Disclaimer: I Do Not Own Avengers

PRELUDE:

I've snapped my fingers.

And—

I am adrift in myself, alone with my future, my present. The sheer existence of me is at once a weighty and a weightless thing. Time is not a line or an arrow or any other suitable metaphor; Time is not an abstract notion.

Time is a Stone.

With the Stone, all of history is exposed to me. I am in history. I am history. I witness it and relive it and experience it in the same quantum instant.

For the first time in years, I behold the lovely sphere that is Earth. From a distance of thousands of kilometers, the planet looks the same as when I left, with no indication as to the havoc that lurks on the surface.

And then it's years later, and my forces wage battle against his troops in the Sanctuary. Bodies are sucked into space as the Ravager's mass for a second attack run.

And now Nebula tells me:

"Thanos is the most powerful being in the universe!"

And I, the fool, respond:

"Not anymore."

Unmoored from the present, observing without interfering, I watch my life as it plays out. I am the foregone conclusion to my own prophecy. Nebula's warning was untrue, and now I truly am the most powerful being in the universe, perceiving all reality from the vantage point of ultimate power.

Not much more than an overgrown baby, I tilt the glass to my lips. The liquid within is purple, thick, and strangely sweet, tasting of herbs I had never heard of.

I am newly born, and Thor is pointing a finger at my head, "I've had a vision. A whirlpool of that sucks in all hope of life, and at its center, is that."

Years later, my ship launches from the surface of Earth, carrying me into the unknown. I tell myself that everything I know is now behind me, and then I tell myself that it doesn't matter.

Swaddled in the verdant energies of the Time Stone, my mind traverses decades at the speed of thought, spinning the jewel of my life from facet to facet.

"You'll die like any other man," says Corvus Glaive, choking on his own blood. "My Master will slaughter this world."

I watched paralyzed and helpless, as Tony raises his hand...

...and Secretary Ross postures and threatens...

...and Nebula speaks to me in the wreckage of Titan:

"My father...he's going to do it. With five of the Infinity Stones, he cannot be beaten. To challenge him is to court death.

I am striding through the fields of the Garden, my fellow Avengers behind me, as Carol Danvers flies above.

I am chopping the Infinity Gauntlet from Thanos' body...

...and trying to create time travel...

...and then—years later—a voice, the voice of my worst enemy: "You couldn't accept your failures. Where did that bring you? Right back to me."

Years begin to blur into one another, catapulting me forward in an instant, then back in the next. I am aboard the Sanctuary II. The protective doors to my vault slide open, and the Gauntlet glimmers there in the half-light, not quite gold.

I have seen this moment before. I have lived it. It is happening for the first time, the second time, the millionth time.

I reach for it.

"Fine," I say. "I'll—"

CHAPTER 1:

When I opened my eyes, I was the center of attention. The Avengers, Earth's mightiest heroes, were all staring at me. I glanced around at my surroundings, recognizing the Avengers Tower immediately.

My reflection in the floor to ceiling windows gave me pause. The face staring back at me was Vision. Thought's moved through my head, hundreds of them in a split second; then, I was calm. Whatever had happened, I was in the MCU. How or why didn't matter. There were possibilities, the most likely being interference by a Watcher or some other ancient being, but none I could prove.

Thor tapped Mjolnir against his palm. "Right," he said and patted Tony on the shoulder, praising him, "Well done."

There was silence behind me as I walked to the balcony. Even as I left the main room, I could still hear Captain America's voice clearly. His tone was that of a leader, crisp and authoritative.

"Three minutes," the Captain said. "Get what you need."

Footsteps followed me to the edge of the tower. The soft ruffling of a cape gave away who it was.

"The Mind Stone, can you control it?" Thor asked.

I shook my head. Vison had been explicit in the movies that he did have control over the Stone. He could use it, but he did not control it.

I reached up to tap the Stone with my index finger. It was strange, the feeling of having something so powerful attached to my body. If I were a normal human...or possibly anything other than Thanos himself, I would be crumbling to dust.

"Thor," I said, "After we stop Ultron, we need to talk about the Infinity Stones."

"What do you know about Infinity Stones?" Thor frowned, then added, "Other than what I've just told everyone."

"I know the Mind Stone is the fourth of the Infinity Stones to show up in the last few years. That is not a coincidence." I looked out over New York. Even now, in this very city, there were two Stones.

Thor nodded in agreement with my statement. "Someone has been playing an intricate game and has made pawns of us."

"We need to find out what is coming," I said, when in reality, what I needed to do was find a way to explain my knowledge of the future. Thor knew more about the Infinity Stones than any other Avenger, but how much he knew was the question.

A plan formed in my mind. In minutes I had constructed and deconstructed dozens of ideas and schemes to try and save the universe. It was strange to think of myself as a semi-artificial being, yet the speed my mind moved at now couldn't be organic.

"Right now, we need to focus on stopping Ultron," Thor said. "There will be no reason to worry about what is coming if he destroys the Earth."

I can't argue with that logic. I thought and felt a feeling crawl down my spine. I was being watched. I twisted my body but didn't turn all the way around. Through the glass windows, I could see Wanda staring at me.

She looked away as I smiled.

"We will talk more after Ultron is defeated," I told Thor, as I floated into the air.

"Where are you going?" He asked.

"I have a plan to stop Ultron." I said, "And Wanda is instrumental to its success."

