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Please, enjoy.

Dear Mr Fantasy

2 of ?

Without Our World

Thunder crackled without there being any sight of rain, and it simply added to the eerie mood that lingered after Thanos had snapped his fingers and left through a portal to the abyss. Darkness had swallowed up any source of light in that heartbeat as many people began turning to dust. Confused and fearful screams echoed through the stale air, but they plummeted until the world seemed a wasteland of silence. By the time the Avengers had sifted through the chaos, it was clear that while governments and countries were in pieces, killing fifty percent of all life randomly meant that only a few people may remain in one country while a different country may still have many of its citizens. At the end of the first day, they realized most of Wakanda's people were gone. Due to that, the Avengers stayed to help the remaining Wakandans learn to survive without the fellowship of their country. The Avengers even traveled to neighboring countries to help anybody that they could.

That's why they were out of options with Wakanda when the team realized how bad Tony's condition was. With no doctors at the Compound, or therefore, no doctors in the surrounding areas and no theory on how many doctors survived the Snap, Natasha and Bruce set up blankets on an examination table in the infirmary. Tony laid on it on his right side with his shirt rolled up to his chest and with a blanket over his legs, resting his head on the edge of a pillow and facing the door since the stab wound ran through his left side. He was hooked up to IVs while holding onto an oxygen mask he was given.

Pepper had wiped a lot of the fresh and dried blood off his back and abdomen with alcohol wipes, exposing many of the severe bruises that clung to his upper body. She cleaned off the most she could and got as close as she could to the bloody incision which was still temporarily held together by the suit's binding agent. However, the binding agent only went on twelve-hour intervals until it began to dissolve. Luckily, Tony was able to reapply it until the suit finally ran out of the binding agent while on the Benatar. It had been ten hours since then and only about forty-five minutes since the Golden Avenger had been back on Earth, to which blood was seeping from the wound at a quickening pace. Gauze were taped on Tony's abdomen to slow the bleeding the best the Avengers could, but blood loss was increasing as fast as the binding agent was dissolving.

Meanwhile, Rhodey watched his best friend worryingly while Steve, Natasha, and Bruce looked over the x-rays and internal images of the damage. Clint was elsewhere in the Compound, still trying to wrap his head around the events of the last four days, which was fine by the group if he needed to sort out his emotions. The Archer was also the one keeping them all up to date on the world via social media while the others were dealing with Tony. On the other hand, Tony didn't look too good, he was weak and exhausted, and he hadn't eaten anything since the injury, only drank water or sipped on broth. Too much of their surprise, though, he was still conscious, although barely responsive, both from the effects of the injury and the morphine Bruce gave him. His eyes were cracked open and he mostly stared at the floor while he breathed shallowly. Pepper held Tony's hand as she sat beside him, but he was so out of it and so tired that he didn't even close his hand around hers.

The moment Tony had been reunited with the Avengers, there wasn't much information shared. They saw Tony's condition and hardly had the time to ask questions as their priority became getting Tony help. All they knew was that Peter and Strange didn't make it and that Thanos is what happened to Tony. Reciprocation of who the Avengers lost was unnecessary to tell as Tony was quick to understand that Sam, Wanda, and Vision were gone by their absence.

Thor approached Steve, Natasha, and Bruce just outside the room Tony was in as they discussed what to do about the injury since they had no immediate help. "Hey," Steve said to the Asgardian as he joined them.

"How's Tony doing? Is he awake?" Thor asked, gazing past the glass walls and the holographic medical charts and images to check on Tony.

"He's been in and out of it," Bruce murmured, keeping his voice down. "Tony's condition is serious, it's not looking good."

"I would like to know if he knows where Thanos went, " Thor enlightened in a defeated and vengeful manner as he headed towards the room.

"I really don't think now's the time," Bruce quickly told.

Steve then gently put a hand on Thor's shoulder. "Thor, hang on a second," the super-soldier urged sensitively.

Thor turned slightly to look at his friend. "Look at what he did to him," Thor said, looking extremely broken and enraged while indicating to Tony. "I can't let anybody else die, I can't take losing anymore. Nebula may have a location for Thanos, but it's a fifty-fifty chance. It's just one question I need to ask Tony."

Understanding Thor's grief, rage, and failure, Steve pulled his hand off Thor and the Avenger lightly entered the room with Steve, Natasha, and Bruce hovering by the door. Although, Clint leisurely approached with a tablet and Natasha glanced at him briefly. "Tony," Thor spoke, exchanging a swift and respectful gaze with Pepper afterward. The billionaire blinked and looked up at the Asgardian with bloodshot eyes.

"...good to see you," Tony groused, cracking the oxygen mask slightly so Thor could understand him. In all truth, Tony hadn't seen Thor since after Ultron which was three years ago now, and from the last time he talked with Bruce, he thought Thor was dead...the entire team had. In fact, Tony felt quite relieved seeing all of them after what he had experienced on Titan.

