, after a short argument, prepared for Smart-Hulk to snap. Blast doors went down, and those who had shields used them to protect themselves and those who didn't.

"If this works? What happens with me?" Pietro suddenly asked Clint. He didn't quite know if he was ready to go back to his death, however long it make take to get there.

Clint didn't know how to answer, and was luckily cut off by Smart-Hulk's yells of pain. The men looked over and saw him snapping, and then immediately the gauntlet was removed from his hand.

No one knew if it had worked, until Clint heard his phone ringing. Everything else was just background noise to him as he walked over slowly to his phone. There, on the screen, was his wife's name and picture. He was almost scared to answer the phone, until he came to his senses.

His hand shook as he put the phone up to his ear. When he heard her voice, Clint was just about to cry. And then the world caved in.

Pietro was able to move quickly. He went around, trying to grab everyone and stop them from being buried in rubble. With each new bomb that landed, he felt everything shift in a new direction, and worked hard to keep up with it. He also had to work hard to keep up with how much bigger the blast zone was every few real-world seconds.

Finally, when the bombing seemed to be completely over, Pietro was able to get everyone in a safe place. It was harder to move some people (*cough* Smart-Hulk *cough*), but they all ended up in a safe spot.

"Holy shit," Tony breathed. "I- don't do that to me again."

"What he means," Steve started, "is thank you for saving us."

Pietro nodded. "Yeah, yeah, no problem," he waved them off.

Smart-Hulk was looking around. "Wait, where's the gauntlet with the stones?" he asked. Everyone else looked to the ground around them.

Pietro was up again. "I'll go find it," he said, already running off before the others could say anything.

Steve turned to Clint and Tony, nodding at them. "Good call on the kid," he said. The other two nodded.

Pietro returned quickly with more than just the stones. He handed them off to Tony and shared what he learned. "Okay, so I think the guy who did this is the guy you were telling me about. You said he was this huge, purple alien?"

"Thanos," Clint said, his voice low.

Pietro nodded. "Yeah, well, I tried to run up close to him, see if there was a way to finish up the issue right away, but he's got some powerful people with him who know how to stop me." After saying that, Pietro rolled his shoulder. "It hurt."

Steve started taking charge. "We need to get those stones as far away from here as we can, keep them from Thanos."

Already Smart-Hulk was shaking his head. "Nope, we can't do that. When I got the Time stone, I didn't meet Strange, I met the one who kept the stone before him, the Ancient One. She said their time is practically screwed unless we bring the stones back to the exact moment we took them. That's the only way to preserve the timeline."

"Well, the platform is destroyed. How are we going to bring it back?" Pietro said.

No one said anything for a second. They were aware of the threat that waited for them, and how after a while he'd start sending his dogs after them, so they couldn't sit here forever.

Scott finally came up with the answer they needed. "The van! If the van is still in tact, it should still have the quantum tunnel, and we should be able to find a way to use it to bring everything back to where it all needs to go."

Clint turned to Pietro. "We need to leave that up to you and Scott. The two of you need to get to that van and start getting the stones back. We'll distract Thanos and hope he doesn't figure out what we're doing.

Everyone nodded, the plan being set, and went off to do their things. Thor used the power of his lightning to get himself changed into his armor, since everyone else was and he didn't feel like being left out.

Then it was time for a fight. Every single one of them had their own vendetta against Thanos, their own boiling hatred. Tony wanted nothing more than to slaughter the titan where he stood for what he did to Peter. Steve because of Bucky. Smart-Hulk because of his pride. Thor and Clint because of their respective families.

Point being, they all were ready for this fight to end in one way and one way only: Thanos's death.

Pietro had Scott shrink down and hold onto his shoulder so they could look around for the van. Scott couldn't do much looking, but he gave Pietro the best description he could so they could find it.

It didn't take them long. When they did find it, Scott was up. He worked to hot wire the van to get it up and going. Even if the van itself worked, it wasn't guaranteed that the tunnel would still function as well.

"Come on, we need to get hurrying," Pietro said.

"I'm trying! This is some complicated shit!" Scott said, defending himself.

Up with the others, the fight was going strong. Thanos had his "children" with him, so everyone stayed busy with the fight. Steve could see the ships behind Thanos though, and knew they were the same ones from five years ago, full of those deranged dogs.

Soon, they were going to be hilariously outnumbered.

Steve was suddenly tossed off to the side, probably by the creepy telekinetic one, and had a chance to observe what was happening. When he saw Thanos trying to kill Thor, he knew he had to do something. Pulling from the party all those years ago, Steve used everything in him to get that hammer.

"Shit," Scott swore. Pietro was alarmed. "I... I can't do this. Not without Hope- she knew how to use all of this and get it all started."

Pietro was ready to get running. "Where is she?" he asked.

But Scott shook his head. "She dusted, along with her parents. I..." Scott was disappointed in himself. Pietro was starting to get more worried.

Everyone in the fight with Thanos was started to get exhausted. Tony refused to give up, despite his entire body wanting him to. He'd rather die than let this monster win.

Suddenly... "Cap, can you read me?"

Steve stopped.

"On your left."

Scott and Pietro could feel something in the air shifting. "You stay here," Pietro said, hoping somehow Scott could figure out what he needed to. Then, he hurried off, going to see what was happening.

