23 Arc VII Endgame - Time Heist

"Welcome Hulk and Rocket to New Asgard," Frigga greeted as Hulk and the bipedal raccoon Rocket jumped off a pickup truck at a pier. A pier that looked oddly futuristic but at the same time rustic. Misty and Eli had prepared for Ragnarok by investing enormous amounts of money in Norway. Eli, and by extension Asgard, owned a giant piece of Norway and they paid for it with 'green' technology that benefits the environment and Eli in a spaceship dragging down an asteroid completely loaded with rare metals in early 2017.

"Oh, you're the Hulk, but at the same time, you're not?"

"It's a long story," the big green guy said with a wave.

"Are you here for Val and Misty then? Please tell me you're here to get my son out of the house instead," Frigga inquired with a smile on her face.

"Uh, technically, we would like to talk to all of you, but yeah, we're mostly here for Thor," Rocket stuttered out. He was always brash and rude, but something with Frigga made him behave at his best.

"I can call for the valkyrie duo, but they are barely leaving the house these days. They are trying for a child, apparently. Before you ask, they did not fill me in on the... logistics... of their endeavor. Follow me to Thor's then. It's your first time here, no?"

The two nodded in assent. Soon, they reached a house at the very edge of New Asgard. Inside, they found Korg and Thor playing videogames. Both of them were wearing shorts, ugly woolen socks, and unbuttoned hawaiian print shirts. Thor was currently enjoying a beer, but the second his mother entered, he threw the bottle through an open door.

Hulk and Rocket were wondering what he was thinking, not only did they all see him throw the bottle, he also just made whatever he was trying to hide worse by breaking a bottle in whatever room he threw the beer in.

"Is this really how you want to spend your time, Thor? When was the last time you ate a salad I didn't bring? It's been three years since you left New Asgard." Frigga spoke with obvious disappointment. Thor had quickly grabbed a blanket to cover his huge gut he developed in the last years.

"Mother! You... should have called. I would have made myself more presentable," Thor said as he jumped out of the chair to go grab a bathrobe. It did not make things better, Thor looked even more homeless now.

"A bathrobe? You own something ike this and still never bathe? What's the point?" Frigga asked. Hulk and Rocket were getting hit with heavy second-hand embarrassment.

"I believe I have given you enough time to wallow in self-pity. I would have thought your son's last words would be enough motivation for you to pull yourself together eventually! How would you ever make it to Valhalla to see him again if you are like this? And what grand tales could you tell if you do? Of how you threaten 12 year-old videogame playing Midgardians called Noobmaster?" Frigga continued venting her grievances.

"Oh, hey! Thor, she watched our last vod," Krog chimed in.

Hulk quickly spoke up so he wouldn't have to hear any more of whatever this is.

"Thor, Lady Frigga. We're here because we might have found a way. A way to fix everything."

"Like what? Our cable? Global warming?" Thor joked.

"Like that weird bug where you keep falling through the map in the cathed-" Korg interjected.

"Like Thanos," Hulk said softly.

Thor was about to retort, but Frigga slapped the back of his head.

"If you give a stupid excuse or make a joke now, I'll stop the beer deliveries to Asgard for a year and ground you! He just said there's a way to get our little Eli back!" Frigga sternly reprimanded.

"Thor, we need your help," Hulk offered as a way out for Thor.

"Yeah, Quill's not here, so we need another laughing stock, tubby," Rocket quipped. He wanted to be a little more insulting, but Frigga was in the room.

"I insist you bring me with you. I'll bring the two valkyries with us," Frigga shared. Even if they said no, Frigga would not leave it to chance if getting her grandson back was involved.

Two hours later, the full dream team to discuss the future or rather the past was present. Well, they were there. Thor, Frigga, Misty, Val, Rocket and Hulk were joined by Scott, who came up with the plan, Tony, who solved how to use the plan, Pietro, who wanted to run to the past by himself if he could, and Nebula, who at more than one occasion suggested they all upload all of Thanos sensitive data into the universal quantum network at the time they jump to.

Steve was at the compound, too, but he was still busy with something else when they finished the test with Pietro jumping back to a day where Wanda was still alive in Sokovia.

After a quick discussion of how time travel does not work like in the movies and how changing the past would not change THEIR present because the past they jump back to would become the future of their present... they began to plan their time heist in earnest. Steve was finally present for it, too.

"Okay, jump back in time, grab the stone, bring it to the present, and one of us snaps his fingers. We know the 'how' works, now we need to figure out the when and where. Almost everyone in this room has had an encounter with at least one of the six infinity stones," Steve said, holding a young 8 year-old blonde girl in his arms.

"Or substitue the word encounter for 'damn near been...tickled' by one of the six infinity stones," Tony chimed in, but changed his wording as he looked at Eliza, Natasha's daughter.

"How about we have Val play hide and seek with little Eliza while we discuss this boring grown-up business. Look, Val just yawned, and we didn't even really start. Clearly, she wants to be anywhere but here, too," Misty suggested.

