Thanos steps out of the small wooden hut and takes in the view in front of him. The planet he had spent the night on was gorgeous, with mountains stretching as far as he could see. A few huts like his were scattered around, but there were no other people. The Stones had sent him here when he’d asked for a peaceful planet. He’s sure they could tell him what happened to its original inhabitants, but he isn’t planning on asking.
The sun is rising, coloring the sky in shades of pink and orange. It’s similar to what he imagines a sunset on Earth would be like – the whole planet reminds him of Earth, really. For a moment, Thanos feels completely at peace with the universe. He takes it in, looking around with a contend sigh.
He’d succeeded in creating a better universe. The half of the population that was left were better off now, with plenty of resources to support themselves. Yes, he’d done a marvelous job.
He looks down at the Gauntlet on his left hand. It was slightly cracked from the Stones’ power, but not badly enough that he has to replace it. He doubts he’ll have to use it again soon anyways. His Children can take care of any protesters and soon, there won’t be any, when they’ve realized how much better their world is now.
The Stones shine in the sunlight. He takes one last moment to bask in his glory, his success, before he gets to work.
He closes his fist. The Stones shimmer brighter as he calls for their power, but he has closed his eyes and doesn’t see it. His mind, amplified by the power of the Stones, reaches out towards his Children, and he works on resurrecting them.
He was disappointed to find out all of them died during the battle, though not surprised. Even if they’d made it through, it’s unlikely that the Snap would have spared all of them. He needs them now, though. He has a task for them, one that he doesn’t want to do himself.
He finds Ebony Maw first. His body is floating through space and when Thanos reaches for his mind, he’s met with nothing. Maw appears to have been thrown out of his spaceship and the lack of oxygen must have killed him – had he been anyone else, the cold would have done so, but that had never affected Maw. Thanos makes quick work of reviving him and using a portal to teleport his son to him. He doesn’t greet him, instead focusing on his other children.
It’s much easier, he finds, to do this with all Stones together. It wasn’t difficult to bring back the android who had the Soul Stone, but he had only been destroyed seconds before and in the same place Thanos was in. He doesn’t know where his Children are until he finds them, and he has to go further back in time. It still takes him mere seconds to find Corvus Glaive, who appears to have died in Wakanda.
As soon as he’s revived, Corvus grabs his weapon and turns around, expecting an enemy to be nearby. Thanos leaves him there, not transporting him to his own location just yet, and focuses on Proxima Midnight instead.
She is also in Wakanda, not too far from Corvus. He’s startled by her anger as she awakens: Maw and Corvus hadn’t reacted that strongly. He uses the Mind Stone to find the source of her anger. Apparently Proxima was killed by the Witch who destroyed one of his Stones, and now wants revenge. The Witch is long gone, of course – even if the Snap hadn’t killed her, he would’ve done so himself immediately. She was far too dangerous to stay alive. Still, Proxima’s anger will come in handy during her next task, and he thinks she’ll get her revenge.
Lastly, he looks for Cull Obsidian, who is also in Wakanda. Reviving him takes the longest, both because parts of him are spread all over the country, and because Cull has such a different mind. The others are all quite intelligent – especially Maw – but Cull rarely thinks and that appears to have cost him his life.
When Cull stirs, Thanos uses a portal to send him and his siblings to his own location, where he is waiting with Maw.
He opens his eyes and unclenches his fist before he turns around to face his Children. He wishes Gamora or even Nebula were here, but he can’t revive Gamora without losing the Soul Stone and Nebula has probably died too – or would kill him if he tried to bring her here.
Still, when he sees Maw, Corvus, Proxima and Cull kneeling for him, he can’t help but smile.
“Children, it is good to see you again.” He says, looking down at them.
“Please rise.” He adds. They do, though they keep their heads bowed.
“I have successfully gathered all six Infinity Stones and brought balance to the universe. There is one task left that I need you to fulfill."
He turns the palm of his Gauntlet-clad hand up and uses the Stones to project an image for his Children above it.
They see a conference room. In the middle of it, various documents lay on a large table. In the corner stand weapons, including Stormbreaker, the weapon that almost killed him. It’s being analyzed by a raccoon-like creature, who’s running his hands all over it. The hands stop moving once they reach the wooden handle and the creature _ Rocket Raccoon, the Stones tell him – looks sad as he turns away.
