Buffy walked into Dawn's old room at Avengers HQ and looked around. The place was dark, but it was exactly as Dawn had last left it. There were pictures of the two sisters on her dresser beside a picture of Dawn and Tony. There was one of Buffy, Dawn, and Tony at Dawn's graduation and Buffy picked it up. Steve walked in behind her and leaned against the doorframe. She stared at the picture in her hand until it blurred with tears.

They had lost so many people close to them. Her sister, Dawn, had turned to ash in her arms. Xander, one of her best friends since high school, and Bucky, her adopted brother-in-law, had dusted in front of her. Giles, Shuri, Sam, and Wanda were missing, all of them presumed dusted. Okoye had confirmed that T'Challa had been dusted. Tony had gone into space with the Spider kid and they hadn't been heard from since.

Steve watched her face melt into a grimace and then tears began to fall down her cheeks. He walked over and pulled her to him. They clung to each other, something they had been doing a lot of in the last couple of days. The world had been thrown into chaos after Thanos' snap and no one knew what to do to deal with it.

Natasha had taken charge of everything. She had organized the surviving Avengers' move away from Wakanda and back to New York. Okoye had agreed to keep the remaining Slayers there until Buffy could figure out the next step for them.

Buffy buried her face in Steve's chest and let out a sob. He held her tighter and she knew he was crying with her. After a long moment, they both took a deep breath to try and calm themselves. "What the hell do we do now?" Buffy asked quietly, setting the picture down in its place. They were the first words she'd spoken since Dawn had turned to dust.

"I don't know." Steve answered.

She began to pace. "There has to be a way to reverse this, right? I mean, maybe something magical Willow can do or…. Something!"

"Buff…."

"Our friends…. Our family…. They're not gone. My sister is not gone, Steve. She can't be. She…. This wasn't how it was supposed to be. I sacrificed myself so she could live. I refuse to accept that she's just…. She's just…. She isn't…. She's not…." Buffy was hyperventilating and Steve pulled her to him again.

"Just breathe. Breathe with me, ok? We're together and we will figure this out."

Once he had managed to calm her down, he helped her to sit on edge of the bed. She stared at the floor, tears still streaking down her cheeks. "I said…." Buffy took a shuddering breath, looking at the picture of her, Dawn, and their mother on the nightstand. "I said once that if Dawn dies, I quit."

"Is that what you want to do?"

She shook her head. "She's gone and all I can think to do…. All I desperately want to do is hit something. I want to use every ounce of strength that I possess to beat Thanos into a bloody pulp for taking her away from me even if it kills me. I was supposed to protect her and he…."

Steve wrapped her in his arms again. "We're home now and we will figure something out."

Angel watched Buffy wail on the punching bag in the training room. She spent at least six hours a day in there taking out her aggression before hiding in her room and sleeping. Steve occasionally joined her in the training room, but she was alone today. He sighed and walked into the room.

"I don't need to talk anymore." Buffy said, not looking away from her target.
"I know. I thought I would offer you someone to actually kick around."

"I don't want to kick anyone but Thanos around."

"Wouldn't it be better practice to have someone that actually fights back?"

"If you can get Bruce to Hulk out…."

"Buffy," Angel took a chance and grabbed her arms to stop her. "It's been two weeks."

"I know."
He eyed the muscles that were more prominent on her arms. "I'm pretty sure you could mop the floor with the Hulk now, but you do have people that survived. They're here."

"I know."

"So, we should go join them."

"And continue looking at the number of people missing go up by the second?"

He shook his head. "And be with your husband and your friends. Isolating yourself with your pain doesn't work out too well. Speaking from experience."

"Steve gives me updates."

"Nat misses you. Willow misses you." Buffy sighed. "They've lost enough. They shouldn't lose you, too."

"They're not losing me. I'm right here."

"You're a million miles away, Buffy."

There was a knock on the door and Rhodes poked his head in. "Hey, Buff, that thing stopped doing whatever the hell it was doing."

"The weird beeper thing Fury had?" Buffy asked.

"Yeah."

"Did you tell Steve?"

"Are you coming or not?"

Buffy rolled her eyes and unwrapped the tape around her hands as she followed Rhodes. Bruce was in the room with the weird beeper thing. Rhodes went to get Willow, Steve, and Natasha as Buffy walked over to Bruce.

"Hey Buff." Bruce said.

"What do we got?" Natasha asked as she, Steve, and Willow walked in.

Steve walked over to Buffy and slipped his hand in hers as Bruce said, "Whatever signal it was sending finally crapped out."

"I thought we bypassed the battery." Steve said.

"We did." Rhodes said. "It's still plugged in. It just…. Stopped."

"Reboot it. Send the signal again."

"We don't even know what this is." Bruce said.

"Fury did." Natasha said. "Just do it, please, and tell me the minute you get a signal. I wanna know who's on the other end of that thing." She turned to leave only to find a woman standing there in a red, blue, and gold suit.

The woman looked at each of them before asking, "Where's Fury?"