***New Avengers Facility***

Long. That's how it seemed. The walk out and from the ship into the Compound. But that was mainly because that, for them, time had slowed down. And that was because of the...the events that had happened within the past hour...Said events left a gaping hole in their hearts as terrible news had come with it.

The Infinity Stones, the instruments that had helped the Mad Titan, Thanos, or rather, the late Mad Titan eliminate half of life across the whole universe, were now gone. Destroyed. Meaning that the friend that they had lost...that everyone had lost...were gone...for good.

That was bad enough. Now, they had another task. And this one might be harder and more crushing than the last.

***Living Room***

They all sat in silence, mortified and unsure of what to do now. Pepper, Betty, Erik and Darcy had joined them in their moment of silence and sorrow.

Pepper's hormones were already out of flux due to her pregnancy, but this...the news that those lost in the Snap, including Tony...weren't coming back. Now, they all had to wonder what they were going do now that their second chance fell through.

Peter, sadly, knew one hard thing that he had to do. And he knew it would kill him.

"Where're the kids?" He asked.

Everyone's head came up at the sound of those words. The mere thought of it choked them.

"Uh, they're...having a nap." Darcy answered. "Why?"

Peter was about to say when Bruce, who had the same thought, cut in. "I think it's time we tell them."

Throughout the room, everyone's heart dropped when he said that. It was something that they knew would come, but they kept putting it off. And when this "chance" came up, they though it they wouldn't have to. But now...there was no other option.

It was time.

***Jamie and Nikki's Room***

Peter, now out of his Iron Spider Suit and in a hoodie and some jeans, slowly opened the door to the Twins'

"Peter?"

"Hey buddy. Sleep well?"

The five-year-old yawned as he rubbed his eyes as he begin to fully awaken. "Mmhmm."

"Good, good. That's-that's good...Hey uh, can you...come with me? There's something we wanna show you. Your sister and your friends too actually."

At first, Jamie didn't understand on account of him not being fully awake. But then his eyes shot open and an excited expression came to his face as he jumped up out of bed. "Is it about my parents?"

"Uh...well, yeah."

That was all Peter was able to get out before Jamie climbed up to the second bunk and shook his sister awake. "Nikki! Wake up!"

His blonde sister groaned as she opened her eyes to her brother, unhappy from having her nap interrupted. "What, Jamie?!"

"Mommy and Daddy are back!"

That made the sleep in Nikki's eyes vanish quickly as she jumped up and followed him down their bunk ladder before jumping off and waking Azari while Jamie woke up Torunn.

"Come on, Z!" She exclaimed, shaking her Wakandan friend from his slumber. "Our parents are back!"

"Really?!" He gasped excitedly, jumping up from his sleeping bag.

"Let's go!" Jamie cheered, motioning for them to follow him. Soon the four kids were out of the room and running down the hall.

"Guys, wait!" Peter called after them. He didn't feel so goo since he didn't even have a chance to speak. They were already gone. "Oh boy, this is gonna be bad."

He scratched his head in grief as before taking off after them.

***Living Room***

The adults all still sat in silence and sorrow. But that was broken by the sounds of excited children running down the hall.

"Mom! Dad!" They heard. Their hearts stopped at the sound of the kids nearing.

Within seconds, the four children stormed into the room and stopped. The excited looks on their faces were replaced with looks of confusion, whereas the adults were all speechless and wide eyed.

Korg nervously greeted the kids, "Uh...Hey guys," waving at them.

"Hey Korg!" Jamie waved back. He and the other four looked around the room, but seemed. "Where are they?"

"Who, sweetie?" Pepper asked, beyond confused.

"Our parents!" Torunn replied, like a child awaiting a present.

Pepper felt the air leave her lungs as her speechlessness came back. She looked over to Rhodey and Bruce, but the two looked back at her with no idea what to say.

Suddenly, Peter ran in. Panting as he skidded to a halt. He really misjudged the speed of these kids. "Guys!"

"Peter, what-" Rhodey began to ask, motioning to the quartet of kids in the room.

But the spider-teen shrugged his shoulder and shook his head, ashamed. "I'm sorry, I-I didn't get to tell them. They ran out before I could."

As they spoke, the kids still heard them and were confused as to what the grownups and Peter were referring to.

"Tell us what?" Azari asked, speaking up for him and his friends.

The silence in the room returned as the adults all looked at each other. They all did things to accommodate their shook nerves. Darcy took off her glasses and let out a big sigh, while Erik and Rhodey rubbed their faces and sighed loudly.

This couldn't be avoided any longer, and they knew it.

