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Dust flew around Camryn's face as she opened her eyes with a groan. Her hand went to her chest as she pushed herself to her feet, already feeling the bruises forming. She could still hear the compound collapsing around her and filling the air with dust. A loud CRASH! echoed through the cavern and Camryn's head snapped up in time to see a large chunk of rubble crashing straight toward her.

She threw her hands up and stumbled under the weight of catching the debris. Her muscles shook as she fought to stay upright.

"Stupid, weaker, teenage body," she grumbled.

The rubble shifted and Camryn struggled to keep her footing. Dust infiltrated her lungs and burned her throat as she coughed. Suddenly, like a beacon of hope, two voices echoed through the tunnels. Relief flooded her senses. She knew that voice anywhere.

"Tony!" She cried out. "Tony, I'm in here!" 

Camryn could have sworn the weight was increasing. The footsteps grew louder as the heroes appeared through the dust. Camryn looked up to see Tony and Steve staring at her in shock.

"Hey, guys," She said breathlessly. Her legs faltered and she dropped to one knee as debris crumbled around her.  

"Holy-" Tony cut himself off and rushed to her side.

Steve placed his hands next to hers and lifted the weight from her shoulders. Camryn fell forward with a sigh of relief and Tony caught her by the arms, pulling her away from the rubble as Steve tossed it aside.

Tony guided her to her feet. "You okay?" 

She released a breath and nodded.

He pulled her into his side and sighed with relief. "Good. That's good."

Steve patted her shoulder and the three of them made their way out of the wreckage. Thor was standing just outside the remains of the compound, Tony and Steve stood next to him and looked down at Thanos, who was sitting in the middle of what used to be the grounds. Sensing the burnt remains of the fauna made Camryn feel sick to her stomach.

"What's he been doing?" Tony asked.

Thor glared down at the titan. "Absolutely nothing."

"Where are the stones?" Steve asked.

"Somewhere under all this," Tony guessed. "All I know is he doesn't have 'em."

"So we keep it that way."

"You know it's a trap, right?" Thor asked.

"Yeah," Tony sighed. "I don't much care." 

Thor nodded. "Good. Just as long as we're all in agreement." Thunder cracked and Thor called both Mjollnir and Stormbreaker to him. "Let's kill him properly this time." 

They started to leave and Tony turned back to Camryn. "You're staying back here." 

Camryn looked past him at Thanos and nervously took a step back. "Yeah, I'm not arguing this time." 

She turned back to the former Avengers Compound and entered the wreckage, hoping that if she went in deep enough, she might find the roots buried beneath the earth.

"Nebula," she sighed with relief. "You're okay. Who's this? And what happened to the orange you had?" She pointed at Nebula's companion and then her head.

"The Nebula who came back with you was me from 2014, I was caught and she came to steal the stones from you," Nebula explained. "And this is Gamora, my sister."

"Oh, hey, I'm Camryn." 

She held her hand out and Gamora looked at her with an unreadable expression. Camryn squinted her eyes slightly in response and they stared at each other for a moment.

"I think we'll get along," Camryn said with a small smile.

"We have to find the other Nebula before she delivers the stones to Thanos and he destroys everything," Gamora said, brushing past her and Nebula.

They walked around for a few minutes until they heard an explosion not too far from them. They followed the sound and found another Nebula holding the gauntlet with Clint pinned beneath her, she pulled out a gun and was about to shoot him before Gamora spoke up.

"Stop." She stepped out where past Nebula could see her and pointed a gun at her, past Nebula stepped around to the other side of Clint, gun still aimed at his head.

The other Nebula stepped into the light, hands in the air, and past Nebula pointed her gun at her, once Clint wasn't in danger she scrambled to his feet. Camryn walked behind Gamora and over to him.

"What is going on?" He whispered to her.

"Past Nebula came back instead of real Nebula and is trying to give Thanos the stones." She told him. 

Clint nodded, still looking confused. "Right,"

"You don't have to do this." Nebula tried to reason with her past self.

"I am this." Past Nebula argued.

"No, you're not," Gamora told her.

"You've seen what we become." Nebula tapped the side of her head.

"Nebula, listen to her,"

"You can change." Nebula told her. Gamora lowered her gun and past Nebula looked at them both, her eyes full of sadness.

"He won't let me." Past Nebula suddenly pointed her gun at Gamora, who put her hand up to try and stop her. Nebula shot her past self, causing her to fall backward. Clint walked over and picked up the gauntlet, taking in a breath. They made their way back out of the wreckage, when they were outside they saw Steve standing alone, ready to fight Thanos on his own.

Suddenly dozens of portals started opening with the heroes who had been snapped away coming out of them. Camryn gasped when she saw everyone, the people from Wakanda began chanting and everyone walked down to fall in line with Captain America. Suddenly, Ant-Man grew to enormous size, bringing Bruce, Rhodey, and Rocket out of the rubble with him.

"Avengers!" Captain America called and held out his hand, as everyone assumed a fighting stance, Thor's hammer flew to his hand. "Assemble."

Everyone yelled and charged into battle.

