The trip to Headquarters was... tense. Steve hadn't been there since, well, everything that had happened with Tony, Bucky, and the Sokovia Accords. He still felt a lot of regret over many of the things that had happened, but while he still had the utmost respect for the man, he hadn't talked to Tony since. That regret, that guilt, was only greater, now, knowing that Iron Man was on that ship, presumingly alone; doing what he could to protect others. It wasn't right. He shouldn't have been alone. He didn't deserve that.

The encircled "A" still stood like a beacon of hope at the top of the Headquarters building. It was a symbol of days past, Steve knew, but part of him hoped it could be a symbol of days yet to come. It would take a lot of hard work, but Steve Rogers was no stranger to hard work. Neither was Natasha.

The sight didn't mean to her quite what she knew it meant to Steve, but she could feel the regret emanating off him like heat from a furnace. She had some regrets of her own. Mostly, Natasha just regretted that all of them couldn't come to some sort of agreement. She regretted that they had been split apart. She still stood by her choice in helping Steve escape with Bucky from that airport in Germany, but she wished it had never come to that. Natasha was aware of the guilt that Steve harbored over that. Just because she had a clear conscience about it didn't mean that he did.

That was the past, though. A lot had happened since then, a lot of good, and she wouldn't change any of it for the world. So, she gave him her best attempt at a reassuring smile and then was the first to step out of the jet when it landed. She might have been a head shorter and a hundred pounds lighter than him, but Natasha Romanoff charged into situations head-on. Strong and fearless. Steve had always admired that about her. She made it easy to follow her lead, now. The others might regard him as the Captain, but even Steve needed direction sometimes. He looped one of Vision's arms over his shoulders. Sam was there to take the other. They helped him out of the jet with Wanda walking just in front of them.

Together, they entered the building and navigated familiar hallways until they found James "Rhodey" Rhodes waiting for them in a briefing room. It was large and empty, like most other rooms inside the building, but Rhodey's face was a welcome sight. He seemed happy to see them, despite jokes about the beard on Steve's face and the "age finally starting to catch up" to him. Handshakes, hugs, and claps on the back were exchanged.

"Natasha," he said, "I like the haircut."

Nat received the compliment with a slightly relieved sigh. She was pretty well-covered in tactical gear, but there was still the fear of other... differences, imperceptible as they were, being noticed. There would, no doubt, be questions, and they weren't the type that Nat felt like answering. Especially not in the face of some kind of... alien invasion.

"I know we aren't exactly strangers to stuff like this," Rhodey was saying as he lead them toward a glass table in the middle of the room. He pressed a finger to the table and illuminated a control board previously unseen. A few taps pulled up several different screens. Case files, schematics and various video feeds were laid out before them.

"Full-scale attacks on earth seem like bi-weekly occurrence anymore, but... something about this one seems different." Rhodey said.

"Different enough for Stark to hitch a ride on... whatever the hell that thing is." Sam said, motioning toward the video they'd all been watching before, at one point or another.

Steve furrowed his brow and stared intently at the footage. "What are you after, Tony..."

"Thanos."

A familiar, yet almost-forgotten, voice sounded from the other side of the room. All eyes lifted to follow the sound. A ghost stood at the far end of the table.

Bruce Banner, AKA The Incredible Hulk, AKA the guy who had been missing and presumed dead for the last two years, stood in a tattered pair of sweatpants and a hoodie two sizes too big for him. A strange swirl of emotions rose up inside Natasha. Relief, happiness, anger, disappointment... it all kept her rooted in place as an almost-forced smile pulled at the edges of her mouth.

"Bruce..."

"Hi, Nat."

It was all Steve could do to keep his gaze from flickering over to Natasha. His own face remained a stone impasse. He was happy to see his old friend, he really was, but... Steve hadn't forgotten the pain over the disappearance, the loss, of Bruce. He also hadn't forgotten the advice he'd given him, the advice that Bruce clearly hadn't heeded. And Steve most certainly hadn't forgotten the last few years spent with Natasha and the things that had stemmed from them.

But what did that matter, now?

The fate of the world could be at stake, and Captain America was... jealous?

A tense moment stretched across the room. Natasha was not one to be overwhelmed by tears of joy from some overly-elated reunion. Those hugs and handshakes that had just been exchanged with Rhodey? They were nowhere to be found, now. It was almost as if Bruce had been waiting for them, but when he realized they weren't going to happen, he cleared his throat and moved closer to the table.

"Uhm, right. So..." Bruce went on to catch the others up to speed. He informed them that he had been with Thor and Loki, on a ship full of Asgardian refugees, when Thanos and his soldiers had attacked. He was looking for what were called Infinity Stones, gems that, when combined, had the power to destroy whole universes. Thanos had arrived with one already, and from the sounds of it, he had swept through an entire race of people, two gods, and one Hulk like it was nothing to get a second stone. Nat knew what fear looked like, what it sounded like, and she could see and hear genuine terror coming out of Bruce when he retold the events. Part of her felt a little scared, too. It sounded like this Thanos guy had thrown a pretty wide net in attempt to accomplish his plan, and the thought of that much wide scale death was… Well, it was awful.

"Heimdall, he... he opened up the bifrost and sent me here, before..." Bruce raked his fingers through his hair while shaking his head. He was beginning to get a bit frenzied. Panicked. "I-I-I... I don't know what happened. Loki, Thor... why didn't Heimdall send them, too?!"

