7
Tony introduced his company absent-mindedly when everyone got back inside.
Rocket sat down with Nebula, taking her hand as they both silently mourned their losses. You all sat in a living room area. Tony was at a table, getting blood for healing. A holographic casualty report listed the names and faces of those lost to the Snap.
Ethan peered his head around the corner once again. You held your arms out for him and he rushed over to you, wrapping your arms around him. Tony seemed surprised but Rhodey spoke before he could.
"It's been 23 days since Thanos came to Earth," he said. You sighed, looking down and kissing Ethan's forehead. Pietro sat down next to you and him, rubbing his back a little. Ethan moved to sit in your lap, still clutching his wolf plushie to him.
"World governments are in pieces," Natasha said, "The parts that are still working are trying to take a census. And it looks like he did... he did exactly what he said he was gonna do. Thanos wiped out fifty percent of all living creatures."
You spoke, "From the ones we know here, we've lost Sam, Bucky, Shuri, T'Challa, Fury...and Wanda and Irina. They all disappeared. We still don't know about Clint, he hasn't gotten back to any of us yet."
"Where is he now? Where?" Tony questioned angrily.
Steve shrugged, "We don't know. He just opened a portal and walked through."
"What's wrong with him?" Tony asked, referring to Thor sitting on a bench, seemingly deep in thought.
Rocket answered, "Oh, he's pissed. He thinks he failed. Which of course he did, but you know there's a lot of that's going around, ain't there?"
Tony paused as he stared at the talking raccoon, "Honestly, until this exact second, I literaly thought you were a Build-A-Bear."
He replied sadly, "Maybe I am." Ethan looked up at you for explanation and you just shrugged.
Steve spoke again, "We've been hunting Thanos for three weeks now. Deep Space scans, and satellites, and we got nothing. Tony, you fought him."
Tony looked at him, "Who told you that?" He was quick to turn on Steve, "I didn't fight him. No, he wiped my face with a planet while the Bleecker Street Magician gave away the Stone. That's what happened. There was no fight."
He was on his feet now, his face inches from Steve as he angrily spoke to him. You sighed and stood with Ethan to take him back to his room. He didn't need to see this. Pietro stood with you, grabbing Ethan's hand to take him to bed. "I've got it," he said, walking away with Ethan, who kept glancing back at you.
"He's unbeatable," Tony spat out.
"Did he give you any clues, any coordinates, anything?" Steve tried.
"I saw this coming a few years back. I had a vision. I didn't wanna believe it. Thought I was dreaming," Tony continued, not caring about some coordinates.
Steve shook his head, "Tony, I'm gonna need you to focus."
"And I needed you. As in past tense. That trumps what you need. It's too late buddy. Sorry. You know what I need?" Tony stood, pushing things off the table with a clatter. Everyone winced at the noise, you sighed heavily. You just wished Wanda was here, "I need to shave. And I believe I remember telling all you se-"
Tony went for Steve. Rhodey quickly came in front of him, trying to stop him, "Tony, Tony, Tony!"
"Alive and otherwise what we needed was a suit of armor around the world! Remember that? Whether it impacted our precious freedoms or not- that's what we needed!" Tony yelled.
You shook your head, standing to your feet and leaving the room. You wouldn't deal with this right now. You went back to Ethan and Pietro.
You stood in the doorway of Ethan's room, crossing your arms as you watched the two. Ethan looked up at you, "Momma, why is he mad?"
You sighed, walking further into the room and kneeling in front of him, "He's just...frustrated, like we all are. He's sad and confused and...he just wished things would turn out."
"Will things turn out?" he asked in his small voice.
You sighed heavily, "I don't know. We'll have to wait and see. I can promise you one thing, though..."
You leaned forward and kissed his forehead, "I'm not leaving you. Neither will your Uncle P. We'll be here. Okay?"
He nodded. You glanced at Pietro, who gave a sad smile. You both put Ethan to bed before returning to the rest of the team when things calmed down.
"You even know where he is?" Rhodey asked, his question seemingly directed toward Carol.
"I know people who might," she replied. Quite cocky, wasn't she?
Standing behind Carol, Nebula spoke, "Don't bother. I can tell you where Thanos is. Thanos spent a long time trying to perfect me. And when he worked, he talked about his great plan. Even disassembled, I wanted to please him. I'd ask 'where would we go once his plan was complete?'. His answer was always the same: "To the Garden."
Rhodey commented, "That's cute, Thanos has a retirement plan."
"So where is he?" Steve questioned.
Rocket answered, "When Thanos snapped his fingers, Earth became ground zero for a power surge of ridiculously cosmic proportions. No one's ever seen anything like it... Until two days ago." A hologram of a planet popped up with a shockwave visibly traversing the surface. "On this planet."
"Thanos is there," Nebula said.
Natasha pointed out, "He used the stones again."
"Then what are we waiting for?" you asked, "Let's go."
"Hey, hey, hey. We'd be going in short-handed, you know," Banner said quickly.
Rhodey spoke, "Look, he's still got the stones, so..."
"So let's get him... Use them to bring everyone back," Carol said. You agreed with her.
"Just like that?" Rhodey asked.
"Yeah," Steve said, "just like that."
Steve and Carol shared a knowing look. Natasha was the first to speak up from the brief silence, "Even if there's a small chance that we can undo this... I mean we owe it to everyone who's not in this room to try."
