Infinity War

No one knew what to say, or what to do. Everything had been so sudden. So fast. 

Even after three weeks she still hadn’t uttered a single word. What was the point, she had lost everything and had no reason to do so. Pepper had tried everything to coax out anything from her. And she wasn’t the only one, they all tried. Banner and Cho had done everything medically possible to bring her back, even Wong had been called in. And all though physically she was on route to making a full recovery, her soul was shattered as was her heart broken. It was cemented in her face as it froze over in a woeful expression. 

When Tony had been miraculously rescued from space by Carol Danvers; aka Captain Marvel, all Evie could afford was a few blinks as she clenched her jaw. One good thing, she thought to herself as the medics ran around getting Tony situated and hooked up to an IV bag. Evie couldn’t even twitch a finger. Not to mention the fact that she was in such a deplorable state she couldn’t even get up to give her father the greeting her cold dead heart wanted to. She was hollow. Just an empty shell propped up in a leather seat. 

Three weeks earlier…

Evie didn’t move. She didn’t squirm or even protest, just hung limply in Thor’s arms until the medics could tend to her however they needed. After all, she looked like Carrie White on fucking prom night. Coated in blood, caked on dirt, and stiff as a board. Sitting with a thousand-yard stare. Petrified, with a muted face as she tried, and failed, to process what had just happened. She watched Steve kneel down in front of her and yet hardly saw him at all. Feeling his hand stroke her hair but felt it from a place somewhere so far outside her body it was incomprehensible. Bizarre was an understatement. All Evie could do was blink occasionally. 

“She’s not looking at me,” Steve’s lip visibly trembled as he drew her closer. “Kitten, I’m here— I’m right h—”

“She’s in shock.” Another voice came flatly.

Sure, shock works. In truth, her mind was floating somewhere even higher than the 45,000 feet the quinjet had ascended to take them back to the compound. Her brain had gone soft and soggy, like a slice of bread in the rain. Evie couldn’t speak, but she could think in bits and pieces. Then she blinked again.

“She looks like death warmed over.” 

Off to the side in a plush, leather seat of his own, Rocket the racoon nursed a scotch on the rocks, a frown cemented on his furry little face. No one had the strength to throw a punch or a pillow at his head. So instead Rhodey simply said told him to, “shut the fuck up, man.” 

Natasha had Pepper in a firm embrace as the two let the river of tears flow freely from their faces. Pepper was adamant about never leaving her daughter alone, keeping a comforting hand above hers. Ensuring she knew they were all there in support of Evie regardless of what happened next. 

Thor turned to the nurses again. “She’s pregnant. What…” He swallowed thickly, finally asking what they were all afraid to voice due to the potential response. “What of the babe? Is he alright?”

Without realizing it, Evie found herself sinking into the abyss as she unconsciously  brought a hand to lay flat on her stomach. She felt sick. More than nauseated, truthfully. Her head was spinning and stomach was twisting and churning something terrible, as if she’d just ingested a cocktail of bleach, lye, and cyanide. Candidly speaking, she almost wished she had. It would have been the merciful thing to do right? Put a fatally wounded animal out of its misery…

Present…

“It's been 23 days since Thanos came to Earth.” Rhodey’s voice brought her back to reality. Along with her uncle were Steve, Natasha, Carol, and Tony. All of them gathered at a round table going over the events. Evie was sitting across from Thor in a lab tucked away off to the side. She was out of Tony’s sight as they had yet to address her current situation with her father. “World governments are in pieces. The parts that are still working are trying to take a census. And it looks like he did it... He did exactly what he said he was gonna do. Thanos wiped out fifty percent of all living creatures.” Natasha’s despondency was evident in how she had delivered the information. Evie then heard her dad, who was sitting in a wheelchair receiving an IV drip to ease him back from his severe malnutrition and dehydration. Both products of his time lost in space with only the blue cyborg girl who went by Nebula for company.

“Where is he now? Where?” 

Steve had his hands tucked in his pockets as he spoke next. “We don't know. He just opened a portal and walked through.” Tony then turned to Thor who was the only one visible to him. The prince had a sullen look pressed to his features. 

“What's wrong with him?” 

“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?” Flabbergasted by the talking mammal, Tony had to blink hard to refresh his brain. 

“Honestly, until this exact second, I literally thought you were a Build-A-Bear.” 

“Maybe I am.” Rocket said bleakly. 

But as Steve came back into the conversation, Evie could hear the gears in Tony’s head slowly turning. He was just about to ask about her when Steve spoke up. “We've been hunting Thanos for three weeks now. Deep Space scans… and satellites, and we got nothing. Tony, you fought him.” The older Stark acted surprised, but Evie could feel the embers of his anger ignite. 