"Easy, Banner." Steve's deep voice commanded calm from the scientist. "What else do you know?"

"Thanos? The guy that sic'ed Loki on New York?" Bruce slapped his palms down on top of the table. "That's the guy! He, h-he's... he's a disease. He goes to planets and wipes out half their population like it's nothing! And that's just with two of the stones! If he gets all of six them?" Bruce stopped and started shaking his head again. He didn't finish his thought. He didn't need to. If Thanos got all six stones, there was no telling what he'd be capable of.

Nat dared a look over to Steve. He was thinking, that much was clear. Some of that worry, that doubt from before, was back. But just as soon as it started to darken behind his eyes, something else illuminated in his gaze. His blue eyes widened just a little, brows going upward.

"Vision." He said. His eyes went over to the AI in question, who had lowered himself into a seat at the table. "That's why they wanted the stone."

"Something tells me they're not just gonna give up on this thing." Nat said.

Steve nodded his agreement. "Then we better expect a fight."

"No." Vision protested, though his voice lacked any real strength. He looked up at Wanda. "We know what is at stake, now."

Steve knew what Vision was asking of Wanda, because they'd all heard him ask it on the jet. Like before, the woman's standpoint remained a firm and resounding "no". Steve couldn't blame her. He looked at Vision, a serious expression on his face.

"We'll find a way." He said. "We don't trade lives." His tone left little room for argument.

A brief silence settled over the room. Then, Bruce chimed in. "We might not have to." He said. He had that tone of voice, that look in his eye, that said he was onto something. Steve turned his attention to the man. Banner was one of the most brilliant minds that Steve had ever encountered. If he had an idea, it was worth listening to.

"There is an incredibly complex system inside you." Bruce told Vision. "Bits and pieces from Jarvis, Ultron, Tony, myself, and who knows what else are all in there. They've been learning and growing, adapting, ever since their inception. The stone kick started all that, but everything since... that's been all you." He pointed out.

"So Viz isn't reliant on the stone?" Wanda asked. She sounded cautiously hopeful.

"Not anymore." Bruce replied. "If we can safely separate it from him..."

"Then, we can destroy it." Vision finished.

"Yeah, but... we don't have that kind of technology here." Banner said. He looked down at the table, one hand on his hip, the other rubbing the top of his head. "I don't know who would."

Natasha and Steve exchanged glances. She gave a small nod, the tiniest hint of a smile forming on her face. Steve kept his expression neutral, though it was pretty hard to do so in response to a look like that.

"I know a place." He said.

"Great!" Bruce exclaimed, clapping his hands together. "What are we waiting for? Let's gather up the gang and head out!"

Again, Steve and Natasha exchanged a knowing look. Rhodey stood at the head of the table, arms folded across his chest, gaze down. Everyone else remained silent. "Bruce," Steve said, "the Avengers aren't..."

"The Avengers disbanded." Nat said with a note of bitterness to her tone.

"What?" Bruce looked between them in disbelief.

"Thor was gone," she said. "You were gone. After everything that happened, everyone just sort of... went their separate ways."

"But not you guys." Bruce noted.

"No," Steve interjected. "Not us. There was still a mission to do, and we were intent on doing it."

Whether or not Bruce had been hinting at something was unclear. But, if he had been, Steve's tone had the kind of finality to it that cut any speculation right down. They couldn't lose sight of what was important here. Bruce seemed to pick up on that.

"So, then... what now?" He asked next.

Rhodey had moved around the table to stand beside Bruce. He looped an arm behind the man's shoulders and gave him a little shake. "Now," he said, "we take a little field trip."

"A field trip…" Bruce repeated, deadpan.

"We'll go to Wakanda," Natasha said. She turned her gaze toward Wanda and Vision, and her expression softened a bit. "They'll be able to help us," she told them.

Vision seemed skeptical, but Wanda wasn't asking questions. She nodded and squeezed Vision's hand.

"We'll leave as soon as you're well enough to travel." Steve said.

"I'm well enough now," Vision insisted. "We can't waste anymore time."

There was determination in his voice and on his face. Steve didn't see any sense in trying to argue with it. Besides, Vision was probably right. The quicker they could get that stone out of his head, the quicker they could destroy it. That would, hopefully, bring them one step closer to ending this whole, mad quest that Thanos was on.

It wasn't much longer until they were heading out once again. Sam and Rhodey were helping Vision back into the jet, with Bruce and Wanda close behind. Steve and Natasha brought up the rear, standing a few feet back.

"You alright?" Steve asked.

Natasha had known that question was coming since the second Bruce stepped into the conference room. She glanced over at Steve. There was a thinly veiled attempt at downplaying his concerned curiosity.

"I'm fine," she told him. She looked forward again. "I almost forgot how many years it's been." The disappointment had subsided over the years and helped open her eyes to what really mattered. Who really mattered. It was water under the bridge now. In reality, it was probably Natasha who should've been issuing some apologies. It had been under the direction of Nick Fury that she get closer to Bruce. He was an unstable variable on the team, and they needed to figure out some way to keep him under control. Natasha had seemed like the best way to accomplish that. Of course, she hadn't told anyone that, not even Steve. She looked over at Steve, now, and offered a small smile.

"I'm just glad he's okay." She said.

That was definitely something he could agree with. Steve nodded a couple of times. "I am, too."

After that, they stepped into the jet and prepared for takeoff.