No one knows
It was about two and a half weeks of Earth missing her greatest defender and two and a half weeks of New York missing her friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.
Two and a half weeks since the world lost half of the population and so did the universe.
Steve wasn't feeling confident. Much less Thor who was strangely silent and only eating heavy amounts of bread. James was anxious about his best friend, Tony and Rocket was anything but sad (but Steve knew better).
Everyone lost.
And no one knew what to do.
No one knows what to do.
That was until Carol Danvers came back with the ship. Steve was shaving his beard when he noticed the mirror rocking. Then, shaking. He runs out and as the ship opens, he sees a teenager accompanied by a woman with blue skin. Steve took his time to study.
The teenager looked like he was on the brink of death. He was sickly gaunt (worse than Steve before he got the serum), his eyes were sunken, his head probably being the heaviest part of his body since he was walking as if he was a drunk, old man learning how to walk with one foot going in front of the other drunkenly. The shirt was nearly a dress and his hands clutching his pants since it can barely wrap around his waist.
The woman with blue skin almost mirrored the teenager. She wasn't so gaunt but she was heading there if it probably wasn't for her enhancements. She almost looked fine if Steve wasn't so trained in the military.
He runs to them and helps the teenager before the teenager gripped the hell out of him.
He probably wasn't a normal teenager.
And then it hits.
Not immediate, but as a question.
What was he doing in a spaceship? Is he an alien?
The teen looks at Steve with such tragedy. His sunken eyes tearing up, holding sadness as he chokes out, "I couldn't stop him."
"Mr. Stark thought you'd say that, wow."
"Spider-Man?"
He nods.
"I couldn't stop Thanos either, Spider-Man..." Steve states.
"I lost him." He says, his voice shaking, "I lost Mr. Stark."
Steve was about to say something when he was interrupted by Pepper Potts, "PETER!"
She goes and hugs the boy tightly and for the first time since he saw Spider-Man Peter, lets his tears run free. He buries himself deep into Pepper's neck taking in another human presence he was close too. Peter pulls himself away to see what was blocking him.
"You're pregnant?" He asks incredulously.
Pepper nods and hugs him again.
In all this loss, at least there was a gain.
Peter sits in his wheelchair, blood flowing from the medical bag to his veins (Captain America's blood of course... Or Steve. Should he be calling him Steve?). He watched as every avenger gathered their information and walked around. Anyone but Thor and his mom.
Peter can see Thor. And on any, other occasions, he would've fanboyed. He would've lost his marbles and asked Thor to sign anything-- anything. But this was a different occasion. Peter lost his father figure, Mr. Stark, he has seen people he'd come to know to disappear in an instant. Whatever Thor went through, it wasn't pleasant as he can see his eyes emulate just that.
Loss.
He sees Mr. Rhodey and weakly taps him.
Mr. Rhodey stops to look at him, "What's up, kid?"
"You're in dire need of an upgrade, 100% kid,"
Peter ignores the nickname and asks, "Where's... Black Widow?"
Mr. Rhodey frowns.
Peter considered himself lucky that he wasn't plugged up to a heart monitor.
"The snap got to her." Was all he said before walking away to retrieve something.
Peter resisted the urge to breakdown. Not only Mr. Stark was gone, but so was his mom. Natasha Romanov was the victim of the snap.
Peter hated that sentence.
He despised it.
He taps his foot anxiously, keeping his head low. This could've been prevented. This could've been prevented. He remembers Tony describing his old plan to put a shield around Earth to defend them from intergalactic species that might want to hurt them. One of them was Thanos but both had no clue it was him.
He remembers Tony telling Peter both times of civil dispute between himself and Steve Rogers. That they could save the Avengers if he had just signed and then Tony will work with Steve and Bucky. Peter could let his mind walk aimlessly at this controversial topic but he just couldn't. Staying in the past doesn't solve anything but create more issues.
"It's been now..." Rhodey looks at his watch as it strikes midnight, "Twenty-three days since Thanos snapped his fingers and took the highest kill count."
"World governments are in pieces. 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." A hurt Bruce Banner points out.
"Do you know where is he now?" Peter questions.
"No," Steve replies, "He just opened a portal and left."
A sullen-looking Thor sits next to Peter. They both exchanged awkward smiles before the Raccoon speaks up about Thor not being... Thor.
"Wow, a Raccoon can speak?" Peter asks, his eyes shining weakly.
"Wow, a corpse can talk?" He bites back.
Peter decides it was fair and almost laughs before Steve Rogers cuts in, "We've been hunting Thanos for three weeks now. Deep Space scans, satellites, and we got nothing. Peter, you fought him."
Peter scoffs, "No-- I didn't fight the purple shit, I just kicked and got choked slammed by someone bigger than Andre the giant, Mister Doctor Strange gave him his green time rock and then Tony dissolved in my hands. There was no fight. But who even told you that?"
