[Stephen pauses again, suddenly feeling a more bone-deep weight spreading across his shoulders. Oh, he knows what Wanda was referring to, and of course she would phrase it in that manner — suffering a great loss due to your concept of the greater good.

The thing is, he isn’t sure he can argue the point. He takes a long pull from his glass, tracking the burn down his throat, as his mind whirs to piece together an answer. No matter how many years pass, this subject always feels raw; maybe because it’s only ever brought up as a sort of dour accusation, with anger in the other person’s eyes. Stark. Now Wanda.]

Then I imagine you want to hear mine.

[What should he ply, then? Justification? Excuses? Context? All of it feels tiring in any form, and instead, he starts off simply.]

She isn’t wrong, you know. I did make a difficult decision for a lot of people; I played a numbers game, on the off-chance chance that I could save many, even if we lost a few on the way.

[He said the same thing again, more than once, several times even in this world. But there's no stout stubbornness in his tone this time. With Thancred, he can allow himself to feel wrung dry.]

I told you about the intergalactic warlord who wanted to exterminate half of all life in the universe, remember? This was well before Wanda chased me through the multiverse, by the way — back when we more or less all got a long through necessity alone.

[Well, as about as much as any group of superheroes could get along without butting heads along the way.]

I also told you that we managed to save countless lives and avoid the worst-case scenario, and that there were sacrifices made to make that happen. Well, as plenty would like to see it—and maybe rightly so—I perpetuated those sacrifices with a single decision on my end.

[But first, more context.] Did Wanda ever mention the Infinity Stones to you?