After Val happily took Eliza out of the room to play a little, they kept discussing where they knew the stones to be and when they will be there. They found that the battle of New York would mean that three stones were present in the big apple and allocated the biggest team for grabbing those with Hulk, Steve, Tony, and Scott.

Since taking the stone from the collector was way more trouble than simply grabbing the reality stone, or Aether, from Jane Foster in Asgard at the day of the dark elven invasion, they decided Thor and Rocket would do that job.

That left the power and soul stones. Since both were in space, they would hop to Morag where the power stone was and send a team to Vormir to retrieve the soul stone. Nebula and Pietro would steal the power stone from Quill, while Misty and Frigga would fly to Vormir.

Both of them were the most long-lived among everyone present, have been to space, and Frigga knew enough about magic and the soul to judge best how to get the stone if there were challenges involved.

Val would stay behind to look after Eliza if anything went wrong. Steve had doubts written all over his face. He didn't want the girl to lose yet another parent after he had adopted her four and a half years ago since Natasha's... apparent death.

Steve had spent a lot of time with Hawkeye's family. The man had disappeared after the snap and left his family behind, and frankly, Steve needed help raising his little girl. When Misty told him about her two weeks after the Thanos snap, Steve went through a rollercoster of emotions but immediately began spending time with Eliza.

When the girl began to feel comfortable in Steve's presence, he started the adoption process. Two months later, he was officially the father of Eliza Rico. Natasha had chosen that last name for her motherhood identity since it started with an R, just like both of Eliza's parent's names. Nat was sentimental like that.

Since they knew when and how to drop in, the team going to New York faced no problems at all to get the two stones that Natasha collected together with Selvig and Clint on that fateful day. Scott, for the first time, had a front row seat on Eli's 14 year-old self portal defense, and he was floored by the sheer distruction the young Thorson could inflict.

"Honestly, Cap. I was kinda glad Thor wasn't on planet during that whole fiasco at the airport in Berlin, but him being there would have been just as bad, no?" Scott said in disbelief as he watched one boy block an entire invasion for more than ten minutes.

"If he would not have held back, whichever side he chose to be against would have been toast. From our fallout, I'm guessing he would have been on your team," Tony said with a sad undertone.

"I wish he had been there. I still feel terrible about what happened to Jessie," Steve sighed. Tony looked at the younger Eli too, but when Jessica was mentioned, he turned downcast and pretty much stopped talking for the rest of the mission.

Hulk took a while to convince the Ancient One to get the stone, but the moment the Hulk mentioned that Strange gave the stone away willingly, she dropped the stone in the Hulk's hand.

"Just like that?" Hulk asked.

"I should be afraid that you might lose, and therefore, we will not get the stones back in our times... but I believe in him," the Ancient One mused.

"Him? You mean Strange?"

"Strange IS meant to be the best of us, but I would rather put my stock in someone else when it comes to all of you making it back alive."

"Who?"

"I suppose if something goes wrong, you will see who I mean," the Ancient One non-explained with a wink and sent Hulk away.

Back in Asgard, Thor and Rocket were sneaking around the palace. They caught Jane at a moment when she was taking a nap, but just as they extracted the Aether, Jane woke up. Thor put his hand on her mouth to muffle her scream. When she nodded, he released Jane.

"Thor? Oh god, how long did I sleep?" Jane's eyes widened in disbelief.

"Hey, hey. You barely even slept half an hour," Thor tried to calm her down, so Jane wouldn't get the guards involved.

"How come you changed so much then? And how is that raccoon walking on two feet?"

"Quit calling me a raccoon, name's Rocket!"

"How come you changed so much, and why is that bipedal raccoon talking to me?" Jane asked again.

"Magic spell gone wrong. Next time we meet, everything will be alright," Thor explained with a smile.

"Oh... okay then," Jane accepted and gave Thor a small kiss on the lips out of nowhere.

"You're still tired, aren't you? Go back to sleep, my love," Thor softly cooed with tears in his eyes. Jane nodded and fell asleep again shortly after.

Just before Thor and Rocket left this reality with Rocket non-stop cursing under his breath about Thor's family being raccoons, Thor stopped to call Mjolnir.

"Haha, still worthy! Suck on that! That's one amazing story I can tell Eli back in the world of the living," Thor shouted.

At the same... well, time wasn't right... at the same time from the perspective of the present... future? On Morag with the time travelers in 2014, Pietro and Nebula stayed behind as Misty and Frigga boarded the ship of the Guardians of the Galaxy to Vormir.

"Something gives me goosebumps about this place."

"It's your first time on another planet, no?"

"No, I think it's this dude's singing," Pietro joked as they watched Quill singing completely off-key.

"It's usually drowned out by the music on the ship," Nebula said with a sigh. After Quill kicked another little critter away and singing even louder during the song's chorus.

"Wow, that idiot is your captain? Is he always like this?"

Nebula only grunted in response.