Camryn turned invisible, confusing several members of Thanos' army, and used that to knock them all down and trapped them beneath large vines. As Camryn ran through the battlefield and fought aliens, she looked for any sign of Peter amongst the chaos. He was back, he had to be. And he was somewhere in this battle. 

Suddenly through the yelling and fighting, she heard someone talking. "Then he started doing the yellow sparkly thing that he does all the time."

Camryn whipped her head around looking for the source, when she found it she saw Peter and Tony hugging not too far from her.

"Oh, this is nice," Peter said, returning Tony's hug. T

hey released each other and Peter looked as if he just realized something. 

"Oh, by the way. Where's Cam?" He asked, "Because she wasn't in space when we came back so I assume-" He was cut off by being tackled in a hug. "Woah."

He stood in shock for a minute before realizing it was Camryn who had caught him off guard with a bear-hug and returned the gesture.

"I missed you." She whispered.

They released each other and Peter looked as if he was about to say something when his eyes widened and turned to his right punching an alien.

"Yeah," Camryn laughed awkwardly, "we should take care of them."

They fought back to back, hitting aliens away, webbing them down, and crushing them under vines.

"By the way," Peter said after dodging an alien trying to tackle him, "you aged really well."

"Yeah, it's a long story."

They continued to fight and heard the others trying to figure out how to get back and return the stones with their time machine crushed.

"Wait. Time machine?" Peter asked.

"How to you think we got the stones?"

"You time traveled?" Peter asked excitedly.

"Dude, I got to time travel to Asgard!" 

"Asgard?" Peter punched an alien away and ducked behind Camryn as she moved a large vine to swipe away a swarm of aliens. "Like with Thor?"

"Yeah, you would have loved it."

"Hold on!" Ant-Man said suddenly through the comms. "That wasn't our only time machine." 

A car horn to the tune of La Cucaracha was heard over the battle.

"Anyone see an ugly brown van out there?" Steve asked. Peter and Camryn didn't see anything and continued to fight.

"Did you see Cap was using Mjollnir?" Camryn asked Peter as she grew several large vines and dropped them on an advance of aliens.

"I know!" He exclaimed excitedly. "I thought he couldn't get more awesome!"

"You should have heard his speech earlier."

"You got a motivational speech from Captain America? Lucky!"

They continued fighting in perfect sync until Camryn saw Black Panther trapped in a pile of stones from the telekinetic alien.

"Hey Webs, I think Black Panther needs help,"

"Give me a boost?" Camryn nodded and Peter backed a few steps away before sprinting full speed towards her. Camryn grew a large vine, when Peter stepped on it she propelled him above Black Panther and Peter grabbed the gauntlet.

Camryn turned herself invisible and ran into a group of aliens, throwing multiple into each other. Peter jumped down in front of her, clutching the gauntlet, and put an arm out, pushing her behind him.

"Activate Instant Kill." He told his AI causing the advancing aliens to collapse as soon as Peter looked at them. Camryn was standing behind Peter, rapidly growing vines to crush, throw and grab any aliens that came near. Eventually, more aliens than they could stop began swarming them. Peter and Camryn were back to back, he could tell she was putting all her effort into growing vines to stop the aliens.

"Cam, get out of here!" He told her, using one of his spider legs on his suit to throw her off the alien dog pile. Camryn rolled at the impact and got back to her feet, expecting the aliens to turn to her but they were preoccupied fighting for the gauntlet.

"Peter!" She called out as he continued to fight.

"I got this! I got this!" He tried to assure her, before correcting himself quickly. "Okay, I don't got this. Hey somebody help!"

Camryn remained at the base of the pile of aliens, growing vines and trying to throw off as many aliens as she could.

"Hey, Queens," she heard Cap yell, "heads up."

Suddenly, Thor's hammer flew by, Peter shot a web and trailed behind the hammer as it flew over the fight. Camryn watched as Peter flew away, becoming slightly panicked. She worried that if he disappeared, she might never see him again. Without another moment of thought, she ran after him, using her powers to stop any aliens from getting in her way.

She saw Pepper grab Peter and drop him on the back of a pegasus, they quickly dove to avoid the fire from Thanos' ships. A shot came close to hitting them and Peter fell from the back of the pegasus. Camryn picked up her speed as she got closer to Peter, who kept running with the gauntlet. A shot landed right in front of him, knocking him backward.

"Peter!" Camryn yelled although she doubted he could hear her. Peter was trying to stand as Cassidy reached him, they were both knocked down by another blast. They held the gauntlet in the middle of them and Peter put an arm over Camryn's head, her eyes were squeezed shut.

Suddenly the blasts stopped and Camryn dared to open her eyes. They changed their trajectory to above everyone in the atmosphere. The thing they were firing at appeared from the clouds, looking like a meteor, and crashed through Thanos' ships, causing them to fall into the water.

Captain Marvel landed right in front of Camryn and Peter with a serious look on her face. Camryn gave her a small smile as she and Peter still held onto the gauntlet and each other.

"Hi, I'm Peter Parker," He greeted her.

"Hey, Peter Parker. You got something for me?"