Steve ignores him, "Did he give you any clues, any coordinates?"
Peter glares at him. How did Captain Puerto Rico even expect Peter to do that? Abruptly, anger seethed inside him. He was reminded of his mentor who wanted to prevent this catastrophe and he listened on hours on end of a sleeping Tony just saying they were doomed, or the avengers can no longer defend earth.
Just like a mad scientist or Noah from the bible, No one dared to believe Tony Stark and this event ever being real.
Now here they were.
Without Tony. Without Natasha. Without a compass.
And Steve is trying to fix this now?
Peter may have not been Tony. He doesn't get the full list of both sides of the situation due to lack of information but hell, there were signs of Thanos and Steve ignored it? For WHAT?
"You know," Peter looks at Steve in the eye, "Mr. Stark saw this coming. He didn't want to believe it. But he knew it was true because of the atomic missile he had to throw up into space!"
"Peter, calm down-" Steve tries to say but Peter wasn't done.
"The earth needed you. Mr. Stark needed you. Past tense because well, he's dead! It's too late for this, Thanos won," Peter stands and pushes anything on the table in frustration, "I need some food! Wanna know what else Mr. Stark told me?"
Steve stayed silent as Peter only stumbles weakly to the super-soldier, Rhodey trying to block him, "Peter, this is Captain America. He can wipe your ass if he needs too."
"Then he can go ahead because I have loads of shit to tell him," Peter snaps, "What are you guys? Avengers? Prevengers? You guys are the Avengers, right?"
Everyone was silent.
Peter briefly wonders if this was his mood swing from not eating for weeks.
"Mr. Stark told me you guys will lose and Captain over here said oh! We'll do that together! But guess what? Captain America wasn't on Titan with Spider-Man or Iron Man was he? Iron Man wasn't in Wakanda, was he? You guys lost! Separately!" Peter laughs hysterically.
"Peter, You made your point," Rhodey tells him, "Go sit down."
"Nah, Nah," Peter replies, "Here's my point!"
Peter briefly glances at Carol, the woman who saved him, "She's cool by the way, new blood!"
"Peter." Rhodey scolds.
"Oh right, my point," Peter pauses for a second before resuming, "I got nothing for you, Cap. No coordinates, no plans, no options. Zero. Zip. Nada! No damn trust, Liar."
Peter looks at Steve. He looked affected by his words. His eyes laced with grief and his lips twisted with a frown, his shoulders slumped. They both just stare at each other for a brief moment. They weren't friends, but they also weren't enemies either.
Steve was just an obnoxious babysitter, and Peter was the ten-year-old emo kid.
Peter turns to the arc reactor. The only thing he had left of Tony. Tony.
He grabs the arc reactor and slams it into Steve's hand, "You take that. You find him and put that on. And you hide, you hear me?"
Peter stumbles to the ground, Steve keeping him up and letting him go. God, he hated Steve and his perfect looks and perfect attitude, sometimes.
"I'm okay..." Contrary to belief, Peter falls unconscious.
Thor walks out Thanos's shed, titan blood dripping on Stormbreaker as he realized what he did.
He killed Thanos. He killed someone who permanently killed his baby brother.
But he didn't feel satisfied.
He killed Thanos. The last one of his kind.
But he didn't feel satisfied.
As he looks around the garden which was frighteningly beautiful with pompous purple birds and it's own decoration of flowers surrounding the planet, he wonders if he did Loki justice. If he avenged Loki.
Loki isn't perfect. Never was. Thor just the same. But Loki had his faults. Being lied too, achieving nothing but destruction as to please their late father and Thor. He was a trickster, but not a murderer. And now looking back, Loki in 2012 wasn't even Loki. It just bothered Thor to realize he failed to save his brother.
His dead brother.
He wondered if Loki would be proud of what he did. Killing someone that hurt Loki. In the end, he'll never know. He lost half of Asgard, all of his family (including his sister who was in Hel and Heimdall). Fuck, he was lost. He didn't know what to do next.
Then his mind wanders over to Peter. Spider-Man. He didn't know there was even a Spider-Man but it was a great addition. Peter seemed chill until he snapped on Steve but Thor didn't mind. He was speaking up for someone who didn't have a voice.
He respected Peter for that.
But Peter wasn't here either. He didn't get any satisfaction (not even sure if he'll feel it) upon Thanos being dead. It was like a nightmare ending in a bittersweet way. Where yes, he's dead but so is half the population. So, who really won?
As they board Rocket's ship with silence, he wondered if there were anything he can do to make this situation better. Lighter. Richer.
But he didn't know how to do that.
No one knows how to do that.
He goes back to Earth and the first thing he did was take a sip of alcohol. It wouldn't be the last thing he'd do.