Thanos… won? The aftermath of Titan…

Lylla wasn't knocked out for long, but by the time she regained consciousness, the battle was already over. She watched from her place on the ground, too weakened by the Infinity Stones to move, as Thanos had Iron Man at his mercy. Stark's suit was badly damaged and the mad Titan held his Gauntlet hand towards him.

"I hope they remember you," Thanos said, closing his fist as the stones glowed.

'No… I've got to… do something…' Lylla thought, trying to move her body.

"Stop," Strange called. Lylla looked over at the wizard, whom was also worse for wear from the fight. "Spare his life and I will give you the Stone."

'What?' Lylla thought. "Strange… Don't…"

Thanos paused and looked at the Sorcerer Supreme. "No tricks," he demanded.

Strange shook his head, then reached up as if to grab the stars in the sky. Between his fingers appeared the green Time Stone.

"We can… still win…" Lylla said, straining her voice to try and be heard.

Her cries fell on deaf ears as Thanos held out his hand. Strange released the Stone, allowing it to go to Thanos with some hesitation. The Titan grabbed the stone and placed it into his Gauntlet, power surging though him as he now held five Infinity Stones.

"One to go," Thanos said.

Suddenly, Star-Lord came out of nowhere, guns blazing as he made an attack on Thanos. The shots did little to stop the Titan from using the Space Stone and warping away, presumably to Earth where the last of the Infinity Stones was located.

"Where is he!?" Quill shouted, eyes darting around for Thanos.

"He's gone, Quill," Lylla said, finally being able to stand. She walked over to where Stark was, his suit spraying out a substance to fill in his chest wound. "Let me help with that," she offered, pulling out medical supplies from her cloak.

"Did we just lose?" Quill asked.

"With a big thanks to you, Star-Lord," Lylla said bitterly. "Let's hope the Avengers on Earth can fix the mistake we just made…"

Stark winced as Lylla applied medical spray to his wounds, the medicine stinging but healing his minor injuries faster than any medicine back on Earth. "Why did you do that?" Stark asked Strange.

The wizard looked at the iron man. "We're in the endgame now," he said simply.

"Guys, they're over here!" shouted Peter. The young hero swung in and helped Stark to his feet, the remaining Guardians slowly grouping up as storm started overhead.

"I'm glad to see that you all survived," Lylla said. "But in the end, we weren't enough to stop Thanos."

"Hey, the Avengers have Captain America, and your friends with Thor, right?" Peter said. "We beat Thanos around a bit, so maybe they can- no, they will beat him."

Lylla perked up a bit. "Yeah, Rocky is with Thor, and they went to build a Thanos-killing weapon. Surely they're done by now, so it's a matter of time before they go to Earth and save the day!"

A chill passed through the air, making everyone pause as a strange feeling passed through all of them. Lylla shivered, her breath turning cold as if Death had walked right through her. "Rocky…?" she whispered.

"Something is happening," Mantis said. Suddenly, the bug girl's body crumbled to dust, fading away on the wind.

"No… nonono," Lylla gasped, realizing what was happening.

Drax looked down at himself as he too faded to dust. "Quill?" were his last words as he was blown away.

"This isn't happening," Lylla said, her breathing quickening as Peter tried to calm her down.

"Steady Quill," Stark said.

"Aw man," Quill breathed as he too faded away into dust.

"Everyone…" Lylla cried, tears filling her eyes.

"Tony," Strange said, getting the man's attention. "There was no other way…" he stated as he too was dusted.

Suddenly, Peter let go of Lylla, the boy standing up as his body shook. "Mr. Stark," Peter said. "I don't feel so good."

"No… Don't take him too!" Lylla shouted, grabbing Peter's leg.

"You're alright," Stark said, his voice hitching a bit.

'I don't… I don't know what's happening," Peter said, falling into Stark's arms. "I don't wanna go, sir. Please. Please, I don't wanna go, I don't wanna go."

Lylla let go, her body going numb with tears as Stark tried to comfort his slowly fading apprentice. "He's just a boy," she stated. "Please, don't…"

"I'm sorry," Peter said, looking into Stark's eyes as he finally faded into dust.