"Same to you," Thor replied with sincerity after what he had witnessed himself. "Tony, did Thanos tell you anything that might suggest where he was going?" He asked, and the rest of the group listened intently to hear Tony's hush voice.

Tony painfully sighed, "There were some things he said to me...but nothing..for your location." The abundant of white gauze covering the incision were finally turning red little by little as they were talking, both the front side and the backside.

"What kind of things?" Thor questioned, thinking that there had to at least be some lead.

There was a haunted and intimidating glare that hardened in Tony's eye that sent a ghostly chill through the group, and it was understood that Tony couldn't and wouldn't talk about it any further at the moment. "Don't go after him," the engineer warned, almost pleadingly.

Thor considered this, but couldn't accept it. "He's going to die for all of this," Thor grumbled, fleetly walking out of the room.

Trying to protest, Tony meant to prop himself on an elbow but stopped when he yelped and laid a hand on the wound. Pepper grabbed him to stop him, while Rhodey scolded Tony with fear, "You stay there!" Tony remained frozen in pain for a long moment, breathing heavily and making Bruce come over to him while Steve and Natasha attempted to stop Thor.

"Where do you think you're going?" Steve asked concerningly, blocking the Asgardian's path.

"To kill Thanos," he answered, putting his hands on Steve's biceps and maneuvering to switch places with him so the Captain no longer stopped his path.

"I'll go with you," Clint was quick to jump in, looking fired up.

Natasha's attention shot towards Clint upon hearing his eagerness for the suicide mission. "No!" She snapped back in bewilderment. "Nobody's going anywhere," the Avenger commanded strongly.

With an impatient and emotional huff, Thor shifted his eyes from Natasha to Steve. "I lost my mother, and then my father, then I lost my sister, then I lost Asgard, then Thanos kill the half of us that were left," the Asgardians voice was straining. The infirmary light's were dimmed to see Tony's scans, but even in the lack of light, tears could be seen glinting in Thor's eyes as Steve, Natasha, and Clint shut up and tragically listened. "And then he killed my brother...and then, and then, and then...So, tell me, Steve, when do I stop losing? I'm an Avenger who's not avenging." Those words rang deep and Steve could see the hollowed pain as Thor took a few agitated steps back and forth.

"You've been through a lot...we get it," Steve look at his fellow Avenger with consolation, hoping he could stop the Thunder God from making a rash mistake. A decision that could turn deadly if Thanos decided to use the stones again. "But look at what he did," the soldier said, gesturing over his shoulder to Tony laying bloody, beaten, and wavering close to death on that table. "We are a heaping mess right now. Believe me, I want to go after him too, but we can't right now." There was nothing more that Steve wanted than to give Thanos what was coming to him. Steve was a fair and honorable person who had standards, and most enemies he faced, he did his best to show grace and mercy, but Thanos had crossed the line. Even as his anger converted to rage, Steve knew the team needed to keep a level head or all was lost. "We just can't, so please...don't go. We'll figure out a counterattack plan, I promise."

"Thor..." Natasha gingerly proclaimed after Thor thought over what Steve had said, "We can't lose anymore either. That includes you." The Asgardian gazed at Natasha and acknowledged the raw and genuine emotions she was expressing. He hung his head, conflicted and ashamed, but then Natasha tenderly pulled him into a hug.

"What are you doing?" Thor whispered.

With both a dreaded and humorous answer, Natasha said, "Giving you a fucking hug, what does it look like?" It took a long moment, but Thor eventually embraced the hug with one hand while Steve approached them and put a comforting hand on the Asgardian's shoulder.

"Tell me you're not going to go," Natasha pleaded.

"I'm not going to go," Thor murmured, accepting the kindness of his friendships left on Earth. "Stark, I'm sorry," he said openly as he gawked at Tony, apologizing for provoking the genius to try stopping Thor.

When they looked towards the room, they saw Rhodey and Bruce with their hands on Tony. "Guys!" Bruce frantically cried, "Help!"

Panic plagued them as Steve rushed over with Natasha and Thor close behind him, the medical alarms increasing in volume as they reached the room. "Uh, no...he's unconscious?" Steve verbalized, standing off to Bruce's right side. Tony eyes were closed as he laid limp and unresponsive. Red streaked the downed Avenger's exposed skin underneath the towels that Rhodey and Bruce, together, roughly held in place against the front and back incision. Pepper stood near the wall by the door, witnessing in horror until Clint grabbed her wrist and lead her out of the room in case they weren't able to save Tony, and in all honesty...things were grim.

