The Avengers lay sprawled across the snow.
A second earlier, they had been hundreds of meters underground in the Hydra Base, facing nuclear bombs with barely a dozen seconds left on the countdown.
Now they were aboveground.
"We... we're safe?"
Natasha braced her hands on her knees and gasped for breath. The spatial compression had left her stomach churning.
The others were much the same, pale-faced and still shaken.
"Hermione, what now?" Tony asked.
"No one attacks me without paying the price." Her voice was calm.
As soon as she finished speaking, she vanished into thin air.
She reappeared an instant later.
Only this time, she hadn't returned alone.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
She dumped three figures onto the snow.
T'Challa, Killmonger, and Shuri.
All three froze when they saw the people around them.
"How did you get out?" Shuri shrieked. "What's going on?"
One moment, they had been inside the Quinjet. The next, they had inexplicably landed here with their mouths full of snow.
Shuri shouted, "It was you! You witch! You must have done something!"
Hermione couldn't be bothered to answer their questions. She simply looked at them as though they were already dead.
"Since you're so fond of your elaborate plans, you shouldn't miss out on this final D Plan."
"Go inside and experience it for yourselves."
Before any of them could react, she bound the three together with magical power, pulled them toward her, and used Apparition again.
All four vanished.
Half a second later, Hermione reappeared alone in the same spot.
She raised her hand, and the Time Stone glowed green once more.
Hum!
The snowflakes suspended in the air began falling again, and the wind resumed its howl.
Time flowed again.
Inside the base.
T'Challa, Killmonger, and Shuri were slammed onto the cold floor.