You sighed. Banner spoke again, "If we do this, how do we know it's gonna end any differently than it did before?"
"Because before, you didn't have me," Carol said. Okay, really cocky, huh?
Rhodey turned to her, "Hey, new girl, everyone here is about that superhero life. And if you don't mind my asking, where the hell have you been all this time?"
Carol looked at him, "There are a lot of other planets in the universe. And unfortunately, they didn't have you guys."
Thor, who had been eating a snack behind all that time, stood up and walked over to Carol. She looked behind at him. He held his hand up, and summoning and catching Stormbreaker as it flew over to him, missing Carol by inches. But Carol didn't even flinch, instead smiling at him unphased.
Thor nodded, "I like this one."
"Let's go get this son of a bitch," Steve said. No one was going to point out his use of language. They weren't really in the mood to.
~
You went to Ethan, stroking his cheek and kissing his forehead. He opened his eyes a little at you and you told him gently, "We all have to go do something, okay? We will be back soon, I promise. Pepper's going to be here if you need her. Be safe, okay?"
He sat up quickly, "No, don't go!"
You kept a steady voice as you spoke to him gently, "We'll be back, I promise. We would never leave you. Besides...Nova will keep you safe for me while we're gone. It will only be a little while."
He hugged his plushie closer and you kissed his head. "I love you. I'll be back."
He sighed gently, "I love you, too."
You smiled at him and he laid back down to sleep. You went back to everyone else besides Tony, dresses in your beaten, worn-out suit.
You all got loaded into the space craft. You were a little nervous, you'd never been to space before - there were a lot of people who could say that. The craft soon took off, carrying you off into space at a very fast pace.
You looked over at Earth. You could see what people meant when they said it was beautiful...although you had a feeling it would have looked a lot more beautiful if the Snap never happened. Considering half of all life, not just people, was gone, which included a lot of nature.
"Okay, who here hasn't been to space?" Rocket asked.
Natasha, Steve, you, Pietro, and Rhodey raised your hands slowly. "Why?" Rhodey asked.
Rocket mumbled, "You better not throw up on my ship."
Neblua was pressing a ton of buttons, "Approaching jump in 3... 2... 1!"
The ship jerked forward into a wormhole. Steve was holding holding onto his seat for dear life, Natasha wasn't too different. You were used to flying, but this was something completely and utterly different. You squeezed your eyes shut, struggling to get your hand to Pietro's.
Pietro's eyes widened slightly at the exhilaration of the new experience. He was all for speed, but as it was for you, this was completely and utterly different. The ship slowed down suddenly and hovered in orbit of the planet you saw in the hologram previously. You were catching your breath from the experience.
Carol hovered in front of the ship. "I'll head down for recon," she said, flying down to the planet. A tense silence settled over everyone.
"This is gonna work, Steve," Natasha's voice filled in.
"I know it will," he replied, "Cause I don't know what I'm going to do if it doesn't." You silently agreed with him. If there was even a chance of getting everyone back, of getting Wanda back, you would take it quicker than Pietro could run a mile.
Pietro reached over, grasping your hand as he let out a small breath. When Carol got back to the ship, she reported back, "No satellites, no ships, no armies, no ground defenses of any kind. It's just him."
Nebula spoke, "And that's enough."
Rocket landed the ship and you all got out. The closer you got to Thanos, the more your anger ignited the fire that had been less than dormant inside of you in the past few weeks. You were pissed off, and Thanos was exactly who you would let that anger out on.
Steve quickly went over the plan in a flurry of words. However, you only paid half a mind to the plan.
You all advanced to the pathetic looking shed, moving silently as you got ready for your positions. Suddenly, Carol flew through the roof, knocking Thanos down, and grabbing his neck. Bruce in the Hulkbuster armor burst from the ground, and grabbed Thanos' Infinity Gauntlet arm. Thor flew in and sliced off the Infinity Gauntlet. Rhodey flew down with Rocket and aimed guns on Thanos' head. Pietro sped in with you in tow, your arms lit with fire aimed for his head.
Cap, in one of his older suits, walked in with Natasha right behind him, staring murderously at Thanos. Rocket went over to the sliced off Infinity Gauntlet, and kicked it over, as you all realized that there were no stones in it.
"Oh no," Rocket murmured.
"Where are they?" Cap demanded.
Carol exclaimed, "Answer the question."
"The universe required correction. After that, the stones served no purpose, beyond temptation," Thanos spoke, his voice only feeding into your anger.
"You murdered trillions!" Bruce pushed him to the ground with the Hulk Buster armor.
"You should be grateful," Thanos said, receiving a punch from Banner.
You growled at him, "Grateful for what? Do you know what you did? You tore families apart, your tore soulmates apart like it was nothing! You talk about balance, and you take away stability. We aren't grateful for anything you've done."
Thanos looked up at you before shaking his head a little, "Love is a weakness."
"Clearly, you've never felt love," Pietro told him with a snarl.
Natasha demanded, "Where are the Stones?"
"Gone," he answered, "Reduced to atoms."
Banner yelled, "You used them two days ago!"
"I used the stones to destroy the stones. It nearly killed me. But the work is done. It always will be," he sat himself a little straighter, "I am... inevitable."