Next to Stormbreaker are two small shields and two others – Steve Rogers and Thor Odinson – stand in front of them, arguing about something while Rogers points towards the table. Two other earthlings, these ones named Bruce Banner and James Rhodes, sit there and talk quietly. Natasha Romanoff leans over the table, scribbling something on a piece of paper, her phone pressed to her ear. On the other side of the room, a woman named Okoye stands guard, tightly clutching her spear.
They’re planning, or trying to plan, how to kill him and bring their friends back. Thanos may have brought balance to the universe, but if the Avengers stay here, they might put things out of order again. He can’t let that happen: it has cost him everything to achieve this and he will not let them ruin it.
Of course he could easily take care of them himself, but he isn’t going to. His Children need to prove themselves to him and killing ‘Earth’s Mightiest Heroes’, as they like to call themselves, is the perfect opportunity for them to do so.
“These people could cause some… problems, as you might call it. I need you to make sure they don’t.” He says.
Then, he raises the Gauntlet and uses the Stones to create a portal. It won’t take them straight to the Avengers but will send them nearby, giving them just enough time to prepare.
“Go now, and do not disappoint me again.” He adds.
They step through the portal without a word, already readying themselves. Cull reaches for his hammer as he steps through it.
When all of his Children have stepped through, he closes the portal and turns back to the view. The sun has rises and the sky is now clear blue. There’s no cloud visible and it looks like it’s going to be a perfect day.
It’s the perfect start for a new, perfect universe.
* * * * * *
Natasha Romanoff has been many things. She’s been a dancer, a spy, a weapon. An assassin, an agent, an Avenger. A lover, a friend. Family. She’s been happy and sad, angry and forgiving, cruel and kind. She’s been Natalia and Natalie and Natasha and Nat. She’s been countless other aliases, all with different names and stories and feelings, most of whom she could turn into with the blink of an eye.
There were things, of course, that she’d never been; some things she’d never be. There were names she wouldn’t be called anymore, jobs she’d left behind, feelings she didn’t have anymore.
There were also things she never thought she’d be but that she’d inevitably ended up being. Some were good (she hadn’t thought she’d ever be family again, but she had), some were not. Today, she got to cross one of those off her list.
It wasn’t a good one.
Over the years, she’d felt (pretended to feel) devastated to some degree, but never the complete and utter devastation she felt now. The feeling was overwhelming, would drown her if she let it, wash over her till she was completely numb if she let it. It would be so easy to give in to the loss and pain and grief, but she wouldn’t. She couldn’t. Not yet, not when there was even the slightest chance that they could win. That they could bring them back.
Clint hadn’t answered any of her phone calls, so she had to assume he was gone. He always answered her calls, even in the middle of a mission when he really shouldn’t be on the phone, though he ignored pretty much everyone else. Bucky had disappeared too, Steve said, and nobody could find Sam or Wanda or Vision or T’Challa. Tony was in space, probably with the Spider-Kid, Fury wasn’t answering and Phil had been gone for years.
She knew that she wasn’t completely alone, of course: Steve, Bruce, Thor, Rhodey and the two new ones (Okoye and the Raccoon) were here, but she knew they felt the same way. They’d all try, they’d do everything they could to win and to bring their friends back, but they all felt the same way.
They felt lost and alone and devastated.
But they wouldn’t give up – after all, there was also nothing left to lose.
So she didn’t give in to the devastation. Instead, she turned to Steve, who appeared to be arguing with Thor.
“What’s the plan, Rogers?”
* * * * * *
Steve Rogers had fought many, many battles during his life. All of them had affected him in one way or another, but none of them had made the impact his one had.
At first, when Bucky disappeared, he’d been too confused to act. He had barely reacted to his friend’s death – still hadn’t, really, it hadn’t sunk in yet. He didn’t understand any of it till they found Vision’s body. That’s when he realized that Bucky and Sam and everyone else was gone, that Thanos had succeeded. He’d pushed those thoughts away, instead focusing on regrouping in a safe place. After a quick round of introductions (with none of the fun ‘what’s your favorite color’ questions and all of the ‘what skills do you have that could help us bring back our friends who turned to ashes before our eyes’) they’d tried to come up with a plan of attack, unfortunately without success. Natasha, Rhodey, Bruce, Okoye and Rocket had been too distraught to focus. They were trying to reach their loved ones with varying degrees of success.
