Tony Stark felt his mind open up. If it was a wave, it could be detected, and therefore, shielded.
Meanwhile, the scene hadn't ended yet. Captain Rogers was returning home in a Quinjet—a true homecoming to the Avengers' headquarters.
Within the Avengers' headquarters, General Ross, now Secretary of State, appeared as a projection and asked, "Still no contact with Vision?"
"Satellite data places his last known location in Edinburgh!" answered Colonel War Machine Rhodes, who remained at the base.
"On a stolen Quinjet!" Ross replied, reviewing the data. "And four of the world's most wanted criminals are with him!"
War Machine Rhodes let out a cold laugh, his expression darkening. "They became wanted criminals because of you, sir!"
"My word, Rhodes, since when did you learn to talk back?" Secretary of State Ross retorted coldly.
"If it weren't for the Sokovia Accords, Vision wouldn't have left!" Rhodes shot back, his voice filled with resentment.
"I recall you signed the agreement as well, Colonel!" Ross reminded War Machine Rhodes.
"That's correct!" War Machine Rhodes stepped forward to face Ross's projection. "And I paid the price!"
Though War Machine Rhodes appeared normal on the surface, his lower body was actually paralyzed. Only through advanced technology developed by Tony Stark could he walk and run like a healthy person.
But regardless of appearances, he was, in truth, disabled.
"Do you have any further objections?" Ross asked.
"No!" War Machine Rhodes replied.
The group's faces darkened as they watched. After the Avengers' split, both Captain Rogers' faction—now fugitives—and Tony Stark's faction—which seemed to have won, at least on the surface—were viewed similarly by the authorities.
The fact that Vision was still being tracked by satellite... what did that imply?
It meant they were all being treated as criminals or potential criminals.
This only made everyone feel worse.
While Captain America Rogers becoming a wanted man was highly probable, given the origins and progression of the Civil War, the United Nations, unaware of the full context, saw these individuals as criminals.
But using such tactics against Tony Stark and his allies was truly sinister.
No wonder Captain America Rogers had shed the uniform that symbolized the spirit of America.
A moment later, the base gates swung open, and Captain America Rogers and the others walked in.
Though they were now fugitives, this place remained their home, unchanged after all these years.
At that moment, Captain America Rogers received a call from Bruce Banner, informing him that Tony Stark and Spider-Man Peter Parker were already pursuing the alien spaceship.
The entire Avengers needed someone to hold the fort, so he had returned.
No hesitation!
With a major enemy at their doorstep, dwelling on petty grievances would be a sign of small-mindedness.
When humanity itself was on the brink of extinction, those personal grievances truly amounted to nothing.
"Mr. Secretary of State!" Captain America said to General Ross.
"You're truly audacious! I'm genuinely impressed by your nerve!" General Ross's anger boiled over as he saw Captain Rogers and the others.
Even though he was seeing them through a screen, his hatred for these rebels remained as strong as ever.
For a former general, there was nothing he despised more than deserters.
In his eyes, these people were all traitors and cowards.
"How about I lend you some courage?" Black Widow Natasha retorted sharply.
She found it absurd that this general, who had once stirred up so much trouble, could now hold the position of Secretary of State.
"The world is in flames, and you think you can just declare a general amnesty?" Ross's projection moved closer to Captain America, fixing them with his gaze.
One had to admit, the technology of the future had reached truly astonishing levels.
"I'm not here to surrender, and I haven't listened to your orders in a long time!" Captain America stated. Having left S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers behind, he now answered only to his own sense of justice. "Earth is vulnerable. We're here to fight. If you try to stop us, don't blame us for being ruthless!"
"Arrest them!" Secretary of State Ross turned to War Machine Rhodes and immediately gave the order.
"No problem!" Rhodes cut the projection off without giving General Ross any courtesy. "This is court-martial material. It's good to see you, Captain!"
Despite his paralysis from the Civil War, Rhodes clearly held no grudge against Captain America and the others.
