Rhode Island

"This is an emergency broadcast. Please, remain calm and-"

Andy Barclay punched the off button on his truck's radio so hard, his hand nearly broke.

"Why didn't you leave it on?" Nica Pierce asked. "Maybe they know what's going on."

"Bullshit." Andy muttered. "The media never knows what's going on. Besides, we already know, and it's my fault."

Nearly a day ago, Andy had given over a powerful artifact known as the Soul Stone, before then called the Heart of Damballa, to a large, purple alien named Thanos, in exchange for the soul of Charles Lee Ray to be lifted from Nica's body. Shortly after, the remains of Ray that inhabited a possessed Good Guy doll, as well as Andy's friend Kyle, crumbled into dust and vanished. It couldn't have been a coincidence.

"We don't know it was him." Nica tried reassuring Barclay, but he grit his teeth and drove faster.

"Think about it, Nica." Andy said, with a dangerous edge in his voice. "I gave Thanos the Soul Stone. We saw what that, space, power, and the reality stones could do on their own. He just needed two left. And considering the timing…"

"Look, we'll figure this out later." Nica decided. "Right now, we need to pick up Alice." Andy slowly nodded, and returned focus on the road, neither of them uttering a word for the rest of the trip.

It only took ten more minutes to get to Alice's grandmother's house, but for Nica, it felt like centuries. Every second that passed by, the road seemed to stretch another five miles.

"Finally, we made it-" Before Andy even finished his sentence, before he put the truck in park, Nica bolted out of the passenger side and ran towards the door. "Nica, wait up!"

Nica didn't listen, and started banging her fist against the door.

"Alice!" Nica called out, rapidly knocking to the point where her knuckles began to ache.

"Nica, stop." Andy said softly, as he carefully reached out and grabbed Nica's hand. "You know she's alive. We called her on the way here."

"I know." Nica agreed, looking at the ground sadly. "It's just-"

"She's alright." Andy said reassuringly. As if on cue, the door opened, and a little girl with blonde hair and freckles stood staring at Nica.

"Hi, Aunty Nica." Pierce's niece barely whispered, with her voice sounding hoarse. Nica quickly looked Alice over, noticing that her eyes were red, most likely from crying. "Grandma, she… she turned into dust, and was blown away by the wind."

"The same thing happened to Chucky, and Kyle." Andy realized. "What the Hell is going on?"

"What do we do?" Nica asked, feeling more helpless than when she was stuck in a wheelchair all of her life.

"What about visiting the Avengers?" Alice asked, causing the two adults to look at her. "They might be able to help."

"How do we know they're not gone?" Nica pointed out.

"Wait, that could work." Andy said thoughtfully. "At least we have to try."

"Aunty Nica, who's he?" Alice asked, looking up at Barclay. Nica looked back at Andy, trying to figure out what to call him. Savior? The man she'd only heard about a handful of times from a killer doll, and really only met just yesterday?

"A friend." Nica settled on. "Come on. I doubt we can catch a flight with what's happened, and New York's a bit of a drive."

"Right. Let's go." Andy ushered the Pierces into his truck, and after quickly entering the driver's side and starting the engine, the black truck sped down the road once more.

In truth, the trip wasn't that long, Andy came to realize, once they arrived at the Avenger's facility in Upstate New York. It was only around four hours, it just felt longer because he had been driving non stop, with little to no breaks.

Andy parked the car just outside the gate and looked over to the passenger seats, seeing Nica and Alice sleeping soundly.

"Hey, wake up." Andy mumbled, nudging Nica awake.

"Mm?" Pierce's eyes fluttered open, and she woke Alice up as well.

"What time is it?" Alice yawned.

"Ten, eleven… Not too sure." Andy admitted, and the three got out of the car.

"Who wants to knock?" Alice said jokingly.

"Don't bother, someone's coming." Andy pointed past the gate, seeing four figures walking towards them. Two of them were recognizable as Doctor Bruce Banner, now known to the world as the Hulk after the incident in South Korea back in 2015, and Colonel James Rhodes, who usually flies around in his 'War Machine' armored suit. There was also a blonde haired woman accompanying them, and leading the group was…

"Captain America?" Andy asked out loud. The man before home appeared to be wearing Captain America's uniform, albeit without the red, white, and blue colors, but he had grown a beard. What's more, he didn't have the iconic shield.

"I'm not Captain America anymore." the Captain said gruffly. "Who are you?"

"My name is Andy Barclay." Andy introduced himself. "This is Nica Pierce, and her niece, Alice. We think we might know what's going on."

"Yeah, we already know what's going on." Rhodes interrupted. "Some big ass purple alien snapped his fingers, and half of everyone disintegrated." Andy's and Nica's mouths hung open.

"So we were right." Nica gasped.

"What do you mean, you were right?" Banner asked, curious.

"I think I might have made a mistake and helped that 'purple alien'." Andy revealed. "Was his name 'Thanos', by chance?"

Captain America narrowed his eyes, before pushing the gate open.

"Come inside." Steve Rogers ordered. "Let's talk."

Andy, Nica, and Alice followed the remaining Avengers into their facility, until they came to a large office of sorts, with a glass table and chairs around it.

"Sit down." Steve Rogers requested, indicating the chairs. Andy complied, immediately sitting down, and was soon followed by Nica and Alice. "Now, what happened?"

"Hours before everyone… turned to dust," Andy paused, looking towards Nica and Alice with sympathy, before continuing. "Thanos and a green skinned woman came to me. At the time, Nica was possessed by Charles Lee Ray."

"The Lakeshore Strangler?" the blonde woman, who was known as Natasha Romanoff, asked aloud. "I thought he was dead."

"He transferred his soul into a children's toy." Nica explained. "Then he transferred his soul into me."

"I was ready to use this relic, called the Heart of Damballa, to remove Ray's soul from Nica's body, until Thanos showed up." Andy continued. "He told me that it contained the Soul Stone."

"One of the six Infinity Stones." Banner confirmed. Andy nodded, and continued his story.

"Thanos requested I give the stone to him, despite the woman saying no." Andy told the Avengers. "And… I did."

"Wait, why?" Rhodes asked, and there seemed to be a hint of anger in his voice.

"He made a deal with me." Andy revealed. "I give him the stone, and he would remove Chucky's soul from Nica's body. Moreover, he also fixed her paralysis."

"I've been confined to a wheelchair all my life." Nica told the Avengers. "Thanos gave me the ability to walk for the first time in my life."

"We thought everything was fine, until we got back to my cabin, where my friend and Chucky dissolved into dust." Andy finished. "That's when we started feeling that we made a mistake."

"Damn right." Rhodes snapped. "You see some tall purple dude demanding one of the most powerful weapons in the universe, and the first thing you do is give it to him?"

"Rhodey, cut him some slack." Natasha told him. "He didn't know what Thanos was going to do."

"Doesn't change the fact that I fucked up." Andy said glumly. "But if there's anything I can do to help, I am more than happy to." Rogers thought for a moment, before standing up.

"Come with me." Steve offered. "We're still trying to search for possible ways to undo this. If you're up for it, you can help out."

"At this point, I'm ready to help out anyway I can." Andy told the Captain, and the two got up and left the room, leaving Nica and Alice with Natasha.