31

Chapter 31Summary:

Hello Guardians

Yes, Tony's still a pain in Fury's arse.

Notes:

Salus = Greek goddess of safety

minor edits 6 April 2022

Chapter Text

"Stark?" Quill asked.

"Yes, the Man of Iron is the only one to use all six, without being instantly disintegrated."

"Morag then Terra?"

"Yes, Peter."

"Should we hunt up Groot and Rocket? What about Drax and Mantis. Should we be looking for them?"

"No need." Gamora jerked her chin, indicating something behind Quill.

The sandy-haired man turned and saw the four other beings standing around his ship.

"Alright, then." He clapped his hands. "Let's get this hunt on the move, Terra's a long way from Morag, which is a long way from here." He bounced off towards his ship, knowing that Gamora would be behind him, rolling her eyes at his exuberance.

~~~

May 4th (maybe) 2012

"So…?" Peter Quill screwed up his face. "How… did you all get here? How did you all know to come here?"

"I am… Groot…" The sentient tree muttered quietly.

"Yeah, pal, I know…" The racoon muttered and shook his head.

"Well?" Gamora raised an eyebrow.

"We literally just woke up one morning and remembered a dozen years that haven't happened." Rocket shrugged as he spoke.

"As did I." The Kylosian male nodded.

"So, Groot, Rocket and Drax woke and remembered but what about you, Mantis? Didn't dear old dad have you tucked away where nobody else knew about you?" Quill asked.

"I don't know…" The empath's antennae drooped in confusion. "One moment I was with you all, helping Quill across the battlefield on Titan and the next I was standing on observation deck of the Space dock, here. I saw Groot and decided it would be best if I joined him and Rocket. Once I met with them, Drax found us and we came here, Rocket seemed to know which ship to come to."

"So, does that mean that there's no-one with Ego?" Gamora asked.

"I don't know." Mantis answered quietly.

"Should we deal with him, first?" Peter asked.

"No, Thanos is way more important than Ego." Rocket replied.

"This is true." Drax nodded.

"Who knows, we might be lucky and Ego might be one of those that Thanos snaps away." Rocket said callously.

"No, we're not going to give Thanos the chance to destroy the future, again." Gamora said.

"But how can we stop him? There's only the six of us." Rocket argued.

"No, there's not." Gamora disagreed. "I woke aboard my ship, two days ago and after a few minutes of… physical exertion, I checked the memory logs of the ship. There was a series of messages from Nebula."

"Nebula?" Drax asked.

"Physical exertion?" Rocket asked.

"You broke things, didn't you?" Quill grinned.

"I did." Gamora nodded, unashamedly. "And yes, Nebula. She escaped from Thanos. Six years ago." Exclamations came from all five beings that were listening to her. "Quiet." Silence followed the sharp word. "Better. Yes, six years ago. She went to Xandar and the Nova Corps, they did a cellular rewrite on her, making her the genetic daughter of the Avengers' leader, Iron Man."

"Iron Man?" Quill grimaced. "He's not their leader, Captain America is."

"Really?" Gamora asked in disbelief. "Iron Man is better."

"That's not how it works, with them." Rocket argued. "They share things. Captain Blondie is the leader… in battle. The rest of the time, the Mechanic is the one to make things work."

"Huh." Quill grunted as he thought about Rocket's comment.

"Yeah, the Mechanic? He's smart, real smart. The things he comes up with? For battle? Captain Blondie seems to know how to make the most of them, knows who's to use what and when. The Mechanic is okay with Captain Blondie leading them, on field. And there? They work together, so well. Like they share a single brain. Beautiful. Mechanics and organics in perfect symmetry." Rocket's las sentence was whispered with an almost reverent awe.

"Sounds like you're impressed with them?" Quill smirked.

"I am. In battle, I have never seen any team that works as seamlessly as they do." Rocket nodded. "No even you and your sister." He addressed the comment to Gamora. "They're damn near perfect…"

"Do we have any idea if either of them remember what we do?" Mantis asked.

"Whether they remember or not, they will know. Nebula left enough clues in the messages that she left for me, to suggest that she remembers. Why else would she have gone to Terra?" Gamora said.

"True." Rocket nodded.

"Can we send her a message?" Quill asked. "If we're on the Milano, will she get our messages? Accept them, I mean?"

"I think so." Gamora nodded. "I sent her a message, warning her that all future messages would come from the Milano. I knew from what Nebula told me in her messages and from what I remember of what the Nova Corps were able to reclaim from the Milano when they reconstructed the ship after Ronan's attack, that Quill would be here. Sometime in the next few days. I just had to wait."

"Do you need anything from your ship?" Quill asked.

"No." Gamora shook her head. "I retrieved the few possessions that I wanted to keep, they're on a hover-sled along with supplies."

"And your ship?" Rocket asked.

"Sold. There'll be a delivery of supplies coming, as soon as we let the supply master know what berth to deliver them to. Once they're stowed, we can leave."

Rocket nodded and tapped out a direction on the dock's power coupling that supplied the ship with power while it was on-station. "Done. Should be here in a minute or two." He told the others.

"Where are we going?" Drax looked from Gamora to Quill. "Ego? Or the Stone? Which is first?"

"The Stone." Both answered.

"And that is where?" Mantis asked.

"Morag." Quill answered and paused as a hover-sled came to a halt at the base of the Milano's cargo ramp. "After we unload this."

"That was quick." Rocket grunted, pleased.

"I have nothing with me." Mantis said. "Should I have clothing?"

"I also have nothing." Drax reminded them.

"If Quill and Groot will stow the supplies and Rocket does a maintenance inspection, supervises a fuel-cell exchange and gets us cleared for departure? Say two hours? I have the credits to get you both some clothes." Gamora said.

"Should send the blue baldy a message, telling her we're off after the Stone." Rocket added.

The group exchanged looks, looking from one person to another, before nodding and going their separate ways.