After a brief exchange, Bruce Banner began to explain the terrifying threat of Thanos.
The group fell silent, realizing that the only way to counter such a threat was to destroy the Mind Stone. "Alright, forget that for now. Listen to me—Thanos has assembled the most powerful army in the universe. He won't stop until he gets the Mind Stone from Vision!" Bruce Banner tried to convey the full scale of Thanos's power and the magnitude of the threat.
"Then we need to protect him!" Black Widow Natasha immediately responded.
"No, we need to destroy him!"
Vision disagreed with this idea. Leaning against the window, he stared out at something, then spoke, "I've been studying the properties and composition of the Mind Stone on my forehead. If it resonates with a sufficiently powerful energy source and its attributes, its molecular structure might be destroyed."
"Yes, but you'd die! Don't even think about it!" Wanda immediately rejected the proposal, knowing such a sacrifice would mean losing her beloved.
"This is the only way to keep the Mind Stone out of Thanos's hands. There's no other method besides destroying it!" Vision remained unmoved, his resolve as solid as the stone itself, for the sacrifice would be his own.
"I can't accept that price!" Wanda looked at Vision, voicing the turmoil in her heart.
Vision gazed at Wanda with sorrow, then said, "Only you have the power to do this!"
But Wanda refused to engage, turning away without a word.
"Thanos threatens half the life in the universe. Sacrificing one life to defeat him is nothing!" Vision stated, presenting the only viable solution.
"Every life is precious. We don't trade lives for victory!" Captain Rogers flatly refused, his values unable to accept such a compromise.
"Captain, didn't you sacrifice yourself seventy years ago to save millions of lives? Tell me, what's the difference?" Vision retorted, turning Rogers' own words against him.
The group was taken aback by Vision's argument. Their initial disgust toward him—stemming from his AI nature and the horrifying vision of him feeding people to the zombie Wanda in an alternate timeline—began to wane.
Perhaps Vision wasn't perfect, but if Wanda weren't involved, he might not have gone mad like this.
Ultimately, Bruce Banner proposed a completely new solution.
"Your consciousness is a superposition of multiple complex constructs—Jarvis, Ultron, Tony, me, and the Mind Stone—all blended together and interacting!"
"You mean Vision is more than just that one stone?" Wanda, standing nearby, suddenly her eyes lit up as if she understood what he was getting at.
This also suggested that they might be able to achieve their goal without sacrificing Vision.
"I mean, if we remove the Infinity Stone, Vision will still be himself—and might even become better!" Bruce Banner tried to explain the concept.
Soon, they found a place to perform the procedure: Wakanda, the nation inexplicably possessing advanced technology.
Tony Stark, watching from off-screen, fell into deep contemplation. Perhaps things were as he suspected—Vision's creation had been, in part, an accident.
It was a complex fusion of Jarvis, his and Bruce Banner's ideas, and the Mind Stone. Because of this, he wouldn't easily try to replicate Vision, fearing he might create some kind of monster.
Though Captain America's save in Infinity War was quite impressive, Thor's descent from the heavens with Stormbreaker was the true spectacle. It's a bit of a stretch to say Star-Lord punched his way into Endgame, but saying Thor split his way into Endgame with a single axe strike? That would be perfectly fitting. It's just a shame—Thor was always one step behind, always too late!
Just as the crowd was eager to read on, they noticed that Lin Feng seemed to have lost interest in continuing his diary. Everything stopped there.
The crowd was furious. They desperately wanted to know how Thor, the God of Thunder, had supposedly split his way into Endgame with a single axe strike.
"No, I have to make him tell me!"
Thor, the God of Thunder, suddenly shot to his feet.
He couldn't accept defeat, couldn't accept the outcome where his brother was killed by Thanos.
Even if the sacred timeline offered a single path to victory, and this was the only way to reach it, he refused to accept it.
He had to know what had gone wrong, how that axe strike had gone astray.
-----------------------
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