Lylla cried out into the empty space, with only Stark and Nebula left of their team. "He did it," Nebula said. The cyborg reached down and gently wrapped her arms around Lylla, doing her best to comfort the Half-Worlder as she cried her eyes out for those that had fallen.

And it was that day that came to be known as 'The Decimation.'

[***]

Weeks later, Lylla sat in the corner of the Benatar, watching as Stark (or 'Tony' as he preferred her to call him by) taught Nebula how to play the Earth game 'Paper Football.' The otter had mostly been despondent since the battle on Titan, focusing on maintaining the Guardian's ship as they made a course for Earth. The loss of Strange, Mantis, Drax, and Quill all weighed on her mind, even if she was a little bitter about Quill being a part of why they lost to Thanos. Peter's death also affected her, the loss of someone so young disappearing before her eyes being traumatic to say the least.

In the meantime, she listened to Nebula and Tony bond, learning that on Earth Tony was a billionaire that funded the Avengers, at least up until he and Captain America, another superhero, had a falling out, effectively splitting the team. Lylla found that Tony shared similar qualities to Rocket: both were geniuses with tech that had a bit of an ego, though Tony seemed to be more of the caring type compared to her Rocky.

"Lylla, will you join us in the fun?" Nebula asked, snapping the otter from her thoughts.

She shook her head no. "I'll make another check on the rations," she said, heading to the back of the ship.

Of course, Lylla knew that things weren't looking good. Not only was Earth far from other inhabited planets in the galaxy, meaning that they couldn't stop by for refueling, but the Benatar had taken some damage in the battle with Thanos, leading to the communications not working and life support slowly fading. While Nebula could survive for a bit longer thanks to her cyborg parts, Lylla and Tony were slowly dying of hunger. The otter laughed to herself, thanking the robots that made her for the cybernetic implants that were letting her live on smaller rations than normal.

"For once, being a freak of science has its advantages," Lylla said to herself.

As Lylla grabbed the last of the food, she brought it back to the main part of the ship, offer some of it to Nebula. "Save it for you and Stark," Nebula said.

Lylla nodded and walked to the cockpit of the ship, stopping as she saw Tony talking to his helmet. The human had done this while they were on their flight to Earth, talking to a person called 'Ms. Potts.' The way he talked about her in the videos made Lylla think of how she thought of Rocket.

"Hey, Miss Potts. Pep," he started his message. "If you find this recording… don't post it on social media. It's gonna be a real tearjerker. I don't know if you're ever gonna see these. I don't even know if you're still… Oh God, I hope so. Today is day twenty-one. No, uh, Twenty-two. You know, if it wasn't for the existential terror of staring into the literal void of space, I'd say I'm feeling a little better today. The infection's run its course, thanks to the Blue Meanie and Space Otter back there. Oh, you'd love them. Very practical, only a tiny but sadistic."

Lylla sat down, back to the wall as Tony continued. "So, the fuel cells were cracked during the battle and we figured out a way to reverse the ion charge and bought ourselves forty-eight hours of flight time. Uh, but it's now dead in the water. Thousand lightyears from the nearest 7-Eleven. Oxygen will run out tomorrow morning, and that'll be it. Pep, I know I said no more suprises, but I gotta say I was really hoping to pull of one last one. But it looks like… well, you know what it looks like."

Lylla stood up, stepping into the doorway with the food. "Don't feel bad about this. I mean, actually if you grovel for a couple of weeks, and then move on with enormous guilt… I should probably lie down for a minute, go rest my eyes." Tony sighed. "Please know, when I drift off it'll be like every night lately- I'm fine. Totally fine- I dream about you. Because it's always you."

As Tony turned off the Iron Man helmet, Lylla finally entered the room, giving Tony the last bit off food. "One last meal?" she asked.

Tony only nodded, taking the last of the food and eating it. "The way you talk about her, it reminds me of how I'll never see Rocky again," Lylla said.

"Good to know that even space animals can find love," Tony said.

