Chapter Text
Back on Earth
Natasha stared up at the sky, her tears blurring her vision but it didn't matter, she knew the spaceship was gone.
"I love you. I will come home to you."
Maria was gone and her final words echoed in Natasha's mind over and over again.
A tentative hand touched her shoulder, and Natasha flinched at the touch but didn't move away.
"Nat," said Bruce, giving her shoulder a gently squeeze. "We can't stay here."
Natasha turned to him, the body of Cull Obsedian was behind Bruce, a large piece of metal stuck through his chest, complements of Tony Stark.
"Authorities will be here soon," said Bruce, concern and trepidation evident in his eyes. "We can't be here, Nat. Tony told me you have warrants for your arrest. We need to leave."
Natasha knew he was right, but she couldn't bring herself to talk, let alone move. Her eyes went back up to the sky, to the last place she saw her incredibly stupid wife flying away.
"I love you. I will come home to you."
Sirens were sounding in the distance but she didn't care. Her wife was gone. Maria was on a spaceship, hurtling across the universe, and she didn't know if she would ever be back. She didn't know if she would ever see her again.
"I am sorry, Natasha," said Bruce, reaching forward and putting his hands around her middle, and lifting her off the ground and into his arms.
Emotionally drained, Natasha didn't have it in her to fight him. Instead, she let Bruce drag her away—her eyes never leaving the sky.
"I love you. I will come home to you."
In Space
Once both of them lost their signals to their wives, Maria and Tony met back where the first originally separated. Both of them did each other the curtesy of ignoring tear stained cheeks and red eyes.
Maria was the first to speak, "What—" she paused, her voice cracking with the emotional residue left from the goodbye with Natasha. Clearing her throat, she tried again. "What's the plan?" she asked, her voice gaining confidence.
Tony swallowed, he too needing a moment to settle his voice. He opened his mouth, ready to respond but his eyes suddenly noticed something behind Maria and his mouth opened in shock before shutting into a hard frown.
"Wow, you're a serious piece of outerwear, aren't you?"
Maria turned as she heard the soft footsteps behind her, and her eyes immediately landed on Peter, who at least had the decency to look a little scolded, but there was a bright fascinating look in his eyes when he stared around the alien spacecraft.
Tony stepped around Maria, "What are you—"
"I know what you're going to say," interrupted Peter, putting his hands up in defense.
"You should not be here."
"I was going to go home—"
"I don't want to hear it."
"But it was such a long way down, and I thought about you and the Commander on your way…"
"And now I gotta hear it!"
"And the suit, it just kind of acted on its own. It shot a web to the spaceship and I kinda got stuck to the side of the ship. This suit is ridiculously intuitive, by the way. So if anything, it's kinda your fault that I'm here."
Maria noticed Tony flinch at Peter's words, just as Tony stepped back and mumbled under his breath "God, damnit."
"What did you just say?" Maria asked, evenly, with as much edge she could possibly put in her voice as she stepped forward.
Peter's eyes shot wide, recognizing her tone and then his eyes went to Tony, noticing that the man was internally struggling with Peter's last statement.
"I take that back," he immediately said, shooting an apologetic glance towards Tony. "But, now I'm here in…space."
Maria crossed her arms, "Exactly, you're right where we didn't want you to be. This isn't a field trip, Peter. It's a one-way ticket. You hear me? Don't pretend like you thought this through. You could not have possibly thought this through."
"No." he argued back meekly. "I did think this through."
Tony whirled on him after that, apparently reaching his breaking point. "You could not have possibly thought this through."
Peter sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. If he was honest with himself he didn't 100% think this through, but he knew he needed to be here. "It's just...you can't be a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man if there's no neighborhood."
Maria and Tony shared a look, both of them realizing that this mission just got more complicated since both of them now had to protect the kid and make sure he came back.
"We will sort this out later," said Maria, crossing her arms and giving Peter a look. "You are here. There is nothing we can do about that now. But understand this, Peter. This isn't a game. This is life and death. You will listen to every order Tony and I give you. If we tell you to run—you run. If we tell you leave us behind to die—you leave us. You do not question our orders. You do not hesitate. You do exactly what we tell you. Do you understand?"
Peter's eyes shot wide at her words but he nodded quickly and his eyes lost that spark that they originally had when he finally took in the reality of the situation he placed himself in.
Turning her back to him, Maria indicated with her head to the ledge where they knew Ebony Maw had placed Dr. Strange.
Maria and Tony crept forward assessing the situation. Just below them, Ebony Maw was steering the ship and Dr. Strange hovering in the middle of the control bay, with hundreds of tiny crystal needles placed around him, just inches from her skin.
"Maria," said Tony, his voice hushed, as he cast a glance over his shoulder to make sure Peter wasn't listening before turning back to Maria. "If it comes down to me or the kid. I need you put the kid first."
Maria, turned her head to him and her body went stiff. "Tony, don't put that on me—"
"I know," interrupted Tony, shaking his head. "I don't want to put this on you. Trust me, I don't. But I needed to say it. I needed you to know. Saving the world is priority number one, the kid is number two. Above all else, even me. Please respect my wishes."
Maria shook her head. She knew Tony cared for Peter, in a father-son way—but Maria also cared for Tony, more then she would like to admit. She had come to see him like a brother, filling the void of her team and Coulson from all those years ago. And she knew losing him would break her at the same level.
"I will get you both out of here," said Maria, reaching up and grasping his shoulder. "How about that?" She paused, giving him a small smile. "Besides, Pepper terrifies me. I'd face a thousand Thanos's before I faced your grieving wife."
