The days passed with a harrowingly slow pace, every hour feeling as a lifetime. Everyone in the compound was on edge, in their own stage of grief for the fallen, and anxiety for Danver's return. Over two weeks had gone by, with no answer from Danvers.
Thor had settled in to a pattern that seemed a stronger version of behavior that I had seen before. His sole focus seemed externally to be finding the rest of the Asgardians, but I knew that he was grinding his proverbial axe for a rematch with Thanos. The guilt that he carried with him was nearly tangible, and my attempts at reassurance went without response. Thor would not resume any form of normalcy until Thanos had been brought to justice.
One night, as I continued monitoring the system we had scanning for the Asgardians, the ground began rumbling beneath my feet. I looked up to see Steve and Natasha both running towards the front doors, and I followed suit.
Bruce and Rhodey were already outside, and we slowed to a walk as we watched a spaceship slowly float to the ground, Danvers carrying it as she slowly descended. Pepper Potts ran out to stand with us, tears welling in her eyes. As the ship rested on the ground, the boarding ramp deployed, and two figures shuffled out.
Nebula supported Tony as they came out of the ship, and Steve ran up to help support Tony.
"I couldn't stop him." Tony breathed, his body thin, weak, and doubtless shutting down from lack of food and water.
"Neither could I." Steve replied, frowning.
"I lost the kid." Tony confessed, his distress evident.
"Tony," Steve said, his usually calm composure beginning to crack, "We lost…"
"Is um-" Tony's question was abruptly cut off by Pepper's embrace.
"Oh my god." She said, tears now falling in relief.
"Let's get him inside." Rhodey said, "We can talk shop in the morning."
When morning arrived, we all gathered in the boardroom, sitting and standing around the table. Thor continued to seclude himself and sat in a seperate area, the rolls he had once denied now being consumed.
"It's been 23 days since Thanos came to Earth." Natasha said, explaining Earth's predicament to Tony and Nebula. "World governments are in pieces. The parts that are still working are trying to take a census. And it looks like he did… exactly what he said he was going to do. Thanos wiped out fifty percent of all living creatures."
"Where is he now?" Tony said, sitting in a wheelchair as an IV bag continued to drip, "Where?"
"We don't know." Steve answered. "He just opened a portal and walked through."
"With the space stone at his disposal, he could be absolutely anywhere." I clarified, capturing Tony's attention.
"Are you guys sure I'm not dead?" Tony said, gesturing to me. "Last time I saw you, you tried to kill all of us. Now we're all buddy-buddy?"
"There were several powers at play at that time," I said carefully, "I do sincerely apologise for the destruction and injury I caused in New York. Thor and I have both come here in hopes of restoring our people's lives, though our search for the remaining still continues."
"Speaking of Thor what's wrong with him?" Tony asked, gesturing to my brooding brother.
"Yea, he's pissed." Rocket replied, "He thinks he failed. Which of course he did, but there's a lot of that goin' around here, aint there?"
"Honestly, until this exact second, I thought you were a Build-A-Bear." Tony said, startled.
"Maybe I am." Rocked mumbled.
"We've been hunting Thanos for three weeks now." Steve said, attempting to re-center the conversation. "Deep Space scans, satellites, and we've got nothing. Tony, you fought him."
"Who told you that?" Tony snarked. "I didn't fight him. No, he wiped my face with a planet while the Bleeker Street Magician gave away the stone. That's what happened. There was no fight."
"Did he give you any clues, any coordinates, anything?" Steve pressed, our hope waning.
"I saw this a few years back, you know." Tony griped, "I had a vision, I didn't wanna believe it. I thought I was dreaming."
"Tony, I'm gonna need you to focus." Steve said, trying to prevent Tony from derailing the conversation further.
"And I needed you. As in past tense." Tony said, his tone cutting and bitter. "That trumps what you need. It's too late buddy. Sorry. You know what I need?" Tony stood up, shoving things off of the table. "I need to shave. And I remember telling you, Cap."
Tony moved to hit Steve, but not before Rhodey and myself restrained him.
"Tony, Tony, Tony, stop!" Rhodey said, trying to calm his friend.
"Otherwise what we needed was a suit of armor around the world." Tony continued, his tone harsher with ever word. "Remember that? Whether it impacted our 'precious freedom' or not- that's what we needed!"
"Well, that didn't work out, did it?" Steve said, his throat constricted and tight.
