A/N: I still own nothing. This chapter is a merger of the original chapter 2 and the original chapter 3, as both were very short and thematically similar. The mentions of Black Panther and Wakanda have been removed, although they will still likely make an appearance later.
"Recommend you assemble a new team." Static. The muffled sound of explosions. "Good luck." Silence.
Maria had listened to the dispatch five times already, after SHIELD had dropped off the refugees and Fury had given her leave to return to her room in Avengers Tower, but it had yet to fully sink in. She'd lost people before, but it had never been like this. The Avengers were like Fury and Coulson. They were fixtures, untouchable. They couldn't be dead. Not all of them at once. Tony had to be alive so that he could drive her up a wall with irritation. Nat and Clint were living legends to S.H.I.E.L.D., while Captain America was a symbol to everyone. Hulk was Hulk, and Thor was a god.
There was no way Stark's malfunctioning robot could have caused this much destruction. It was impossible. It was… it was inconceivable! She laughed bitterly at that. She'd watched The Princess Bride with Natasha once, and the Russian woman had mocked Vizzini's arrogance for hours afterwards. Natasha was dead now.
Maria wondered if she was going into shock. She tried to look up substitute Avengers, but the screen was too blurry. She struck the monitor with her fist in anger, and her hand was blurred out too. Oh. She was crying.
She was still there three hours later, when Pepper came in to find her sobbing on the floor while Natasha's last message played on a loop from the speakers of the computer. The other woman didn't say anything, but she came back with a blanket and two cups of cocoa, which they drank silently, holding each other in mutual loss. At some point in the night, Maria fell asleep that way.
Maria woke up to the sound of the television. She was lying on her office floor, tangled in the blanket Pepper had brought. The woman was gone, and she had taken the empty mugs with her. She wandered out, into the common room that Tony had insisted she keep when she moved into Avengers Tower.
Pepper was on the couch, clutching a cup of coffee. The news anchor was reporting on the aftermath of the events in Sokovia. Maria poured herself a cup and tried to ignore it, but broke down crying again over the milk she was trying to add to her coffee. Pepper turned the television off and guided her to the couch, rubbing her back until she calmed down.
"What are you going to do?" Pepper asked, several minutes later. "Natasha put you in charge of recruiting a new team. Are you going to do it?"
"I don't know," Maria admitted. "I'm not Fury. I have S.H.I.E.L.D. behind me, but they're much weaker than they used to be, and they have plenty of their own issues. I don't even know if people will accept a new team after what happened to the last one. I can't—" Pepper caught her shaking hands and held her still.
"Maria, you can do this. I know you can. We'll list potential members, I'll help you feel them out, and we can bring them back here. Tony's lawyer called this morning. He left me everything," she laughed slightly. "Tony never did have many people he liked. We can do this, Maria."
"I still don't understand; how are you so calm about this, Pepper? I know how you felt about Stark."
"I accepted this as a possibility a long time ago, Maria. Not this exact situation, obviously, but ever since Tony disappeared, I've known that I could lose him any day. Of course I miss him, but I'm more grateful to have spent time with him while I could. Tony was living on borrowed time and we both knew it. I've had to accept it."
Maria collapsed into Pepper's arms. She hated feeling so weak, but she knew that the other woman would support her until she could support herself. She straightened and pulled away, brushing the tears from her eyes.
"Let's do this."
