It was utterly quiet in the spaceship. Dead quiet. Crushingly quiet. The kind of quiet that presses down over everything and smothers even the thought of discussion. You could not cut the silence with a knife, or even chip it with a jackhammer. You could only accept it.

Nebula had yet to speak a single word to the strange human who sat hunched over the piloting console. She'd followed him to the ship, he'd given her a single glance, then clearly dismissed her from his mind. She vaguely wondered how he'd figured out the piloting console so fast, but the question of where he was flying them to barely even crossed her mind. She didn't care. Her sister was dead, her Marauders dead, the only people in the world who might not actively want to kill her had dissolved to ash in front of her eyes. One destination was as good as another.

So the two sped toward Earth, eyes gazing fixedly out the window at the stars speeding past.

"Three hours?" Natasha grimaced.

"I'm surprised they gave us that much time to clear out, honestly." Banner shrugged.

"Try to understand." Shiuri said, trying to muster up a smile. Brother had always smiled while doing this sort of thing. "Wakanda hasn't been open for over a thousand years. We finally unlock our borders, let in a handful of fugitives from the outside world, and suddenly, half our people die."

"If… if it helps." Banner gave a little smile. "Probably doesn't, but… hey… they would have died whether you'd opened your borders or not."

"I understand that." Shiuri said. "But the council does not."

Natasha nodded. "We'd probably be locked up somewhere answering questions in a lot more unpleasant fashion if we'd been in America. Or Russia."

Was that what governments did? Shiuri wondered. Should she be doing that now, as Queen? Ordering her troops to capture the Avengers? Maybe the council would like that. The heroes left in this room were not so very powerful.

But no. Her men would be no match for Captain America or the others, even with the Black Panther fighting alongside them. She was barely queen in name, and had none of her brother's abilities. And besides, she had no stomach to fight these heroes.

"The main thing right now is to get in the air, find some place to regroup." Rhodes said. "But I can't get ahold of Fury, and I don't think Ross is taking my calls anymore."

"Maybe he disappeared." Nat suggested. No one asked which man she meant.

"Cap, any suggestions?" Rhodes looked over.

The First Avenger was standing at the window, staring outside at the field below. The once-green pasture was scored with black scorch marks from the battle; cleanup crews were dragging away corpses of alien and Wakandan alike. Half-a-dozen of the "Warwheel" tanks were being taken apart, the chewed-up dirt of the ground behind them ravaged.

High above the field, there was a small figure, just floating in thin air. At this distance, one could just make out the red cape flapping around him, and see the occasional crackle from the hammer in his arms.

Cap said nothing.

"We… we have a few safehouses left." Nat said, turning back. "We can…" She seemed at a loss for words for a moment. "…go there. For now."

"Good enough." Rhodes said. He looked to Shiuri. "Your highness, I'm sorry our involvement has caused such trouble for you with the council. Is there anything we can…?"

Shiuri shrugged. "Ah, the council is always complaining." She caught Okobe's lifted eyebrow and hastened to make that sound more official. "…but we respect the way of our ancestors here. I am not the first woman to take up the mantle of the Black Panther." Just the first in three hundred years. "Honestly there may not even be a ritu…"

Okobe sent her a quick glare and Shiuri snapped her mouth shut. The outsiders did not need to know of Wakanda's ways, anymore than they needed to know about Killmonger's coup and how that might… revise age-old traditions. "I can take care of myself." She finished, with another quick smile.

Rhodes and Nat looked at her, and she wondered what they saw. A scared sixteen-year-old who'd spent more time in the labs than on the practice ring? A girl more familiar with sonic blasters than with hand-to-hand combat? There might not be a ritual, but any coronation would demand at least the form of a challenge. And if one of the other tribes put forward a champion… Already she was wondering if she just abdicate and let the throne pass to Okobe or someone. Maybe the Chupa tribe. There was a… startling thought.

Whatever Nat's thoughts, she kept them to herself. Her nod was almost bored. "Then what about the… guest?"

"He needs to stay here." Shiuri shook her head. "I'm sorry, but to move him now would lose any chance of recovery. I will keep him safe, you have my word." If only because he was the closest link to figuring what exactly had happened to her brother.

One of the beads on her bracelet flashed, and a hologram sprang to life. She glanced at it, and her heart dropped into her feet. "A vessel has just dropped from space into Wakanda airspace." She said.

Everyone looked up. They were all thinking the same thing. This was how it had started before.

"Why would they come back?" Banner stepped to the window. "That makes no sense."

