Consequences

[3rd POV]

"Why the hell is he so much stronger!!" Tony yelled in frustration as he felt his body scream with every little movement he made.

But he pushed through the pain and crawled toward the armless Hulk whose body was spasming in pain and shock.

Tony activated the first aid kid mode and dealt with Hulk's injury. his arm shoots out a laser and he finally seals the wound with ice. It was not the best decision for a human being as that would kill the cells but Hulk's biology was naturally different from the human's so it would be fine.

While he was sealing the wounds, future Steve came running and knelt down near Hulk.

"We need to leave." Tony said through his gritted teeth. "Scott is dead and if we stay here any longer we will be too."

Captain America nodded, but he was doubtful, "Would we be able to leave? With how much we have changed the past?"

"This is not the past. At least not our Universe, else I would've died when the past Tony was killed. Without the past, you can't have the future after all."

"So you mean.."

"I am not sure. And I don't have time to think about it. He will come back soon, lets go." Tony said and suited up and he activated Hulk's suit as well.

"I have told my past self as much as I could about Thanos and what would happen. I hope that helped them at least." Steve said before he suited up as well.

With a flash, they disappeared.

But the consequence of their action remained.

*****

Captain America carried the corpse of his friend  Tony Stark. The suit of armor around Tony's body was heavy but nothing that the Super Soldier could carry.

The area had been a little quiet after the initial chaos. The sky was filled with Jets and Helicopters, the army was here now.

The civilians were also mostly evacuated.

But no one left that ruined city unharmed. The fight had taken a toll on the mentality of everyone and it would surely be a trauma that each person would carry throughout their lives.

Captain finally reached the army soldiers and he gave Tony's body to them. He was a martyr, one who was willing to risk his life.

Seve was proven wrong, Tony was a good man who was willing to sacrifice for others. Someone willing to lay down on a wire to let the other guy crawl over him.

He could only regret his words. The words he said and the words he didn't have the chance to say because if he could, he would surely tell Tony that he was a hero.

Steve wished he could get to know him properly. Sadly, there was only his corpse now.

He finally took his much-needed rest as he sat down in one of the alleyways and rested his back on the building. The sound of fire and explosion along with generals giving orders to the soldiers did not bother him. He had been through so much war that it felt almost natural to him.

He took deep and slow breaths and his mind began working as his body rested. He remembered all the things Steve - his future self had told him while they were rescuing civilians and fighting the chitauri.

It was not coherent and he only caught the important bits with all the fighting and gunshots. But he knew enough.

"The death of Half of All life in the universe. protect the stones."

"Hydra in Shiled. Trust Fury."

"Bucky is alive. Brainwashed."

"Trust others. You are not always right"

And a few others more. He needed to remember things properly.

But the sound of Leviathan roaring in the sky stopped his thoughts. Jet and helicopters fired their artillery at it but the giant creature was out of their league

He took a final breath and stood up.

He had a huge responsibility on his shoulders and he was so very tired that he feared falling over and being knocked out.

His mental state was also not good. He had lost people and he was not even aware of who and how many, but he couldn't even mourn.

His body ached and screamed at him to lie down, but the sounds of people crying did not allow him to rest. The screams of soldiers did not allow him to fall.

He raised and fought. telling himself one thing over and over again until his mind and body believed it.

"I can do this all day."

---___---__---__---__---

[3rd POV] 

"Ancient One." Thanos called out as he looked around his surroundings in caution.

There was a sense of foreboding in the air and it would be a lie to say that Thanos was not nervous. His muscles unconsciously tensed up, ready to unleash raw power while his hand also went to his belt and checked the Tessaract and the sceptre.

"You are not supposed to be here." The voice of the Ancient One reverberated in the surroundings, making Thanos turn his head in search of the source.

"They are not supposed to be here." She said again, talking about the Avengers from the Future. "The timeline is in chaos."

Thanos grabbed the Tesseract in his hand as he continued searching for the Ancient One. His sense worked tirelessly to locate where the witch was.

"And you, Thanos are at the center of it all." She said and Thanos stopped turning his head and searching for the Ancient one.

He stood in his place as he let the words sink in. He was at the center of it all.

Then slowly, he turned his face forward and looked down slightly in front of him. He knew she was there, right in front of him.

They were a dimension apart from each other. The Ancient One was in the mirror dimension and Thanos could sense her presence with the help of the Space stone.

The Ancient One's eyes widened slightly as their eyes met. She was absolutely surprised at how he could locate her without practice in the mystic arts.

"And the way you are able to use the stones with such ease..." She said, "It's almost as if you were destined to hold their power."

Ever since he held the infinity stones, Thanos had no problem using them. He even used it to lock the space around Ant-Man before he smashed his skull.

It was natural for Thanos to be able to use the stone. Like giving a hammer to someone who hasn't seen nor touched a hammer in their life. They would not know the intricate techniques or how to best utilize it, but they could somehow guess naturally how the hammer works.

And use it to harm others or maybe to build something. Whether they held the hammer correctly or whether they could use it effectively was not relevant, the point was that they could use it even if they had never heard nor seen it.

The infinity stones are like that for Thanos as well. Although he might not be able to wield their full power, he could somehow use the basic powers without any hindrance, as if it were only natural for him.

Maybe Thanos was indeed destined to hold the Infinity Stones.

"What do you want?" She asked as she stood straight with her hands on her back. She looked to be at ease, as if she had seen the future and was sure that Thanos would not attack or wasn't capable of attacking her.

"Don't you know already? Have you not seen it in your vision." Thanos asked, testing her. The most problematic thing about fighting the Soccer Supreme was her ability to see the future.

It could be said that it was the only reason the Avengers won the war. Had it not been for Dr. Strange looking at multiple futures and selecting the one they win, they would have no chance of defeating the original Thanos.

So Thanos wanted to know, the whether she could still see the future. He hoped she would not be able to see the future due to his existence. He was an anomaly, a special case, so maybe she wouldn't be able to see the future with him.

But alas, he was not as special as he thought he was.

"Hah." She sighed, "Always with that same question."

Now that was scary. So she could see the future after all.

Or was it a bluff? Why would she confirm his suspicion? Maybe she couldn't see the future and acted like she could to scare him.

It was so tricky that it made Thanos's head spin.

"Believe it or not, you refuse to say anything each time. This is why I don't like people who are aware of the Stone and its powers."  She said with a helpless and strained smile.

She just doubled down. But Thanos never got the confirmation. This could just be another trick to make him believe that she had seen the future> Maybe she indeed could see but not much.

It was a question with no end. Like the question of which comes first, the chicken or the egg?

But the question was why she was being so peaceful and passive with him. Given what he knew of the sorceress, he would expect her to ambush him and seal him in another dimension or something.

But here she was, talking to him and revealing her presence. Does that mean she saw her ambush fail in one of the future?

Thanos hated it. It felt like no matter what he decided to do, she would always come out on top, It won't matter if she died because Dr.Strange died but was brought back and won somehow.

It felt like he was going up against inevitable defeat.

"Anyways, let's try this again shall we?" She said and Thanos immediately got alerted.

The ground below him shone in yellow light as it revealed a magic circle of some sort. It was like a geometric graph with storage shapes and symbols.

Thanos felt the oxygen around him being sucked into the circle and that's all he needed to know what type of trap this was. He was almost relieved that it was not some crazy sealing spell or something.

*VVVVVVVV*

*BOOOOOOOOOM!!!!*

Huge torrents of flame erupted like a pillar until the searing flames reached the sky and touched the clouds.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------