Peter grunted as he stood up and held out a hand to help Camryn. They looked out at the army of aliens charging toward them.

"I don't know how you're gonna get through all that." He said, handing her the gauntlet. Wanda came and landed next to them.

"Don't worry."

"She's got help," Okoye finished Wanda's sentiment as others including Pepper, Mantis, and Shuri joined them. Captain Marvel looked back at Camryn and nodded her head towards the army, silently telling her to join them. She turned back and gave Peter a smile, releasing a breath she was holding before falling into step with the others.

Camryn turned invisible and began fighting any alien that came near, keeping them busy as Captain Marvel plowed through the ones in front of them. Suddenly there was an explosion, knocking everyone to the ground. Camryn stood up and was immediately greeted by an alien, before she could react Peter charged into the alien, knocking it away from them.

"Thanks."

"Yeah, no problem."

Camryn looked behind him and saw an alien charging toward them. She quickly stepped in front of him and several vines which wrapped around the aliene and pulled it to the ground. They continued fighting for a while until a loud rumbling was heard and all the aliens began to turn to dust. The same way half the universe did five years ago. The teens looked around in confusion for a moment, until they saw Tony and Rhodey not too far from there.

"Come on," Peter whispered and swung them over.

When they landed and got a better look at Tony, he had a vacant gaze in his eyes, and half of his face was charred the same way Bruce's arm was.

"Mr. Stark?" Peter said as he knelt in front of Tony, Rhodey stood up to let Peter talk to him and Camryn stayed still, unsure of what to do. "Hey," He took in a shaky breath, "Mr. Stark, can you hear me?"

Peter put a hand on his shoulder. Tony didn't respond or even move.

"It's Peter. Hey," Peter's voice was shaky. "We won, Mr. Stark. We won! We did it, sir, you did it." Peter began crying, Camryn released the breath she was holding and walked over to them. "I'm sorry. Tony."

Peter looked up at Camryn with tears in his eyes and moved out of her way as she knelt down in front of Tony. She was breathing heavily as Tony stared at nothing in front of him.

"Tony?" She whispered and put a hand on his arm, looking for any sign of a reaction or improvement. Camryn looked down, took in a shaky breath, and gave him a sad smile before speaking again. "Thank you, Tony. You were the best dad I could have asked for."

She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see Pepper, Camryn stood as Pepper took her place next to Tony. Camryn took a few steps back and stood next to Peter who already had tears running down his face. She grabbed onto Peter's hand next to her as they watched Pepper talk to Tony, Rhodey put a comforting hand on her shoulder as Peter squeezed her hand.

"Hey." Pepper greeted Tony and put a hand on his chest.

"Hey, Pep," Tony whispered, barely audible. He put his hand on top of Pepper's.

"Friday?"

"Life functions critical," Friday responded. Tony gave Pepper a weak smile.

"Tony. Look at me." She told him, he groaned weakly and slightly turned his head to face her, "We're gonna be okay. You can rest now."

Pepper began crying as the arc reactor shut off and Tony's hand fell to his side. Camryn finally let her tears fall and squeezed Peter's hand back. Pepper leaned in, kissed Tony's cheek, and rested her head on his shoulder as she cried.

"Everybody wants a happy ending, right? But it doesn't always roll that way. Maybe this time. I'm hoping if you play this back, it's in celebration. I hope families are reunited. I hope we get it back. And something like a normal version of the planet has been restored. If there ever was such a thing. God, what a world. Universe, now. If you had told me ten years ago that we weren't alone, let alone to this extent, I mean, I wouldn't have been surprised... but come on, who knew? The epic forces of darkness and light that have come into play. And for better or worse that's the reality Morgan's gonna have to find a way to grow up in."

Camryn looked down at Morgan next to her, the girl's eyes were glued to the recording of Tony. Camryn rubbed her thumb on her shoulder and returned her gaze to the image in front of them.

"Speaking of the kids, remind me to give Cam one of her favorite lectures later about putting herself in danger. I wonder where she got her knack for that."

Camryn let out a small laugh at the words, Pepper put a hand on her shoulder and gave her a comforting smile.

"So I thought, I'd better record a little greeting in the case of an untimely death. On my part. Not that death at any time isn't untimely. This time travel thing that we're gonna try and pull off tomorrow it's got me scratching my head about the survivability of it all. That's the thing. Then again, that's the hero gig, right? Part of the journey is the end. What am I even tripping for? Everything is gonna work out exactly the way it's supposed to."

Camryn smiled to herself as the projection of Tony stood up and walked over to where the helmet would have been. He paused and looked up like he was looking right at Morgan.

"I love you 3000." He smiled and the recording turned off.

They stood up and walked out of the cabin. Morgan grabbed onto Camryn's hand as they walked down the steps and toward the lake. When they got to the edge of the dock, Pepper, Morgan, and Camryn knelt and put the wreath with the arc reactor in the water.

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A/N

I cried so much writing this, like I watch the movies while I write this and I kept rewatching the scene because I kept forgetting the words because I was crying

on the bright side, we have Peter back

I hope you enjoyed reliving this pain

10.16.2021