"He tore what little binding agent was left when he moved, and this bleeding is getting worse by the minute," the scientist informed with trepidation treading on his voice. He glanced at Steve with dismay while he continued to put pressure on Tony's wound. "Steve, I need you to run to the development lab and see if Tony kept any more of that binding agent there. If you need help, just ask F.R.I.D.A.Y." With a stressful swallow, Bruce took an anxious breath and his fear was spreading to the soldier, as well as Natasha who came up beside Steve to listen to Bruce's orders. "You need to hurry, at this rate that binding agent is our only hope. Tony will die without it." Understanding the emergency of the situation, Steve, without another moment, sped off hastily. "Nat, go with him, it could be in different labs," Bruce urgently snipped over his shoulder at her and the assassin followed Steve quickly.

Off to Bruce's other side, Thor stood. "Is there anything I can do?" He complied, not in the state of mind to handle losing another friend either, and if they did, nothing could stop him from going after Thanos.

"Tony needs blood," Bruce mumbled after occupying a minute to think, but he more so talked to himself than to the others around him. "Thor, here. Take my place, put pressure on the bleeding." Clasping Thor's hand, Bruce showed him exactly what to do since medical knowledge wasn't the Asgardian's strong suit. "I'm going to get blood," he said, leaving the room. Pepper and Clint eyed Bruce's blood-stained hands and the few smudges of scarlet on his shirt as he passed them by.

On his way back to Tony, Bruce met with Steve and Natasha in the hallway. He looked at them with apprehension, not knowing if they were successful or not. "We struck gold," Steve alleviated, holding up a small device that looked like a laser pointer. Relief, for the moment, filled Bruce's physic. Holding onto the 'binding pen' while Bruce held the blood unit, the three of them returned to the room, and it was quite soothing to see that Tony was still alive. Rhodey and Thor hadn't moved from their positions, but the towels they had didn't look very white anymore.

As Bruce quickly hooked the blood unit to Tony's IV, Steve meant to hand the binding pen to Rhodey. "I can't take it, he's bleeding too bad," Rhodey panted nervously, not removing his hands from his best friend he was trying to save. "Figure out how to use that thing and I'll move the towel little by little as you apply it. Got it?" Rhodey pressed, and Steve comprehended the plan with a nod. He went off to a nearby table to learn how to operate the pen while Natasha grabbed more towels. On Thor's side, together, they slowly replaced the bloody towel with the clean one and Thor accommodatingly stepped back so Natasha could take over, to which she put pressure on the wound's front opening.

When Steve finally began applying the binding agent, Bruce hovered near his shoulder, watching closely because Steve's hand was trembling lightly. Everybody was silent, holding their breath, and feeling their hearts race as they watched the process of closing the wound alongside listening to the beeping of Tony's lowering heart rate. "Clint, talk to me," Bruce said, glancing outside the room towards Clint and Pepper, "How's the search coming?"

A despondent look crossed Clint's face as he held onto a tablet with all their information. "Still a negative," he answered, walking into the room and approaching Bruce. "Through social media, it looks like there are several aid groups forming based on occupation or skill category by which citizens need and it's organized by location too. In the highest demand are surgeons, doctors, pilots, and first responders. It seems like a lot of the east coast has been wiped out of surgeons and those that have survived already have crowds of people waiting."

"Are they first come first serve systems?" Pepper asked with a quivering tone as she leaned against the door frame. She looked pale and almost faint.

"Some are, but others are tending to serious trauma first," Clint answered

"This is serious trauma," Rhodey mentioned forcefully, glaring over at Clint.

They all knew it wasn't Clint's fault, he was just the guy holding the tablet. The tension of Tony dying on the table, though, didn't help simmer the sharp remarks. "Can you post the charts or information about the trauma?" Bruce advised, giving Clint as much detail as he could, even though many of them had heard about damage and had seen the damage. "He was impaled through the upper abdomen, it's a massive stab wound," Bruce fumed, nearly yelling until his voice cracked from the stress. "What part of that doesn't sound serious?"

"Bruce," Clint scowled, suddenly sharing as much despair and desperation as the rest of them. "The nearest trauma surgeon is in North Carolina and he says without a second surgeon, a team of doctors, and way to get to New York, he can't fix this." The group were doing what they could to let that information settle, all while trying to seal the wound. North Carolina was halfway down the United States' east coastline and was no way accessible at the moment. "There's nobody here right now, nobody is coming," Clint was brutally honest and disheartened to say those harsh words as Bruce cursed at their harrowing situation, "We're on our own."

to be continued...

MY WRITING CHOICES IN CASE YOU'RE INTERESTED

I really wanted to see the team get backed into a corner and it's pretty eye-opening at how much we rely on other people to survive, so for the Avengers having Tony essentially on his deathbed and trying to save him, it's a struggle and stressful without many surgeons or doctors left in the area. A lot of them got wiped out on the East Coast of the USA.

P.S. Don't get sick! Stay away from the sickies, like me :)

-Learlorde