When he got out of the rubble the van was basically buried under, he saw something beautiful. "Scott!" he called, hurrying back down. He scared the man half to death. "You have to see this."

Pietro got Scott up to where he just was, and the spectacle had only grown exponentially. Beautiful orange circles were opening up in the sky, and out of them came so many people, people there to help them.

Scott was watching with awe, but then he realized who these people were. "Oh my god," he said. Pietro looked at him. "These are the people who were snapped away five years ago."

"That means Hope is here!" Pietro cheered. And then another thing hit him. "That means... that means my sister is here..."

"We can have a family reunion later. Right now, can you please find Hope?" Scott asked. He did his best to describe her to him. Pietro took it all in, and then went running. It didn't take him long to find her, so he just picked her up and brought her back to where he and Scott had been.

When they got there, she was confused and very pissed at the guy who had grabbed her. "Hope!" Scott cheered, and he pulled her into a hug. That seemed to help.

"What the hell is going on and who is this guy?" she asked.

"That's Pietro, he runs really fast and is Wanda Maximoff's brother," Scott introduced, Pietro waving to Hope. "As for what's happening, I need your help getting the quantum tunnel in the van started to we can bring the infinity stones back to where we got them so the past can remain the past and not branch off into a new timeline."

Hope blinked a couple times. "Yeah, okay," she said, and they got to work.

"I'm gonna go tell the others!" Pietro said, then sped off to find Clint and tell him what was going on.

Along the way, he saw Wanda, and briefly thought about stopping to see her. But he had a mission to complete. He'd see her after, he'd make sure of it.

"Clint," Pietro said, stopping right beside him. "We have Hope and Scott working to get the tunnel back and working. Once it is, I'll get all the stones back myself."

Clint nodded. "Good. You guys still have the stones."

"Sitting in the van."

"Perfect. Go."

Pietro zipped back over to the van, and just a minute later, the tunnel was working. "Good, let's get these stones back to where they belong."

The others kept fighting, keeping the focus on them and not where the stones might be. Thanos was livid that he couldn't find the stones. He never expected these humans to be that smart. (And really, he only knew there were six. Not six hundred.)

Steve kept an ear open, waiting for a progress update as he finally took down one of the children.

"Done!" The cheer from Scott had everyone (who could hear him) smiling. "Pietro brought all the stones back!"

"Now we just have to kill this son of a bitch and everything he brought with him."

The fight was long to say the least. People were starting to lose hope, until Captain Marvel showed up from space, taking out Thanos's ship, which in turn took out hundreds of his army.

"Danvers, I want you and the Maximoff's to get together and get Thanos. You guys are probably our best bet," Tony said.

This caused Wanda to freeze. "Wait, did you Maximoff's? As in plural?" she asked, using her powers to flick Thanos's army away from her.

Just as she was done asking, Pietro appeared right by her side. "Hey sis," he said, and she pulled him into a hug without a second thought. He could already sense the question she wanted to ask him. "I promise I will explain everything to you after we take care of all of this, okay?"

She nodded, just happy to have her brother back with her.

Captain Marvel joined the twins, and they all got to planning. Once they had it down, they turned their sights to Thanos, who was fighting Steve.

Wanda and Carol were two of the most powerful Avengers there, so they used everything they had to get Thanos. He was much weaker without the stones, Wanda concluded. She still felt the pain of losing Vision twice, which just fueled her even more. Carol felt the pain of losing everyone she had promised to keep safe.

Pietro's job was keeping everyone else away from their fight. He took out the army easily, and the children were busy with other Avengers, so his job was much easier.

With a burst of anger, Thanos finally went down to the ground. Wanda walked up to the titan, ending up right near his head. She put her foot down on his chest. Carol was behind her, knowing Wanda needed this more than she did.

"You took everything from me," she whispered.

"I don't even know who you are."

Her angry gaze turned to one of stone. "You will."

With that, she used her powers to lift Thanos up into the air and tore him apart. With no ships to stop her, and no one able to get to her thanks to Carol and Pietro, Thanos wasn't winning this time.

When he was done and taken care of, Pietro was able to run around and take out most of the rest of Thanos's army. By this point, with the loss of their leader, the children didn't know what to do, and were easy to also take care of.

Take out the king, the rest seem to lose their sense of fight.

When it was all said and done, the Avengers gathered together. "What now?" Scott asked.

Pietro, standing with an arm wrapped around his sister, looked to Clint. "Do I have to go back?" he asked, voice quiet.

Clint looked around, seeing if anyone else had an answer. Smart-Hulk stepped up. "Well, the Ancient One really only said the stones needed to return to their place in time. Never anything else."

Pietro smiled, and then looked back to Clint, sending him a thankful nod. He was getting another chance, and Clint was to thank for that.

"Come on, we'll... we'll deal with this tomorrow," Tony said, gesturing around to the rubble. "I need to go hug my kid." Everyone agreed, and wandered away from the wreck.

Pietro couldn't wait for his new life to begin.

~Fin~

A/n: Here we go! This is based off that rumor that this was sort of the original plan the Russo's had, but decided Clint grabbing the glove was better. Don't know if it's true, but thought it would make a great story!

Thanks for reading, and I hope to see you guys back here next week!

See ya Lovelies!!!!!!