As I floated towards Wanda, I glanced down. The three feet I was above the ground wasn't much in terms of height, but it still felt amazing. I was flying. Without anything helping me, I was flying.

It was over too soon, and Wando looked up. Behind her, Pietro glared at me suspiciously.

"Hello, Wanda," I said.

"Hello," she replied, her accent thick.

"I would like you to come with me," I told her. " I need your help to stop Ultron."

There was a flash of blue, and Pietro was sliding in between us. It was slightly amusing and empowering to know that if I wanted, I could just take Wanda, and no one in the tower could stop me.

Not that I would ever do that. The Avengers weren't an enemy I wanted to have, and with Thanos on his way, I needed allies.

Allies united, not divided.

Stop Ultron. Stop Civil War. Stop Thanos.

"No," Pietro said, "She's not going with you."

I looked at him. Vision's mind, my mind, downloading images, files, and videos. Codependency, made worse by the Strucker's experiment. I thought in the time it took Pietro to blink twice.

"Do you not want to save Sokovia?" I asked.

"The Avengers-"

I cut Pietro off. "Won't be able to stop Ultron. He has been preparing for them. He is not prepared for Wanda or me. We were never supposed to be his enemies."

Ultron might not be able to kill the Avengers, but he was the stepping stone to the destruction. The Accords might still be created, but without Sokovia, they might not be passed. The Avengers were not responsible for New York or Washington.

If I could stop Sokovia from being destroyed, the Avengers would still be seen as the heroes. Hulk had made a mess in Johannesburg; however, that could be contained by saying Ultron used Loki's staff, a known way of mind control on Banner, forcing him to attack.

"Where would we go?" Wanda asked, moving in front of her brother.

"Not far, " I answered. "We won't even have to leave New York."

"Hey!" Tony shouted from across the room. "What's going on over there?"

The other Avengers looked are way. Hawkeye seemed suspicious, as did Steve. Bruce looked away as soon as he saw Tony was shouting towards Wanda. That was probably a good thing. He had a good grasp of his anger, but after Johannesburg, it was best not to test fate by letting him interact with Wanda.

"Wanda and I will be back soon," I said. "We have to go meet someone."

"What?" Captain America stepped down out of the Quinjet.

"And who. And why. And where." Tony added.

"Hank Pym. Pym Particles. A few blocks from here." I answered, holding my hand out to Wanda. "Shall we?"

She took it; her skin felt exactly like skin felt, which was also strange. My body was only half organic, yet I felt all things human.

"We'll meet you all in Sokovia," I said, lifting into the air. "This won't take long."

I wrapped my arms around the future Scarlet Witch and flew out the window. Hank Pym was a smart man, but also egotistical and kind of a jackass. So, I didn't feel too guilty about what I was about to do.

"Who is Hank Pym?" Wanda asked as we flew above New York.

"Pym used to work for SHIELD," I said. "He created what's known as the Pym Particle. Subatomic particles of an extra-dimensional nature capable of reducing or increasing the scale of any form of matter. We're going to steal some from him and use them to save Sokovia."

"Save Sokovia from what?"

I lowered us down to the street in front of Hank Pym's home. "Ultron plans to use Stark Arc reactor technology to lift Sokovia into the sky then drop it like an asteroid," I said. "We are going to use the Pym Particles and create our own giant Arc reactors to counted Ultron's. Sokovia will never leave the ground."

"My vision!" Wanda gasped, horrified. "That is his extinction plan? His own asteroid?"

I nodded. "Yes, I've...gotten glimpses of it. Perhaps the Mind Stone is speaking to me? Or a part of Ultron that was downloaded before Mr. Stark and Dr. Banner fixed me is still in my head. I do not know."

Lies. All lies. I was lying to someone who could possibly read minds. I'm not terribly familiar with all of Wanda's powers. She seemed to buy it though, looking towards Pym's house. Her fingertips twitched, pulling and pushing red tendrils of energy between them.

"What's in there can stop Ultron?"

"No," I said. "We can stop Ultron."

Wow, I really have this hero thing down. I thought as Wanda glanced at me. I smiled. "Dr. Pym's tech will save Sokovia, but it can't fight Ultron, Wanda. That responsibility falls to us."

"What do you need me to do?" She asked.

"Use your powers to convince Dr. Pym to bring us out all the Pym Particle Disks he has," I said.

Wanda raised her hands, weaving red energy through the air. It looked so cool. Much cooler than watching it on a screen.

"It is done," Wanda said, letting her hands drop. "He is coming."

"You're amazing," I said and leaned over, knocking my shoulder against hers. She looked shocked at the contact. Time to lie again. "Sorry, did I not do it right? Was it too hard? I'm new to the whole human contact-"

"It's fine," Wanda promised with a smile. She leaned into me, knocking my shoulder.

She looks young. I thought. It was easy to forget that she still had a year of being a teenager left when she could destroy an Infinity Stone and stop Thanos.

Dr. Pym's door opened. I looked away from Wanda as the retired hero stepped out onto his porch. In his hands, he held what we had come for. I floated forward.

"Thank you, Doctor," I said, taking the disks.

He nodded at me, his eyes unseeing, before turning around and going back inside.

"It's time for us to go," I told Wanda flying back to her and lifting her into my arms.

Sokovia wasn't going to save itself.