chapter twenty three
╰ ( infinity war )

💫 ━━ PAISLEY stood beside Pepper Potts. Her, Pepper and Tony had gone into the city for some much needed shopping. Okay, Paisley wanted a new dolly for her other dolly.

"Peps?" Paisley looked up from the doll. She and Pepper were in the toy store well Tony was next door in one of the many fancy stores.

"Yes, hun?" Pepper questioned, looking down at her. She smiled.

"When can I see aunt Wanda?" Paisley asked, placing the doll back on the shelf and grabbing the cheaper one. ( In her mind, it looked so much cooler. ) She missed her aunt, and when she lived at the Avengers compound with the rest of her family, she saw her every day.

Tony stepped towards the two, smiling as he reached down and ruffled Paisleys hair. "Soon, Pais."

Paisley looked up at Tony, grinning as she was told she could see her aunt soon. That was one thing Tony helped with after the falling out of the Avengers — he made sure that Paisley had the choice and chance to see her aunt whenever she wanted.

Tony moved around the two, moving so he stood beside Pepper, wrapping his arm around her shoulder. "Look, you know how you're having a dream, and in the dream you gotta pee?"

Pepper and Paisley both nodded, "Yeah." The two said in sync, both flashing Tony an odd look.

Tony nodded, continuing on with what he was saying. "Okay, and then you're like; 'Oh my god, there's no bathroom, what am I gonna do?', 'Oh! Someone's watching.', 'I'm gonna go in my pants'."

Paisley nodded eagerly, "And then you wake up, and in real life you actually have to pee!"

"Yes." Tony threw his hands up, chuckling as he did so. The three walked towards the till where Tony paid for Paisleys new doll. Then they left the store, heading towards the trees where they would go for a walk.

Pepper smiled at her husband. "Yeah. Everybody has those dreams."

Tony smiled, "Right! That's the point I'm trying to make. Apropos of that, last night, I dreamt, we had another kid. So real. We named him after your eccentric uncle. Uh, what was his name?"

Pepper nodded in understanding. "Right."

Tony grinned, "Morgan! Morgan."

Pepper tilted her head, her arm wrapped around Paisley who was more interested in the doll she had. "So you woke up, and thought that we were..."

Tony looked excited, "Expecting."

Pepper smiled at her husband, looking down at Paisley. "Yeah."

Tony bounced on the balls of his feet, excited. "Yes?"

Paisley shook her head, "She isn't."

Tony tilted his head towards Paisley, who was growing like a weed. "How do you know, kiddo?"

"I don't hear a heartbeat." Paisley shrugged, looking up at Tony and Pepper. "When I do I'll tell you both!"

Tony frowned, "I had a dream about it. It was so real."

Pepper untied Tony's hoodie that hung around his neck, tapping the arc reactor gently. "If you wanted to have another kid, you wouldn't have done that."

Tony smirked goofily. "I'm glad you brought this up, 'cause it's nothing. It's just a housing unit for nano particles."

Pepper chuckled, "It's not helping your case, okay?"

Tony placed his hand over the reactor on his chest. "No, this is detachable, it's not a..."

"You don't need that." Pepper said intently, crouching down and moving to sit on the grass near Paisley.

Tony copied her actions, sitting across from her and beside Paisley who was attempting to make a flower crown. "I know. I had the surgery. I'm just trying to protect us... the future, us, and that's it. Just in case there's a monster in the closet, instead of, you know..."

Paisley looked up from the flower crown she was trying to make for her dolly. "Shirts?"

Tony smiled down at the thirteen year old. "You know me so well. You and Pep finish all my sentences."

Paisley grinned back, "You should have shirts in your closet."

Tony narrowed his eyes at Paisley, "Yeah. You know what there should be? No more surprises. Us three and Ryder are gonna have a nice dinner tonight. Show off this Harry Winston. Right? And we should have no more surprises. Ever. I should promise you all that."

Pepper chuckled. "Yes."

Tony nodded, "I will." He leaned down and placed a kiss to Paisley forehead before he leaned forward and placed a kiss to Peppers lips.

An orange portal opened up and out walked a man in a red cloak and blue outfit, with a weird necklace. Paisleys seen him once, in a dream she couldn't figure out.

"Tony Stark, Paisley Maximoff, I'm Doctor Stephen Strange. I need you to come with me." He looked between the old and new heroes before he looked towards a somewhat shocked Pepper. "Oh, uh, congratulations on the wedding, by the way."

Tony pointed at Doctor Strange, "I'm sorry, you giving out tickets or something?"

Doctor Strange shook his head. "We need your help. Look, it's not overselling to say that the fate of the universe is at stake."

Tony stared at him, as if he was trying to figure out if he was lying or not. "And who's we?"

Bruce Banner walked out of the portal, "Hey, Tony. Hi, Paisley."

"Bruce." Tony blinked away the shock. He had though Bruce was gone, and a small part of him believed he wasn't coming back.

Bruce Banner waved to the red haired woman, "Pepper."

Pepper waved back. "Hi."