"I said, 'we'll lose'. You said, 'We'll do that together too.' And guess what, Cap? We lost." Tony spat. "You weren't there. But that's what we do, right? Our best work, after the fact? We're the Avengers, we're the Avengers. Not the Prevengers, right?"
"Okay, you made your point." Rhodes stressed, "Just sit down, ok?"
"Nah, nah, nah." Tony insisted, shoving Rhodey and myself away. "Here's my point."
"Sit down!" Rhodey repeated.
"She's great, by the way." Tony said, gesturing to Danvers as his breathing became more and more labored. "We need you. You're new blood."
"Tony!"
"Bunch of tired old mills!" Tony continued, "I got nothing for you, cap. I got no coordinates, no clues, no plan, no options. Zero. Zip. Nada. No trust. Liar."
Steve's face fell, Tony's continued attacks wearing down his usually collected exterior. As the one-time friends continued to stare at each other, Tony ripped his ARC reactor from his chest, shoving it into Steve's hand.
"Here, take this." Tony spat through labored breaths, "You find him, and you put that on. You hide."
Tony collapsed to the ground, exhausted after the stress of the argument.
"Tony!" Rhodey exclaimed as Steve, himself, and I all gathered around Tony to support him.
"I'm fine." Tony breathed, "I…" Tony lost consciousness, and Steve and I carried him to a hospital style bed in another room.
Bruce set up a new IV for Tony, and Pepper came in to his room to be with him as Rhodey left and came in to the conference room once more.
"Bruce gave him a sedative." Rhodey said, "He's gonna be out for the rest of the day."
"You guys take care of him." Danvers said, "And I'll bring Xorrian Elixir when I come back."
"Where are you going?" Natasha asked.
"To kill Thanos." Danvers replied coolly.
"Hey, you know, we usually work as a team around here." Natasha said, causing Danvers to take pause. "Between you and I, we're also a little fragile."
"We realize that this is more of your territory." Steve said, "But this is our fight too."
"Do you even know where he is?" Rhodey contested, irritated.
"I know people who might." Danvers replied, optimistic.
"Don't bother." Nebula said from the doorway. "I can tell you where Thanos is. Thanos spent a long time trying to perfect me. Then when he worked, he talked about his great plan. Even disassembled, I wanted to please him. I'd ask, "where would we go once his plan was complete?". His answer was always the same: To the Garden."
"That's cute." Rhodey scoffed. "Thanos has a retirement plan."
"So where is he then?" Steve asked.
"Rocket, show them." Nebula said, and Rocket nodded before leaping up onto the table.
"When Thanos snapped his fingers, Earth became ground zero for a power surge of ridiculously cosmic proportions." Rocket said, a hologram of Earth appearing above the table. "No one's ever seen anything like it… Until two days ago."
The hologram shifted, showing another planet with a shockwave traversing the surface. "On this planet."
"Thanos is there." Nebula confirmed.
"He used the stones again." Natasha said, inspecting the hologram.
"Hey, hey, we'd be going in short-handed, you know." Bruce cautioned.
"Look, he's still got the stones, so…" Rhodey added.
"So let's get him." Danvers suggested, "We'll use them to bring everyone back."
"Just like that?" Rhodey questioned.
"Yea, Just like that." Steve said.
"Even if there's a small chance that we can undo this," Natasha said, "I mean we owe it to everyone who's not in this room to try."
My mind raced with the thought of having (Y/N) back with me, holding her again, being able to tell her how much I loved her. My heart ached for the chance, for the idea of being able to rectify the grave wrong.
"If we do this, how do we know it's gonna end any differently than it did before?" Bruce countered.
"Because before, you didn't have me." Danvers explained, her composure cool and collected.
"Hey, new girl, everyone here is about that superhero life. Even the ex-villain over here." Rhodey said, gesturing over to me. "And if you don't mind my asking, where the hell have you been all this time?"
"There are a lot of other planets in the universe." She replied, "And unfortunately, they didn't have you guys."
Thor rose from his bench, walking over to face Danvers. He held his hand up to summon Stormbreaker, and it flew across the room, soaring into his hands and missed Danver's face by mere inches. She didn't flinch, and instead smirked at my brother with a knowing look.
"I like this one." Thor said, finishing the roll he had been eating earlier.
"Let's go get this son of a bitch." Steve said, nodding.