Lylla gave a weak laugh. "He was… the best partner I could have asked for," she said. The otter sat down next to Tony as he laid down on the floor, before Lylla herself curled up and laid down herself.

"Well, he must have been some otter to keep this ship running," Tony said.

"He was a raccoon," Lylla laughed.

"God, space if so weird," Tony stated, before giving a weak laugh of his own.

The two of them slowly felt the cold around them as they drifted off into what could possibly be their final rest. As they did so, Nebula came into the room, looking down on the two sadly. She placed their bodies into the seats of the Benatar, hoping that they could have comfort in their final moment. As they lay there floating in the void of space, a distant light shone in their eyes, making the two slowly wake up as it grew closer to them.

To Tony, it looked like an angel, but to Lylla, it looked like a bird of fire.

[***]

Rocket sat in the Avengers Compound, opposite to one Pepper Potts as they met for the first time. "You know, considering that I know Thor, I shouldn't be surprised by his choice of friends," Pepper said.

"Nice to meet you to, lady," Rocket said sarcastically. He fiddled with his communicator. "Come on, you flarkin' piece of junk…" Rocket angry threw the device across the room. "It's no use. The ship's coms must be busted up from Thanos or some crap. Same with Lylla's personal line as well."

"Lylla's a part of your team, right?" Pepper asked.

"Yeah, she's co-captain of the Guardians of the Galaxy, whatever weight that holds now," Rocket said. "If they had a run-in with Thanos, either their dead, or worse."

"Can't be any worse than right now," Pepper stated.

"Lady, I know that you probably lost a lot of people to Thanos' snap, but my fam- my crew was off-world when it happened, and if I can't talk to them, then how am I supposed to know if my Lylla is even still alive!?" Rocket shouted, standing up in his chair. The raccoon panted a bit, before bringing his hands to his face. "How am I going to explain to her what happened to Groot…?"

Pepper looked at the raccoon with pity, seeing that despite his harsh words that he too was worrying about the people he loved- just as she did about Tony and Peter over the past three weeks.

A rumbling shook the building, catching the two off-guard. "No way," Rocket breathed. "That space chick actually found them, didn't she?"

The raccoon sprinted out of the building, with Pepper close behind and the remaining Avengers coming outside as well. The Benatar was being slowly put down outside the building by Carol Danvers, whom had been sent out with a tracker that Rocket provided to find the Guardian's ship. As the ship's ramp lowered down, Steve Rodgers helped the human that emerged, with Nebula carrying Lylla in her arms.

"Lylla? Lylla!" Rocket shouted, sprinting over to the cyborg. Nebula carefully put the otter down, Rocket quickly scooping his girl up into a protective hug.

"Good to see you too, Rocky," she said, her breathing slow.

"I'm thought I'd… I thought that Thanos had…" he tried to speak, but tears filled Rocket's eyes as he buried his muzzle into her shoulder.

Lylla coughed out a weak laugh. "I guess I was one of the 'lucky' ones," she said. "The others… they didn't make it."

Rocket touched his forehead to hers, their eyes meeting. "Groot's gone as well. We're the last of the Guardians," he said. "He called me 'Dad' before he vanished."

Lylla smiled as tears started to fall down her face. "At least you're still here, and we have each other. I missed you, Rocky…"

Rocket quickly held Lylla as she fell asleep in his arms. "Her vitals are fine, but she's tired from the trip here," Nebula said. She knelt down and picked the two Half-Worlders up.

"Let her rest," Rocket said. He held his mate close and whispered. "I promise, this time I won't let you go."


Author's Note

The Infinity War arc is over, and now we're heading into Endgame territory. Of course, since there's a five-year time gap between now and when Endgame "officially" starts, there's going to be a few interlude chapters to show what went down with Rocket and Lylla in the time (Hint: I left a clue to it in the last chapter).

Since none of the Guardians recognized Captain Marvel, obviously Lylla wouldn't either, though what she saw when they were saved from space…

Anyway, next chapter starts the "After the Snap" saga, where we'll see each of the five years leading up to Endgame.

Next Time: The Avengers hunt Thanos, and Lylla has a shocking revealation