~~~

May 5th 2012

Nebula strode from her apartment, not quite running but very close to it. She hurried along the corridor and down the nearest stairwell, to ground level, along the pavement and in the staff (and family) only entrance to Iron Tech's Brooklyn base. From there she climbed to the sixth floor and Tony's personal lab. She waved at the door and it quickly and quietly slid open, giving her access.

"Nebula?" Tony's head rose from behind Dum-E's body.

"I've just received a message from the Milano." Nebula said quickly. "Gamora's met up with Quill, Rocket, Groot, Drax and Mantis. They're going to Morag to after the Stone."

Tony's eyes widened. "Morag? That's the Power Stone, right?" Nebula nodded and Tony stood up. "We need to let Steve know."

"Steve can wait." Pepper said as she entered the lab. "You need to clean up, Fury will be here inside the hour."

"Dammit…" Tony grimaced and headed for the lab's bathroom.

~~~

"What the fuck…?" Nick Fury just looked at Tony Stark, blankly. It took nearly a minute before Fury sighed. "You've always been a pain in my arse, Stark. Why should I expect that to change, now?"

"Fury?"

"Well, the good news is…" Fury grimaced, "you don't need to explain anything about what happened, just what you're going to do to stop it from happening again."

"Excuse me?"

"I remember, Thanos… sort of…"

"Kind of like a dream or a movie you watched?" Steve asked, remembering how Angela had described it.

"Yes." Fury grunted. "A really realistic dream or a movie watched with Stark's virtual reality gear."

"Oh, thank God." Tony slumped back in his seat.

"Why didn't you approach us, then?" Steve asked.

"I grew up in this timeline, this is my home." Fury answered. "I didn't really think that it was possible to move between timelines. Even in my…. let's call them dreams… Unlike most of you, I remember growing up here. What I know of your timeline is only from my dreams. And while I'll grant you, they're very realistic, they're still just dreams. And even in my dreams, the timeline… jumping(?) thing, was end-of-the-world stuff and involved aliens, a giant green ogre, a… raccoon(?) and blue cyborg."

"The Green Giant is a good friend of mine, he's not an ogre." Tony informed Fury. "The raccoon is Rocket, he's a mechanical genius."

"Like you?"

"Nah, he's had access to stuff that we can't get on Earth." Tony shook his head. "And the Blue Meanie went to another set of aliens and had them change her. She's now Nebula."

"Nebula? Your daughter, Nebula?"

"Yep." Tony nodded.

"Your daughter's an alien?" Fury gave Tony a blank stare.

"Was." Tony corrected. "She had a cellular rewrite to make her completely human."

"Uh-huh." Fury grunted. "Right." He nodded a few times, before speaking again. "So, what's the next move?"

"You've the evidence that we gave you, that showed that Loki was under the same type of mind control as Morton and Whips." Tony said. "How did the WSC take that?"

"They're not happy about it but after a bit of heavy-handed bluntness, they accepted it. It took far longer to convince them that the tesseract wasn't staying on Earth." Fury replied.

"I can imagine." Tony paused and frowned. "Who ordered the nuke? Are there still HYDRA on the council?"

"Cheng." Fury answered. "And I think it was more a political move than anything. China's not happy with the western world, right now, any of it, so the chance to damage a major western city was too good to pass up. The other councillors have already taken action against him, he's been removed and sanctioned. China's seat on the council has been revoked and passed along to Japan, just to add insult to injury."

"JARVIS?"

"Sir?"

Tony tilted his head and let the CEO of Stark Industries and Iron Technologies rear his business-savy head. "Make sure our Chinese trading partners are informed that IT and SI will not tolerate that type of behaviour against any nation, not just against America and that we will happily withdraw our businesses from their shores." He frowned. "Add in a penalty charge, something large enough to have them contacting whoever gave Cheng the authority to act."

"Yes, Sir. Shall I halt progress on the purchase of land for the Shenzhen factory?" The disembodied voice startled Fury, who looked up at the ceiling and glanced from one corner to another, before looking back at Tony.

"Yes, and tell Pei why. Let the commerce department put pressure on the higher-ups, too."

"Of course, Sir." The smooth British voice agreed.

"Can we get back to what you're going to do to stop Thanos, please?" Fury asked sharply.

"Sure." Tony replied brightly. "Neb's sister, Gamora has teamed up with the Guardians and they're headed for a tiny little rock in the Andromeda Galaxy that is the current home of the Power Stone. They're going to fetch it and meet us at Nornheim, from there the only access to the roots of Yggdrasil and the Norns is with the permission and direction of the Norns, themselves. After Thanos, they want our help to deal with a renegade Celestial, called Ego. But that's later, Thanos is way more important."