“Who told you that? I didn't fight him. No, he wiped my face with a planet while the Bleecker Street Magician gave away the store. That's what happened. There was no fight. He's unbeatable.” 

“Okay. Did he give you any clues, any coordinates, anything?” 

Tony sputtered and blew a raspberry while giving Cap a mock salute. “Pfft! I saw this coming a few years back. I had a vision. I didn't wanna believe it. Thought I was dreaming. But then Evie had her first space adventure and when she came back she confessed that pretty much the same thing had happened to her… By the way, where is my daughter? Absolutely no one has even mentioned her. Where is she!? I need to see her… like now!” 

“Tony, I'm gonna need you to focus.” Oh that had Tony irate, and he started to seethe.

“And I needed you. As in past tense. That trumps what you need. It's too late buddy. Sorry.” The words came out calmly but the tension was thick in the air. “You know what I need?” He inhaled sharply before getting up, throwing the things off the table with a loud clatter. “I need to shave. I need to check in with my daughter. And I believe I remember telling you all-” Tony then started to yank the IV from his vain as Rhodes jumped in to try and calm him. “...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!” Evie knew things were boiling over for her dad, yet as much as she yearned to run to his side to console one another, she just couldn’t.

“Well, that didn't work out, did it?” Steve said evenly.

“I said, ‘we'd lose’. You said, ‘We'll do that together too.’ And guess what, Cap? We lost. And you weren't there. But that's what we do, right? Our best work after the fact? We're the Avengers, we're the Avengers! Not the Prevengers.” Tony tried to advance towards Steve, but Rhodey quickly stepped in front of him, trying to stop him. “Okay, you made your point. Just sit down.” 

Anyone else would have thought he was incoherent from the starvation he had suffered but Evie knew exactly what was going on with her father. She would have been right there with him, if not for the crushing and crippling desolation she was experiencing. 

“No, no. Here's my point. You know what?” As Rhodey did his best to get him to settle down, Tony pointed to Carol. “She's great, by the way. We need you. You're new blood. Bunch of tired old mules! I bet you’ll love Evie, she's amazing. My little spitfire...” Tony wriggled out of Rhodes grasp and marched right up to Steve's face, his voice hushing down to a venomous whisper. “I got nothing for you, Cap! I got no coordinates, no clues, no strategies, no options. Zero. Zip. Nada. No trust… Liar!” 

Evie wanted to cry, she could feel the nails getting hammered down into the coffin that held the remnants of their shared friendship. Had she been there at the table she would’ve seen how Steve became affected by Tony's words. After a brief pause, Tony ripped his Arc Reactor from his chest and shoved it into Steve's hands. “Here, take this. You find him, you put that on… you hide.” Her mind echoed hushed words off the walls of her skull. That her dad was in distress. 

A second later. “Tony!” Her dad abruptly fell to the ground with both Steve and Rhodes trying to catch him but he shrugged them off panting out, “I’m fine. I-”  but Tony cut himself off as he fell into a heap, unconscious. 

Evie remained seemingly unbothered by her dad’s collapse. Catatonic, with Thor sticking to her like glue. He was the only who she gave any sort of response to. Mainly impart because he didn’t talk much unlike the others. Pepper, who had been the sunshine in the Stark household, was no longer able to warm her daughter. Any and all light has been devoided from her life. And no one knew her struggle like Thor. The two shared a mutual grief on a level no one else could truly understand. Sure Evie had her parents, but at the end of it they had each other. She had finally made a life for herself. After years of longing, Evie had gotten that fairytale ending every little girl dreams of at some point in childhood. 

And still, it all came crashing down in a spectacular shit show for the ages. 

Her husband, the man who was what some might even call her soulmate, was murdered before her eyes. And their baby… Their sweet little bundle of joy. The proof of their profound love, that they were so anxiously awaiting, was gone too. Whether it had been the snap or the total failure of her body to keep producing enough power to protect him, nobody knew for sure. Neither magic nor science were able to answer that question. All Evie knew was that her precious baby boy was lost. She couldn’t feel him anymore. She couldn’t feel anything anymore. Just the bitter cold of the void. 

And at the root of all her misery, the person at fault, was Thanos. So when Carol said she was off to kill Thanos, Evie finally perked up, subtly. Thor too.

Apparently Thanos had made himself a cute little retirement plan in place for himself once he had concluded his master plan for the universe. His ‘Great Plan,’ as he called it according to his adoptive daughter. Nebula told them all about how he would go to ‘The Garden’ when things had all been said and done. And it was all confirmed by Rocket when he shared to everyone present that a surge of, “ridiculously cosmic proportions,'' was recorded for the second time two days ago. The first time being on earth when Thanos snapped his fingers. 

With the others mulling over the plan to go after him, Thor turned to glance at Stark. She was no longer just sitting there solemnly, Evie had shifted to Void for the first time since the battle in Wakanda. Since her life ended. 

