Chapter 1
“Kid?” Peter turned away from where he’d just witness Dr. Strange turn to dust after the big grey guy, and Quill did.
Peter’s senses were all of a sudden on fire. He went wide-eyed and rushed to Tony who fell to his knees hand resting on them. He looked so defeated.
“No, no, no, not you please—"
“I’m sorry,” he muttered as Peter put his hands on Tony’s chest. “I’m so sorry I failed you, Pete.” Peter wrapped his arms around Tony’s neck not caring about the no hugging rule anymore.
He felt the faint brush of something along his back before he collapsed forward. He fell into a cloud of dust as it blew away.
“No! No, Mr. Stark! Tony!” Dad.
He wanted to scream. He wanted to scream at anyone near him. But when he felt a soft hand on his shoulder he didn’t.
He didn’t scream at whoever it was because it was the adorable alien, that was also kinda scary at the same time, holding an empty jar. She smiled awkwardly down at him.
The blue woman walked up behind her and gave the boy a sad look. He knew that she’d just lost her sister so she could feel some of his pain.
Peter took the jar from the alien and looked back down at the dust that he once called a father figure. In his head of course. He regretted not saying it out loud now. Not telling Tony that he was one of the most important people to him. Now he would never get to.
No. No.
He would get to. He would because he was going to find the stones. He was going to bring everyone back no matter how long it took.
As he slowly put the dust into the jar he thought. He thought about all the ways he was going to do this. Bring them back. Oh god, who was gone back on earth? Ned, MJ, May, the other avengers? Shit.
He was going to kill Thanos. He wanted to torture in ways no one has ever been tortured before. He would kill that son of a bitch for this. He was going to kill Thanos for Tony. For anyone else who’s died.
Peter Parker is going to kill Thanos.
-
Sam heard Rhodey and saw him. He turned hoping to understand what happened and if everyone was alright. But then he sees the man, along with his suit, turns to dust. He went wide-eyed gasping for air that didn’t seem to be there.
Bucky watched both Thor and Steve, Steve, turn to dust. He dropped his gun and raced to where Steve’s… dust? Ashes? Whatever it is he touched it and tears welled up in his eyes.
He moved toward Vision’s body afterward where he’d also seen Wanda disintegrate. He rolled the body and saw that the mind stone was gone.
“Bucky?” Sam’s voice made him come back down to earth.
He sat back on his knees as a hand moved to his shoulder. He heard a few other voices behind him.
“Bucky?” Sam moved in front of him, hands on his shoulders. Bucky just sat there dissociate from reality. “Talk to me, Buck. What happened?” One of Sam’s hands moved to cup his cheek and he half leaned into it.
His eyes moved away from Vision’s body, Wanda’s dust laying beside and on him. His eyes finally moved to Sam’s. He let a couple of tears fall remembering how he’s watched Thor go then he’d watched Steve.
He watched Steve disintegrate into dust.
It was over. How could Sam and the others behind him, whoever they were, not see that?
“He won,” Bucky muttered and Sam’s let out a broken hitched breath. “We lost. Wanda, Vision, Thor… Steve…” Sam sat back parting from Bucky.
Bucky missed the touch. It was comforting right now. And he needed comfort. It was only going to get worse from here.
Sam saw a girl in orange come into view and talk to Okoye. The girl then came up behind and put a hand on Bucky’s shoulder.
“James…" she didn’t look like she knew what to say. She had tears in her eyes herself. From how Okoye stood alone and broken looking it seemed Shuri’s brother was gone too.
Bucky just reached up and put a hand over hers on his shoulder. She helped him stand and Sam stood as well only a little wobbly.
The two hugged and sent quiet condolences back and forth. Bucky finally took a look at who was behind him. Okoye, Bruce, Rocket, and Shuri. Then he felt that comforting touch of Sam again.
He gave in and turned to hug the other man. Sam stood still for a few seconds, most likely shock, then hugged him back. It was a tight warm hug that neither wanted to let go of. But they had to. Cities were probably in shambles.
Sam could think of a hundred things that could go wrong if half the population disappeared. He thought about his sister. His nephews. About the other avengers. About a lot of people that could be gone now.
“I’ll get a plane ready for you,” Shuri said and Okoye nodded in response.
“Things must be in chaos in America. You need to be strong for your people.” Okoye said and Sam wiped his face moving toward her. Bucky did the same.
“You need to be as well. It’s gonna get worse before it gets better.” It was a terrible thing to say but they all needed to hear the truth right now. “We need to find out who’s still alive. But if you need us, always here.” Sam said and the two women of Wakanda nodded.
“And if you need anything,” Shuri said to which Sam thanked them both.
The words kept replaying in all of their heads. The terrifying words he wished he didn’t utter but knew it was something they all needed to hear.
It’s going to get worse before it gets better.
—
Ned and MJ just finished the field trip when it happened. They’d been literally getting off the bus when people started to turn to dust.
It was utter chaos in the city. Screams, crying, crashes, booms. MJ watched Ned holding her arm as it almost looked apocalyptic.
Cars crashed as drivers turned to dust. People screamed as their friends and family were dusted from beside them. She watched a helicopter crash into a building. People were running and crying and screaming.
It took a while for both her and Ned to calm down. Eventually, they decided to call their parents.
Ned’s dad was dusted but his mom was fine. MJ hoped her mom was dusted wherever that bitch was. Her dad was fine though.
Then Ned had the thought of calling Peter as they waited for their parents to pick them up. He didn’t pick up the phone. They both thought the worst. When May didn’t pick up either they continued to think the worst.
—
When it happened Lila Barton was practicing with her bow and arrow. It was lunchtime and they were all outside. It was one of those wonderful days when it felt like just them in this world.
Like everything was perfect.
She smiled as her mother told them to come to the picnic table for lunch. She had turned away to grab the arrows she had been practicing with. Then she heard a scream.
Lila turned quickly then dropped her things as she saw her father turn to dust. Her mother was already gone so was Cooper. She rushed to Nathaniel and picked him up holding him to her chest.
“Daddy?! Mommy?!” The boy screamed and Lila winced at the immense pain it put in her chest.
“Shh, it’s okay, it’ll be okay, your okay,” she just kept repeating it over and over but she didn’t know if it was for her brother or for herself.
Doesn’t matter it didn’t help her she just prayed to anyone listening that they didn’t take her baby brother too. She didn’t know if she could handle that. How the hell could she handle being alone?
Lila didn’t want to leave. She didn’t know what to do either. She’d called the people her dad told her to call if anything bad happened. No one picked up. That Fury guy didn’t. Not Stark, not Steve, not aunt Natasha.
She cooked small meals for them both burning the chicken the first two times. She’d only seen her mother do it a few times. The fridge and cabinets were stocked because of how many people usually occupied the house.
Nathaniel was made to watch tv while she cooked. He didn’t notice the breakdowns she had. Only three. Better than four, she thought to herself.
After she put Nathaniel to bed promising to figure this all out, she searched her dad's office. Her mom and dad's room. She looked for anything that could possibly help her.
She found a number that was labeled “avengers compound” and she called it. It went to voicemail as it had with Stark, Steve, and Aunt Natasha. She gave up. Was it just her and her brother? No one else? Was everyone else dead? What happened?
It wasn’t until twelve days later she finally turned on the news. Half the population was gone. Dusted because of an alien the avengers couldn’t defeat. Shit.
So it wasn’t just her and Nate. Good. She called the avengers facility again. And again. And again. Voicemail every time. She understood though. They had to be there for the whole world and who knows how many of them are left. Could be only a few. Could be only one who knows how this went down. But there had to be at least one.
—