"Who's going to these Norns? And how?"

"We have a ship." Tony answered the second question. "When Nebula went to Xandar for help, they 'confiscated' her ship and replaced it with one that was untraceable by Thanos. We'll use that, it's large enough to take ten or twelve of us, without being too cramped."

"Tony will be going." Steve joined the conversation. "He was the one to actually use all six Stones to defeat Thanos, in our original timeline. Darcy and Bucky because they've been there before and have the best idea of where we're going. Natashalie and Gamora, as they were sacrificed for the Soul Stone. The Ancient One, as she's the current guardian of the Time Stone. Nebula, because it's her ship. Peter Quill, as he's part Celestial and has handled the Power Stone before."

"I will be joining you." Loki said. "I have the clearest understanding on Thanos' plans and I believe that it would be easier for the Norns to access that directly from my mind."

"If Loki is to travel with you, so shall I." Thor added.

"And we all feel that Coulson should come, too." Tony said. "The voice of reason, sort of thing."

"If we're taking those that have used a Stone, then Jane should go, too." Bucky said. "She was infected by the Aether for a bit."

"Jane?" Thor straightened up. "You knowest of the Lady Jane?"

"Of course." Bucky grinned. "Darcy is my wife."

Thor beamed. "Then we are brothers! The Lady Darcy is my Shield-Sister."

"Oh, not only that, big guy." Tony smirked. "Your mom? She's adopted Darcy."

"Mother? Mother's been here?" Loki's eyes widened.

"Mother left Asgard?" Thor's eyes were just as wide.

"Yep. Valkyrie escorted her and stayed with her until Heimdall sent the Bifrost back for her." Tony said. "She left us goodies to help in the fight. Potions, weapons, ore for runes and other protective… stuff." Tony nodded rapidly, smiling brightly at the two brothers.

"Mother left Asgard..." Thor whispered. "May the Norns have mercy on us…"

"We really hope they will, pal…" Steve agreed.

"Right, back on track." Bucky rapped his metal hand on the table to get everyone's attention. "Tony, Darcy, me, Nat, Gamora, the Ancient One, Nebula, Quill, Loki, Thor, Coulson and Jane?" He ticked them off, on a piece of paper as he spoke. "That's twelve. Darcy and I only need one bunk."

"As do Jane and I." Thor added.

"Quill and Gamora can probably share, too." Tony suggested. "If not, then Gamora can share a cabin with Nebs. Coulson and I can share one, maybe put Nat and the Ancient One in another."

"How are the bunks laid out?" Steve asked. "The Benatar was a mix of single and double cabins."

"Pretty much the same on the Salus." Tony responded. "Eight bunks in four cabins, two to a cabin and four doubles."

"So, Darcy and Bucky in a double?" Steve asked, making a note on the pad in front of him. "Jane and Thor in another? Quill and Gamora or Nebs and Gamora?"

"Leave that with a question mark and I'll have Nebs message Gamora and check." Tony said.

"Right." Steve nodded. "That leaves one double and four multi-berth cabins. We have Tony and Coulson, Nat and Nebs… that leaves Loki and the Ancient One… and one double cabin and one single cabin." He studied the pad and made a few more notes, crossing some out and rewriting others. "Right. Double cabins. Darcy and Bucky. Jane and Thor. The Ancient One. The last is Gamora and either Quill or Nebs. The bunk cabins. Nat and possibly Nebs, depending on what Gamora says. Tony and Coulson. Loki and possibly Quill, again depending on what Gamora has to say. That leaves us with one bunk cabin spare that I suggest we use as storage for additional supplies, particularly fresh water. We have no idea how long you're going to be waiting for the Norns to respond to a request for a meeting."

"And when will you leave?" Fury asked.

"We can be ready in… six hours?" Tony replied looking at the others in the room and after they all nodded, he went on. "Yeah, six hours and we can be away. We have the Stones secure, each in a separate container, that will be stored in separate locations around the ship. We're not all that sure what will happen if their containers come into contact with each other, so we're taking a few extra precautions."

"And what should we be telling the public about those of you that are going?" Fury tilted his head and narrowed his eyes in consideration. "Iron Man was quite visible, as was Sargent Barnes."

"Tell them that when Loki was freed from Thanos' control, he gave us information that we're using to prevent an item becoming a weapon, that if Thanos got his hands on it, could destroy half the life on Earth." Steve replied.

"The truth, then?"

"Pretty much." Tony nodded. "Just not all of it."