Everyone who had anything similar to a superpower and had survived Thanos stood there. All of them tired and full of grief. They had lost more people. Bodies of innocents were lying everywhere. Some of the people who had come back from ashes were going to become ashes again.
Peter was struggling, he felt like if he tried to stand up he would just fall apart. Mr. Stark sat beside him, his labored breathing could be heard in the silence. Their victory had been hard earned, but no one felt the need to celebrate. It felt wrong to be even slightly happy.
Not everyone had returned from the ash. Bucky, Drax and Mantis was among the people still missing. Anyone who had been around Cap when it became clear that Bucky wasn’t coming back had realized that Steve Rogers would not leave this last battle alive. So those who dared to look over to the titans’ dead body would see Captain America lying beside him. Not moving. With a tiny smile on his face.
While Tony and Peter sat there among the rubble more survivors joined them. The people who had lost everyone in the end, the people who had lost teammates, friends and family. They could hear others having happy reunions, phones ringing and being answered and some phones just keep ringing.
Thor sat down on the other side of Peter. Tears rolling down his face. He had lost all of his people. He was the last Asgardian. Loki wasn’t coming back. Thor still lifted his hand and laid it on Peters shoulder. Peter was building up the courage to call Aunt May. Tony was telling FRIDAY to call Pepper and Happy. Happy didn’t answer.
Peter gave his phone silently to Thor and pointed at one of the contacts, ‘Aunt May’. Thor took it and called. It took two seconds before the phone was answered. Thor gave the phone back as tears of relief and exhaustion started to fill Peters eyes.
Peter and his Aunt May didn’t talk for too long, he said where they were and that he was mostly okay, and she was on her way. The next person Peter called was Ned. Ned could be heard sobbing through the phone by all the ones who sat close to Peter.
No one had been able to locate Rhodey yet, but when Natasha came limping along with him there was a collective relief sigh among the three sitting in rubble. At least until they saw Natasha crying. Not only crying, but openly sobbing.
As she helped Rhodey sit down beside them they heard her cursing Clint. Tony recognized the look of guilt on Rhodey’s face and connected the dots. What seemed to be Clint’s phone was in the Natasha’s hand. ‘Laura’ Tony whispered. What had Clint done? He had a wife and kids for god’s sake.
Neither of them said anything as Natasha made the call.
There was a voice coming closer, calling Tony’s name. It wasn’t Pepper, but Tony recognized the voice. Harley.
The little kid from Tennessee, not so little anymore. He was Peters age. Tony had kept in contact with him through the years and now he was here. In an abandoned battlefield. Tony couldn’t get his voice to work, so he raised the hand that wasn’t broken in the air. They could all hear Harley running towards them.
The eerie silence was starting to let up. Harley collapsed against Tony. Bawling his eyes out and clutching Tony tight. Tony hid his face in the younger ones’ shoulder and hugged him as tightly as he could. At Tony’s feet laid what looked like a deadlier version of a potato gun. It made Tony smile until he heard what Harley was trying to say through the sobbing. Harley was talking about how his mom and sister hadn’t come back from the ashes.
Thor gave them a look before he lifted Harley up, hugging him and taking him a little further away from everything. Peter heard Thor talking about his own family and asking about Harleys.
Peter was so focused on them he didn’t see Aunt May before she almost fell down beside him. They hugged and cried. Ned found them and joined.
Sam had made his way to where Steve was laying. He fell to his knees clutching the strap on his uniform. The grief was almost too much. He wanted to lay down beside Steve and never get up. But that wasn’t an option.
Sam got up again and looked over what had been a battlefield not even ten minutes earlier. Life was going to go on, but most of the people he could see would live on with dark grieving spots in their hearts.
Cap might have given this his all, but he had also given up. Given up after losing Bucky yet again. Clint Barton had done one last foolish thing. He had jumped in front of Rhodey, just like the self-sacrificing fool he was. Quill, Groot and Rocket were sitting in little group of their own, all of them crying.
No matter where you looked you would see people breaking down in mourning.
But they survived.