Persistent Memory is a Marvel Cinematic Universe fanfic series written by Kizmet
Set after Avengers: Infinity War, the story sees the surviving Avengers execute a Peggy Sue to go back to the battle of New York, with a twist, Tony doesn't come back through the portal.
It can be Read here
This fanfic provides examples of:
- Cassandra Truth: Harley Keener is revealed to be amoung those who remember the old timeline, but can't do anything because no one is going to believe a kid when he says the world is "Wrong".
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Thanos vs the surviving Avengers.
- Death by Adaptation: Cassie Lang and Pepper Potts are noted as having died in the snap where they are both notable survivors of it in the film.
- Thor, Okoye, Hawkeye, Black Widow and War Machine are all killed by Thanos before the alliance against him arrive.
- The Asguardians are specifically mentioned as having been wiped out in the aftermath of Thanos' attack.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation: In Avengers: Endgame Black Widow sacrifices herself to get the soul stone, here she is killed by Thanos.
- Similarly Thanos is beheaded by Thor early into the film, in this story he is killed by an assault by an alliance formed to get revenge against him.
- Enemy Mine: Among others the Kree and the Skrulls are noted as being in the alliance to get revenge on Thanos.
- SHIELD and HYDRA are forced to team up against AIM.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Wong dies sending everyone back in time.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- Upon returning to the past Steve immediately goes to save Bucky, meaning he's not around for the start of the AIM mess.
- Bruce sleeping through Tony telling him about the Mandarin debacle comes back to bite him on the ass when he ends up back in the incident and is missing several key details.
- The Avengers choosing to continue fighting against Thanos despite it being hopeless meant that Rhodey, Natasha, Clint, Okoye and Thor are dead before the Peggy Sue, meaning that their memories are not sent back with others. Of particular note Rhodey could have filled in a lot of details about Mandarin.
- "Not So Different" Remark:
- Steve uncomfortably draws a parallel between Thanos apologizing for the loss of Asgard, and his own words of comfort to Wanda after Lagos.
- After Rhodey brings it up Bruce realizes that the way the Avengers treated Tony in the old timeline was similar to how his father treated his mother.
- Peggy Sue: The basic premise, a large number of people sent back to the past.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After one failed attempt to fight Thanos Scott sees the futility and when the others go back to fight the next day, he steals the Milano and returns to Earth.
- Spanner in the Works: The original plan was for Tony and the others to be sent back to before the battle of New York, allowing him to set things up to deal with AIM and HYDRA before heading through the portal, however the Space Stone interferes with things, causing him to return during the battle, meaning all he can do is record as many messages as he can for his allies before going through the portal.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Shuri survives the Snap, where she didn't in canon.
- Thanos didn't destroy the Infinity Stones.