"You okay?" Bruce stepped towards Tony and wrapped his arms around him, giving him a hug.

💫 ━━ PAISLEY ate a granola bar which would help keep her energy up. It was specifically made for her by Tony, who had been helping her strengthen and control her powers for the last year.

She stood beside Wong, who was greatly interested in the magic she had.

Paisley smiled at Wong, who gave her an encouraging thumbs up. She held her hand out, a orange ball of magic flickering in her open palm.

"Now try to create something." Wong suggested, as he himself twisted his hands outwards and created a fake image of the universe, stars and planets and all.

Paisley mimicked what he had done, thinking about creating what he had. She twisted her hands and pushed then outwards, an image of a purple and black galaxy showing. It was messier than Wongs, but it was progress.

"Like that?" Paisley asked, the image disappearing as she turned to look back at Wong who nodded.

"You have power replication, correct?" Wong asked, crouching down slightly so he was face to face with the young girl.

Paisley nodded and shrugged, "Tony says I'm a copy cat though."

"Can you tell me about your powers?" Wong asked moving so he was sitting in front of the girl.

"Uh... the more I copy someone's powers, the easier I can do it. And if I copy someone's powers for a certain amount of time, then I can take their powers. Well not take them! I don't take powers! People keep them, Mr. Wong!"

Wong chuckled, placing a hand on her shoulder to stop her rambling. "Hey, it's okay. I understand; their powers become a power you can control yourself, without them."

Paisley nodded and glanced towards Tony who flashed her a smile before he returned to his conversation with Doctor Strange and Bruce. "Yeah, that's right. I like copy cat more though. Tony even made me a cool iron girl cat suit! Do you wanna see it? It's nanotech."

Wong chuckled again, finding the young thirteen year old full of rambles and smiles such a treat compared to Doctor Strange. "Can you try something first? I'd like you to mimic my actions, and then thing of somewhere you'd like to be."

Paisley stood, jumping ever so slightly. "A portal! Do I get to make a portal?!"

Wong nodded. "Let's try."

So he showed her what to do, and how to do it. He told her what to concentrate on, and how the magic would work. Then he demonstrated how to open the portal.

"Now you try."

Paisley nodded with confidence. She moved her hands and worked her mind just like Wong had told her too. An small, closed, orange circle flickers before it disappeared. She tried once more, and the same thing happened again.

"It's not working." Paisley pouted, frowning and sticking out her bottom lip.

Tony stepped towards the girl. "Hey, we'll work on that later. Alright, Pais? We don't want you to over work yourself."

Bruce waited until the two were done talking before he stepped forward. "Vision is out there somewhere with the Mind Stone, and we have to find him now."

Paisley huffed. "Yeah, well, the super secret boy band broke up. And I can't track him anymore."

Bruce looked between Paisley and Tony, pure confusion across his face. "What do you mean?"

Tony looked towards Paisley, eyebrows raised. "You track him?"

"You don't? He's my connection to auntie. He brings me back gifts from her! And letters. Gee, Tones." Paisley smiled and moved her head from side to side.

"He's offline." Tony concluded, looking back to Bruce.

Bruce threw his hands up into the air. "What?! Tony, you lost another super bot?!"

Tony shook his head. "I didn't lose him. He's more than that. He's evolving."

Doctor Strange stepped into the conversation. "Who could find Vision, then?"

"Well this little one, and uh, shit, probably Steve Rogers."

Doctor Strange sighed in exasperation, "Oh, great."

Tony Stark looked between Bruce and Strange. "Maybe. But..."

Bruce Banner didn't know what had happened. He's been gone, he's missed a lot. "Call him."

Tony frowned slightly. "It's not that easy. God, we haven't caught up in a spell, have we?"

"No." Bruce said stepping towards Tony.

"The Avengers broke up. We're toast." Tony gestured towards Paisley. "Like she said, the secret boy band broke up."

"Broke up? Like a band? Like The Beatles?" Bruce rambled slightly.

"Cap and I fell out hard. We're not on speaking terms." Tony told him. It was true, they didn't talk at all.

Bruce sighed lightly, "Tony, listen to me. Thor's gone. Thanos is coming. It doesn't matter who you're talking to or not."

Tony hesitated before he looks towards Paisley. "Kiddo? He'll answer if it's you."

Paisley nodded, moving around the room towards her small little bag Tony had picked out for her birthday. It had IronMan all over it. She loves it and brings it with her everywhere. Steve had mailed both her and Tony a flip phone for emergencies — it had his and Natasha's number on, that's all.

She pressed a button and the phone rang, she placed it on the terrible speakerphone option it had.

"Paisley?" Steve spoke into the phone, worried. "Is everything okay?"

"I lost vision, me and Tony can't find him. He's offline." Paisley spoke as she stepped closer to Tony, the ground underneath them rumbling.

"Are you with Tony? What's going on?" Steve asked, he was pacing from where he was. Worried.

Paisley handed the phone to Tony. "Hey, Rogers. We've got a situation..."