Pietro and Nebula easily knocked out Quill and grabbed the power stone from the temple. Though, Pietro, with the stone in possession, did not notice that Nebula stayed behind unwillingly as Pietro traveled back to... the future. Nebula had noticed that the Nebula of this time had access to all her memories and current position. Eventually, she was, unknown to the rest, apprehended by the Thanos of 2014.

Misty and Frigga took a while to arrive at Vormir, and when they did, they met with the stone wraith, previously known as Red Skull.,

"Welcome. Frigga, daughter of Freyr. Krista, daughter of Magnus."

"And who might you be?" Frigga asked curiously as Misty readied her sword.

"Consider me a guide... to you and to all who seek the soul stone," Red Skull proclaimed.

"Oh, good. Tell us how to get it, and we'll be out of your...hair?" Misty quipped.

"If only it were that easy, Liebchen," Red Skull responded with a smirk.

"Liebchen? I've seen you before Johann Schmidt, and I'm much, much older than you. Show some respect, you baby ghost," Misty spat back, and Red Skull actually stiffened at that and awkwardly turned around to lead them forward.

The two Asgardians still warily followed the wraith toward the ruins of a tower at a cliff.

"What you seek lies in front of you. As does what you fear," Red Skull revealed.

"So the stone's down there?" Misty asked as she peered down the cliff.

"For one of you...for the other... In order to take the stone, you must lose that which you love. An everlasting exchange. A soul for a soul," Red Skull dramatically narrated.

"That's easy then. My husband is dead, Asgard is in good hands. And surely you must hold some love for me in your heart. If not as your queen, or the fact that we were both once Valkyries, then as the fact that we both love Eli," Frigga sternly recounted.

"My one son who's alive will get his son back, the other I might meet down there. There's nothing I would rather do with these old bones," Frigga mused with a faint smile as she looked to the horizon.

"You're joking. It was me who lost Eli when I only had that one mission from Lady Amora. It is me that should pay," Misty said with a resolute look.

"Would you not rather see him grow up into the fine man we both know him to be? He'll be back soon, after all. And, not only do you have a good two millenia more left in you, are you not trying to make a family with Brunnhilde, too?" Frigga countered.

"I... surely there must be another way," Misty weakly responded. But before she could say anything else, roots began to grow under her and secured Misty in place.

"I have a feeling I might even get to see Eli where I'm going. Your Lady Amora was resourceful like that, so please give my best to Thor. Maybe make him shower before they snap his son back into the world," Frigga softly offered as her last words.

"No! We haven't even-" Misty's following words were stuck in her throat because Frigga had already thrown herself off the cliff.

As Misty was crying out, the ruined tower at the cliff started gathering lights, shooting them up into the clouds above. The clouds gathered up, and once they were saturated, a light so bright that Misty had to close her eyes erupted.

When Misty opened her eyes again, she wasn't on the cliff with Red Skull anymore. That cliff was somewhere on the horizon. Misty now laid in shallow waters, and when she sat up, she noticed that there was something in her hands, a glowing orange stone... a soul for a soul.

Misty just sat there for a few hours with silent tears, and eventually, she pressed the gizmo connected to her palm to get back to her time.

Everyone looked around. Most of the people on top of the quantum tunnel platform they had built were excited. Until they heard Thor.

"Frigga... Misty, where is my mother?"

Misty shook her head, her eyes were tearing up again.

"What does that mean? Where is she?"

"A soul for a soul... that's the prize we had to pay," Misty eventually mumbled as she held up her hand with the soul stone in it.

Thor looked furious, furious enough that some people on the platform began to raise their guard.

"Did she go willingly?" Thor asked moments later, his furious glare still present.

"With a smile. She told me to tell you to take a shower before we snap your son back," Misty replied with a sigh after a few moments of deliberation.

Thor heard that but took a while to process it. He was still furious and devastated at the loss of his mother. But he was also contemplating that last order. Slowly, a wry smile formed on his face.

"That's totally like her. I can't believe a woman as wise her would leave those as her last words, though," Thor eventually offered.

"She also said that she would probably meet Eli in Valhalla because that's just how resourceful Amora was. If that is any consolation, Thor," Misty supplied to make him feel a little better.

It did make him feel better. If that were true, he could rest easy knowing that his son didn't have to live with the sacrifice of Frigga on my mind without getting the chance to talk to her about it. Also, this mission gave Thor another objective beyond saving his son with everyone else. It would serve as a distraction for him in the long run.

He was determined to get Jane back after she had seen her again. For that, too, he needed not only to shower but also to get back in shape. It will have to wait until after his snap, but it was on his to-do.

"Guys, there's something we did not consider before," Hulk started as he began explaining the problem the Ancient One presented him with. Getting the stones back to their original time was their new number two objective after the snap. As Hulk explained, they moved into the lab Tony had set up for his nanotech gauntlet.

"The question that remains... who will snap their grubby little fingers?" Pietro asked as they watched a few robot arms inserting the stones into the gauntlet.