"Round two, maybe?" Rhodes stepped alongside him, his eyes searching the sky. "Hell, I wouldn't question it."

The talking raccoon, though, was looking at a bracelet of his own. "What the shit?" he squinted at the screen. "What's that idiot doing here?"

Nat blinked at the red-blue ship settling on the verge of the tree-line. "That… doesn't look like the other ships."

"It's not." Rocket said. "That's mine."

They were at the tree-line in moments. Okobe had already drawn up the forces they had, this time backed up with ten fliers and a full crew of war-rhinos. Shiuri didn't exactly know why she'd come along, but she grabbed a pair of sonic blasters and, feeling a little silly, draped the spare Black Panther necklace they'd recovered from Killmonger around her neck.

At the treeline, as before, there were two figures standing. But unlike last time, they were simply standing there, with no visible weapons on them. And, Shiuri realized with a thrill, she recognized one of them.

"Captain." Tony Stark nodded. "Who's dead?"

"This is Nebula, by the way." Stark said, as the ship flew up and away from Wakanda. He gestured at the blue woman. "Cyborg alien lady. Major kill crush on big Purple."

"I know who she is." Rocket said, turning around in the captain's chair. "Where's Quill? Where's Drax?"

"Dead." Nebula said. "And Mantis."

Rocket seemed to deflate. "Shit," he said, passing a paw over his face. "All of them? Gamora?"

Nebula bit her lip and looked away. Rocket's shoulders drooped even further.

"Everyone keeps mentioning this Gamora." Stark said. "Gotta say, I'm a little pissed at her for dying."

Nebula moved with terrifying speed. Before anyone could even react, she'd pinned Stark up against the bulkhead, her metallic fingers digging into her throat. "Do not blame my sister for Quill's idiocy." She hissed. "Nor your friend's."

"Friend?" Nat questioned, her stun-sticks out and on Nebula's throat.

"She's talking about Doc." Stark grunted, apparently unfazed . "Doc Strange. Banner tell you about him? Anyway, not important. He's dead too. Saved my life by sacrificing himself, like an idiot."

"He sacrificed half the universe." Nebula said, slowly lowering Stark to the floor. "An idiot is the least he is."

"Strange is dead?" Banner said.

"Steven Strange?" Thor turned. "I met him. A good man. I am sorry to hear he is dead."

"Yeah, well. A lot of people are." Stark let out a breath. "Who'd we lose here?"

"That we know of?" Rhodey shrugged. "There was a pretty big dust up. Sam, Wanda, Vision, T'Challa…"

"Who?"

"King of Wakanda. He was helping us fight."

Tony snapped his fingers. "Right. Thundercat-man, guy who was all about avenging his father. He was helping you guys?"

"Bucky." Cap said, softly. "We lost Bucky."

"Oh really?" Stark looked at the soldier. "Excuse me if I don't shed many tears over that fact."

"Tony…" Nat said.

"No, seriously." Tony said. "Was he hiding out in Wakanda this whole time? He was, wasn't he." He walked a couple steps in Steve's direction. "Wakanda, the country we were specifically trying to accommodate, the country you were specifically trying to keep from getting ahold of him? And they just reversed themselves to work with you and shelter the hypnotized Cold War assassin."

"Tony, seriously." Rhodes said. "Not a good time. It's been a bad day."

"Oh has it?" Tony rounded on his friend. "What a surprise. You know, until you said that, I thought half the universe dying in an instant was actually a pretty normal day. Am I being insensitive again? Let me apologize." He turned directly toward Cap. "Steve, I'm so sorry your murderous hitman war buddy is dead. Meanwhile, me, I had to hold a sixteen-year-old in my arms while he begged and pleaded for me to save him, but really, I'm sorry to hear that the only person who you think worth even mentioning from the battle is the amnesiac psychopath."

"Don't you talk about the battle." Cap said, looking up with a murderous glare. "You weren't even there. What happen, did you get one of your bright ideas again? Decide you'd do better on your own than working with a team?"

Stark let out a little laugh. "Look at Mr. Team Player here. Always about what the group wants to do together. Is that how you guys wound up in Wakanda? Or did you decide what the group 'wanted' to do, Captain?"

"You should have been here." Cap stood up. "We're Avengers. We fight together."

"We fail together." Tony said. "That's all we ever do, that's all you ever care about. Doesn't matter if the world gets destroyed when we lose, just if we lose as a team. Unless, of course, the team decides on something you don't like, in which case, feel free to split off and take half the team with you."