Black eyes stared back at him and he nodded subtly in an unspoken understandment. 

Carol proposed they all go get him. But Bruce wanted to be the voice of reason, telling everyone how could things possibly end any differently than before. To which Carol cooly stated the Avengers didn’t have her. After Rhodes vexedly laid down the law stating that she wasn’t the only hero present and questioning her previous whereabouts, Danvers simply told him, “there are a lot of other planets in the universe. And unfortunately, they didn't have you guys.” 

Thor took it as his cue to test the new girl, and Evie was feeling her powers arise from their deep slumber. Thor, who all this time had been eating a snack behind them, stood up and walked over to Carol. She turned around and locked eyes with him. He held his hand up close to her face, swiftly catching Stormbreaker as it flew over to him. The mighty weapon missed Danvers by mere inches. But Carol didn’t flinch. Thor chuckled, “I like this one.” She smiled at the God of Thunder before throwing a wary glance over his shoulder. 

Stunning everyone into an even deeper silence, Evie walked in with her head held high, fully transformed into Void. Emitting strong emotions that were quickly infecting everyone present.

Feeling a swell of confidence brewing within him, Steve was oozing determination from every word when he said, “let’s go get this son of a bitch.” 

After a quick jump through space. Together with remnants of the Avengers and so called, ‘Guardians of the Galaxy,’ Evie was once again laying eyes on Thanos. He somehow looked absurdly pathetic compared to when she had last seen him. Carol had him locked in a choke hold. Banner and Rhodes; doning their respective Iron suits, held out both his arms before Thor rushed in chopping off the one still wielding the gauntlet. As he groaned and growled in his discomfort, Evie kicked over the severed appendage and shared a troubled glance with Rocket. Instantly knowing he was just as disturbed as she was by the radiating consternation he was giving off. Quietly he whispered, “oh, no…” Evie was staring murderously at Thanos with glassy black eyes. “Where are they?!” 

As he continued to groan Carol snided into his ear dangerously, “answer the question.” 

“The universe required correction. After that, the stones served no purpose, beyond temptation.” Bruce lost his composure and shoved him to the floor. “You murdered trillions!” 

“You should be grateful.” But his words only earned him a punch from the Hulkbuster as Evie prowled around him undetected. 

“Where are the stones?” Natasha asked next, but she was already feeling the effects of total hopelessness. He looked at her condescendingly.

“Gone. Reduced to atoms.” 

“You used them two days ago!” Bruce barked.

“I used the stones to destroy the stones. It nearly killed me. But the work is done. It always will be.” He moved to sit himself a little straighter as he spoke. “I am... inevitable.” Evie felt Rhodey’s disbelief as he struggled to talk. “We have to tear this place apart, he-he-he has to be lying.”

“My father is many things. A liar is not one of them…” Nebula said solemnly as she came closer to the group. 

“Ah, thank you, daughter. Perhaps I treated you too harshly.” 

Evie could see Thor's face fill with the same blind rage as she. Thor stomped his way over with Stormbreaker. However it was Evie that shocked everyone with her next action. At his words, Evie knew this was her very own gates of hell. All hope had been lost to her the moment Thanos said the stones had been reduced to atoms. Void fizzled away and left Evie alone with her vast emptiness. So what happened next was done purely out of impulse. As if death itself had possessed her. The girl had very deftly punched out his heart from behind. With his mouth gaping like a fish out of water as he stared blankly at the massive hole in his chest while she held the still beating organ in her hand. Muttering the words clearly for Thanos to hear. “This is but a fraction of what it feels like to lose everything you loved.” And in the following seconds Thor swung his ax, perfectly detaching Thanos' head. Leaving it to fall with a dull thud on the wooden floor. Followed soon after by his lax corpse. 

“What… What did you do?” The raccoon asked, perturbed by what they had happened. Thor became broken. Realization suddenly dawned on him on what their shared fury had done. “I went for the head.” He said bleakly. The Asgardian slowly made his way out of the hut Thanos was calling home and Evie casually walked over to the open fireplace. The titan’s heart still pumping her blood soaked hand. “Evie?” Steve called out cautiously, but she ignored him and the others as she placed it in the flames. Ignoring how they licked at her own skin. Natasha ran to her side, jerking her away from the fire. “My god, Evie!” Eyes still watching how his heart roasted, Evie cooly stated what she had once told her brother-in-law. 

“I wanted his head and his heart on a silver platter…” She finally broke away to look at her mentor, “there’s no platter but I’ll settle for this as second best.” After turning around to see the others, her dark eyes landed on that of Nebula. “If later on you change your mind and you're still raw about this. You know where to come and find me.” However the other girl with inky black eyes that rivaled her own, simply looked to the floor, not saying or doing anything besides stare at the severed head of the man who she once called father.