Tony smiled at that, his eyes taking on a faraway look before coming back to her. "Back at you," he replied. "Without you to stop Natasha, she will likely kill me in a matter of days."
Maria smiled at that as well, and her eyes watered just at the thought of her very formidable wife. Shaking her head and clearing her vision, she steeled her mind back to the task at hand. They needed to rescue Dr. Strange.
"How do you think we should handle this?" she asked him.
Tony took in their surroundings, and frowned. This was a sticky situation. Turning around, seeing Peter hanging back, clearly giving them space. Indicating with this head to the kid to come over, Peter rushed forward.
Tony pointed to the unconscious Dr. Strange, "See him down there? He's in trouble. What's your plan? Go."
Peter took in the situation for a few seconds before his eyes suddenly shined bright. "Um. Okay, okay... uh... did you ever see this really old movie, Aliens?"
Maria and Tony shared a look, and both frowned.
God they were getting old.
It took a few minutes of coordinating, and Maria couldn't believe it but they were going with the "Aliens" game plan.
Making sure Tony and Peter were in position. Maria jumped over the guard rail and landed loudly on the ground. She was the distraction, there was no sense in keeping quiet.
Ebony Maw turned from steering the ship, and smiled at the sight of her.
"My master will reward me for bringing him two stones."
Maria took another step forward, and Ebony Maw moved his hands and the crystals started to piece Dr. Strange's skin. The wizard immediately started screaming and it took everything within herself not to flinch at his pain.
"Not another step," ordered Ebony Maw, "any one of these could end your friend's life in an instant."
Maria placed her hands up in a false sense of placation. "I gotta tell you, he's not really my friend. Saving his life is more a professional courtesy.
Ebony Maw grinned, manically. "You've saved nothing. You do not know how to control your powers, which makes yours inconsequential compared to mine." Ebony Maw manipulated a large piece of metal behind him, and Maria knew he was only seconds away from throwing it at her.
Maria steeled her nerves, and activated the Aether inside her, just in case.
"Yeah," she grinned, immediately setting Ebony Maw on edge. "But the kid's seen more movies."
Tony came out of hiding and fired a direct hit with a rocket to the side of the ship, right on Ebony Maw's right. Instantly the depressurization began to suck everything out of the cabin, especially the alien and the large piece of metal that he linked himself too. Ebony Maw stood no chance as he flew out of the hole into space.
Maria had activated her nightfall immediately after the Tony fired his weapon, pushing it to its max to not be pulled through the hole.
Without Ebony Maw, the crystals fell away from Dr. Strange but he too was sucked towards the space. But was quickly stopped when rapid fire webs shot from a place across the room, sticking Dr. Strange in place.
Tony worked fast as he moved towards the whole, and started patching it with spare pieces of metal around the ship. It took only a few seconds, and suddenly the hole was patched and the cabin started to re-pressurize itself.
Dr. Strange using a spell cut himself free from the webs and landed on his feet. Taking in the three people who saved his life.
He gave them a nod of thanks, and then walked to the front of the ship. "We have to turn this ship around."
Tony scoffed. "We save him, and now he wants to run. Great plan.
"No, I want to protect the stone."
"Fine job you did of that back on Earth. Look at us now, we're now in a flying doughnut billions of miles away from Earth with no backup."
"I'm back up," pipped up Peter, giving Dr. Strange an awkward teenager wave.
Maria rolled her eyes stepping between Dr. Strange and Tony but not before pointing at Pater. "No. You're a stowaway."
Tony separated from them, trusting Maria to sort out Dr. Strange as he looked at the controls.
"This ship is self-correcting its course. Thing's on autopilot."
"Can we control it? Fly us home?" asked Maria.
Tony doesn't respond as he looks at the controls and their destination. A faraway look entering his eyes.
"Tony?" asked Maria.
Tony grimaced before the words even came out of his mouth, and Maria immediately knew she wasn't going to like what he was about to say.
"I heard you. I'm thinking... I'm not so sure we should."
Dr. Strange immediately stepped forward. "Under no circumstance can we bring the Time and Reality Stone to Thanos. I don't think you quite understand what's at stake here."
Tony whirled on Dr. Strange. "No. It's you who doesn't understand, that Thanos has been inside my head for six years since he sent an army to New York and now he's back! And I don't know what to do."
Turning to Maria, he lowered his voice and spoke once more. "So I'm not so sure if it's a better plan to fight him on our turf or his but you saw what they did, what they can do. At least on his turf, he's not expecting it. So I say we take the fight to him. What do you think?"
Maria frowned at his suggestion. She wanted to go back home. She wanted to go back to Natasha, but Tony did make a point. Thanos will come from them. Isn't it better to be as far away from earth as possible when he does?
Sighing, she nodded in agreement, knowing that the likelihood of her getting back to Natasha was now significantly low. "I agree."
Dr. Strange looked at her in shock, but frowned when he too processed the idea. "Alright, Stark. We go to him. But you have to understand... if it comes to saving any of you or the Time Stone... I will not hesitate to let either of you die. I can't, because the fate of the universe depends on it."
Tony rolled his eyes but nodded. "Nice. Good. Moral compass. We're straight."
Maria stepped forward to the large screen that showed them hurdling through space. She could hear Peter introduce himself to Dr. Strange and Tony mumble to himself as he explored the alien technology.
She was in space. She was hurling across space in a alien spaceship which would bring them to one of the strongest beings in the universe. A being that was dead set on wiping out half the universe. And the only way to stop them was to fight him.
It all seemed so unfathomable but the more she thought of it, the more reality started to sink in.
The promise she made to Natasha that she was going to come back to her seemed impossible and Maria's heart sank at the though.