"You know, I figured you were dead." Cap said, stepping up to Tony. "I figured you had to be. Because, I told myself, if Tony was alive, he'd be busting ass back to Earth. For all Tony's faults, I told myself, he wants to protect people, so there's no way in hell he'd be off…" Cap gestured angrily "…doing his own thing in space and not getting back to earth as soon as he could."

"Vision wanted to destroy the Mind Gem, didn't he?" Tony said. "I'll bet he did. That's exactly the sort of dispassioned, selfless sort of idea he'd come up with. But you couldn't have that. No, you had to go with your own, much better idea, because heaven forbid you listen to someone else for once in your damn life!"

Captain America punched Tony.

It was a quick, savage blow, almost a literal lashing out. There was no restraint or compassion behind that punch, just powerful rage and grief, and it sent Tony flying back into the ship's bulkhead, smashing up against it with a chillingly solid thud.

Thor was immediately in front of Cap. "Calm down, son of Roger." He said. "I have often wanted to kill Tony before, but it doesn't stop him talking."

Banner let out a breath. "I… really missed a lot, didn't I?"

"Tony, what the hell." Rhodes turned. "That was a new level of asshole, even for you."

Nat was bending over Tony. "I'm more interested in how you're even still alive right now, Tony. You've got injuries even I don't know how to give. And what was that about a sixteen year old?" She gripped him by the shoulders and tried to look him in the eyes. "What happened?"

"Doesn't matter." Tony gave a wet-sounding cough. "Not anymore."

"You know, this is a bit odd, me breaking you two up like this." Thor said, looking from Cap to Tony. "Usually Rogers the one who needs to stop me. You remember when we first met? Some sort of forest? I'm pretty sure I was trying to kill Tony before you butted in."

"You're handling this well." Cap said, with just touch of bitterness.

"Cause he's been through it already." Rocket said, finally looking up. "He had nothing to lose when this whole thing started. Pirate-Angel's already lost his entire people, this is just so much icing on the cake for him."

Thor looked at him. "Why would cakes have icing?"

"Lose?" Banner's eyes flickered over to Thor. "Then… Loki… the Asgardians…?"

"Heimdall died to send you to earth." Thor said. "Loki choked out his life in Thanos' grip. I do not know about the others. At least half of them are dead and gone. It took me but a few days as king to lead my people to destruction, it seems."

"Don't beat yourself up about it." Banner said. "If Hulk couldn't stop Thanos, I don't know how you were supposed to."

Thor shook his head. "I should have aimed for the head." He said.

"Stop it with that." Banner turned to the rest. "Actually, all of you, stop it with the 'should have' game. You want 'should have?' Those Black Legion assholes 'should have' found something better to do with their lives. They didn't. Thanos 'should have' not been flipping insane. He was. Hulk should have been in the fight. He wasn't." Banner took a breath. "Maybe Tony 'should have' been in Wakanda. Maybe Cap 'should have' stayed with the Sokovia Accords. Maybe this… Gamora person 'should have' stayed alive, though I doubt she had much say in the matter. That's not the point anymore. Take it from the expert in self-hating, this isn't going to get us anywhere."

There was a short silence.

"Not to be competitive, but I think my self-hatred issues out-trump yours." Tony said.

"Tony, this isn't a contest about who's the worst monster." Nat frowned at him.

"Thor hates himself for failing his people, Banner hates himself for being a full raging monster—or not being one, in this case—I hate myself because of unresolved issues with my parents, you hate yourself for reasons I'm still not clear on…" Tony blew a breath out. "Earth's Mightiest Heroes. We should start a therapy group."

"I feel pretty good about myself, actually." Rhodes said. "And Banner's right. You guys have gotta stop blaming yourselves. It's not getting us anywhere."

"So? Are we even going anywhere, at this point?" Tony threw up his hands. "What's the plan, exactly? Go back to Stark Tower? Find some Cold-War era bunker in Germany? Why?" He shrugged off Nat's grip. "Do we have some sort of magical plan to make all those people not-dead?"

There was total silence. Nat looked to Cap. Rhodes looked to Stark. Banner looked to Thor.

No one said a word.

Tony let his hand fall. "Of course not. This isn't regrouping. This isn't some sort of second wind where we rediscover our purpose. The day's over. We lost. There's no saving this day." He let loose a snort. "So what are we even doing here?"

Silence reigned throughout the ship.

"You call yourselves the Avengers." Nebula said, suddenly. "Half your planet lies dead, and you wonder what you should do?" She snorted. "It's simple. You do some Avenging."