Thor had come up with a rough plan, as had Steve himself.
Unfortunately their plans were the complete opposite of each other.
Thor wanted to go to Thanos as soon as possible. With the Bifrost – which he could apparently use with his new weapon – he could get to him fast and take him out.
Steve wanted to gather more information first – they really had no idea where Thanos was, how to beat him and how to bring their friends back – and he figured that there had to be someone, somewhere, who could help them. Besides, even if they could get to Thanos, there was no way they could defeat him in their current, weakened state. They needed to plan, to heal and to get help.
When he was in the middle of explaining to Thor why they couldn’t just barge into Thanos’ house – if he even had one: again, they didn’t know where he was – he noticed a shift in the room. Before, everyone had been silently staring ahead. Now, Natasha turned around and looked at him.
“What’s the plan, Rogers?”
He felt everyone’s eyes on him now. They all hoped – knew better, but hoped – that he’d have a plan, a way to win and get everyone back.
He closed his eyes and swallowed before admitting the truth.
“I don’t know. We’ve been discussing it,” he gestured between Thor and himself, “but we haven’t come up with anything yet.”
“Oh, we have.” Thor said, stepping forward to address the room. “We just don’t agree on what the plan should be.”
“Okay, so, what are our options?” Rhodey asked. “Also, does anyone know where Tony is? Cause I’m starting to believe that he’s actually in space and I really, really don’t want him to be in space.”
“Uh, I think he’s in space.” Bruce shrugged apologetically. “He jumped on the alien wheel-ship-thing in New York. I think the Spider-Man is with him?”
“He is.” Natasha nodded. “Spider-Man, or the guy who is Spider-Man, has been missing for a while. I assume he followed Stark.”
“Can we please stop discussing those who cannot help us and focus on getting out of this mess?” Okoye asked, still clutching her spear tightly.
Steve nodded before giving out orders.
“Okay, before we come up with a plan we need more information. Rhodes, Thor: keep trying to reach people that can help. I don’t care who, everyone who’s willing. Banner, figure that thing with the Hulk out. Romanoff, sort through these documents and see what’s useful. Okoye, see who’s in Wakanda. We could use the princess if she’s around. And Rocket Raccoon, is there any way you can get in touch with your team?”
* * * * * *
If there was one thing Rocket Raccoon was bad at, it was dealing with emotions. They were messy and only got in the way, so he usually tried to ignore them.
That was exactly what he was doing as he walked around the conference room on Earth, inspecting all the weapons and other interesting objects. Now was not the time for feelings. Now was the time for cool new tech, getting his dumb tree son back and saving the galaxy – again.
He stopped in front of Rogers’ shields. They were on the floor, next to Stormbreaker. He picked one up to examine it, aware of people starting to talk around him but not listening or speaking himself. Let them come up with a plan: when the time was right, he’d save his friends and get the hell out of here. Sure, Thanos was dangerous, and it sucks balls that he made half of the inhabitants of the universe disappear, but he didn’t know them, did he? He just wanted to get his friends back.
He put the shield down and moved on to the next, seemingly identical one. He was dimly aware of someone – probably Rogers – giving people orders, but he ignored him and continued inspecting the shield. It was a little heavy for him, but Rogers was a lot stronger and probably had no trouble with its weight at all. He’d seen the shields turn larger when they were given a small shake, but he couldn’t get them to change size no matter how much he shook them. Perhaps Rogers had pressed a button somewhere as well, or maybe the shields only worked for him.
He stood there, still shaking the shields, when he heard someone say his name. When he looks up, everyone is staring at him.
“You know,” Rogers stepped forward and took the shield, placing it back on the floor, “now is not really the time to be playing with weapons that aren’t yours.”
Rocket’s eyes flicker to the rest of the room and sure enough, they’re all still staring at him. They probably expect him to grovel at their leader’s feet, begging for forgiveness for touching his stuff. And also for not paying attention to an important meeting, though he thinks he can’t be blamed for that.
Look, the shields are cool, he doesn’t really like other people’s plans and this dude isn’t his boss, so it really shouldn’t be a surprise that he was distracted.
So instead of groveling or apologizing or kissing Captain Frownyface’s sweaty toes, he crossed his arms and stared at him.
“What about enemy weapons?” He asked with a small smirk and a tilt of his eyebrows. “I mean, it’s generally a good plan to mess with their weapons during times like these. Also, I have a thing for weapons and other tech-related items. Ask that angelic pirate of yours how he got his new eye if you don’t believe me.”
Rogers looked at Thor with a confused look on his face before turning back to Rocket.
“I’m not the enemy though. And we do want to find the enemy, which I think requires all our attention right now.”
He turned to the other side of the room, where everyone was still staring at them.
“I believe I gave you orders, and they weren’t ‘sit still and listen’.”
The others took action then, talking amongst themselves and some leaving the room.
“I’m assuming you didn’t hear what I asked you?” Rocket shrugged at the question.
“I wanted to know if there was any way you could get in touch with the rest of your team. We could use their help.”
Rocket rolled his eyes. “No, 2.0, we just split up with no means of communication like you earthlings did.”
Rogers looked hurt – and confused, probably by the strange nickname.
Rocket sighed.
“I’ll see what I can do.” He said and reached for the communicator in his pocket. Rogers nodded and walked away, joining the pretty blonde at the table.
Rocket worked quietly, sitting on a corner of the table. He moved the papers first, though, cause the pretty blonde is using those and he got the impression that he didn’t want to be in her way. He tried to call his friends, one by one and then again, leaving messages for them when they don’t answer. He tries not to think about the fact that usually at least one of them answers their communicator.
When he finished, he stayed there, watching people work. They moved around, sometimes talking to each other but never bothering him. Eventually he grew restless and jumped off the table, walking back to Stormbreaker.
He ran his hands over the weapon, hesitating when they reach the handle.
That’s when it sinks in that his friend, his son, is truly gone: no ‘we are Groot', no baby Groot, just this dead piece of wood and a bit of ash.
He decides that he’ll just have to kill Thanos in return.
Whenever you’re ready, he thinks, you perpendicular grape.
* * * * * *
Thanos watches the chaos unfold through the Stones.
He sees Banner and Rhodes call for their armor, sees Maw break it into pieces and sending those towards them. Banner falls through the glass, disappearing as he drops down to the floor, several dozen levels below.
He sees Rhodes get hit by the shrapnel near his chest. Maw leans over him, whispering something in his ear before driving the shrapnel towards his heart.
He sees Rogers and Thor fight against Cull, getting a few hits in before Cull sends Thor through the wall. He picks up Rogers soon after and snaps his neck, tossing him aside before plucking a small shield from his side. It doesn’t hurt, but it appears to annoy Cull.
He sees Corvus driving Raccoon and Okoye into the corner. They don’t stand a chance against him, especially not when Corvus snaps Okoye’s spear in half. He prepares a killing blow for her, but a dagger flies by and lands in her chest. Annoyed by Proxima – though Thanos saw it coming, having felt her anger and need for revenge – he throws the Raccoon at the wall, hard enough to crack his skull.
He sees Corvus stagger as he discovers half of a spear in his chest. Okoye used her last strength to kill him. Corvus was foolish to not make sure she was dead, and Thanos won’t be reviving him this time.
He sees Thor, having recovered from the earlier blow, dancing around the table to avoid Cull. He can’t keep it up for long, though, and after a few blows, Cull catches Stormbreaker and pushes it into the man’s chest before using it to push him against the wall. Stormbreaker is, in fact, capable of killing a god: just not the one Thor and Eitri expected.
He sees Proxima and the Widow sparring, standing on the table Cull abandoned seconds ago. Romanoff gives a good fight, but it doesn’t take long for Proxima to knock her down and drive her sword into the Widow’s chest.
He sees her turn towards the portal he created to bring his Children back.
“You won’t win.” She breathes.
He smiles grimly at her as his Children step through the portal.
“I already have.”