"Have a seat, guys." Bruce said, motioning to a couch. "This is uh...there's something we have to tell you."

"What is it?" Torunn asked as they all sat down.

All four kids sat down on a couch and some of the adults sat with them to comfort them. Okoye held Azari with her arm around his shoulder and Darcy held Torunn in her lap.

It took a minute or two for them to form words as the adults tried to mentally prepare themselves to release this news.

"You see," Bruce began "...we haven't been completely honest with you kids about your parents."

"But, I thought you were going to get them?" Jamie inquired.

"Uh, yeah. We-we-we did. But things didn't exactly go as we thought...you see, we went because there was a chance to get them back. And...um..."

Rhodey began where Bruce trailed off. "Your parents were caught in something that happened all over the Earth...they uh..." Unfortunately, the colonel couldn't continue. He couldn't be the one to do it.

It was crazy too, because he was in the army. Telling people that their family members had died in battle, unfortunately, came with the occupation. But this...this was different. These were kids. Five-year-olds, and they had to be told the sad fate of their parents. But he couldn't do it...he couldn't.

"They're gone..." Peter finished for him, on the edge with tears.

"..to catch the bad guy, right?" Nikki added, testing her suspicions of the previous day.

"No, sweetie" Betty said, shaking her head slightly, tears threatening to fall. "...I...they're gone as in...they're not coming back."

Jamie scrunched his eyebrows as the realization began to slowly make sense in his mind. "They're gone?" he asked, unbelievingly.

He looked right at Peter, right in the eyes, searching for truth. But he received his answer when Peter nodded and a tear escapes his eye. Jamie's eyes mirrored his as tears began to pool in them as it all sunk in. His parents were gone. They were really gone. He looked over to Nikki, who had already begun crying and was in Betty's arms, crying into her shoulder.

Torunn, on the other hand, shook her head, not wanting to accept this and began to breathe heavily. Then without a word, she jumped out of Darcy's lap and bolted outside.

Jamie saw this and jumped up, running after her, not too far behind.

"Torunn! Wait!" He called before he ran after her.

Darcy was about to follow them, but she was held back by Erik. He shook his head as a sign to let her go grieve. It didn't take long before she retreated into Erik's arms and cried herself.

"Ingaba yinyani?" Azari asked, looking up to Okoye, his eyes pleading for it to not be true.

Breaking her warrior façade, the general let her tears come out and slowly nodded in reply.

The little prince shut his eyes and hugged Okoye with all his might, and she too returned the hug as well.

***Courtyard***

The young Asgardian girl ran out of the Compound and into the courtyard a ways before she finally dropped to her knees and cut loose crying.

"No. No," She whimpered. She tried to restrain herself, but she just couldn't hold it.

As her tears were threatening to come down. Thunder clapped as dark clouds began to fill the sky. It grew dark and the thunder still came.

"Torunn!" She heard James call out from behind her.

She kept her head down and was leaning over on her hands with them gripping the grass. Soon, she felt a hand on her back, knowing it was Jamie, kept her head down and shook it as she began to cry.

"Torunn?"

"Jamie, it can't be true." She said, looking up at her redheaded friend, "He can't be gone. I was supposed to meet him. Like Mommy said I would! It can't be true!"

Jamie sniffled as he heard her try to deny what they had just heard inside no more than two minutes ago. It was a hard, hurtful truth. But it was the truth nonetheless.

"I'm sorry, Torrun...but it is."

Torunn looked back down to the ground before bringing her hands up to her head and whispered to herself. "No! NO! Nononono. No...NOOOO!...Daddy...no. Please no...It can't be true. It can't be! It CAN'T BE!"

And then, taking in a deep breath, Torunn let out huge scream that echoed throughout the darkening sky. As she did, lighting crackled and came down to the ground around them.

Jamie looked around in both fright and shock as the huge streams of glowing, jagged electricity made contact with the ground around them. On instinct, he jumped onto Torunn and protectively covered her.

"Jamie! Torunn!" Peter called out worriedly as he began to run out into the courtyard to them.

"Peter!" Bruce and Pepper called after him.

But the spider-teen only made it halfway before a bolt of lightning came down and hit the ground right in front of him, the impact force pushing him backwards onto his back.

As he landed, a sharp ringing made its way to his ear as the noise around him seemed to be muffled. He brought his hands to his ears and winced at the ringing. The feeling of being cradled came as he opened his eyes and saw a blurry view of two figures above him.

Suddenly, he began to hear muffled voices yelling. They were coming from the blurry figures. Then, the ringing began to die down. As did the blurriness of his vision. Next thing he knew, his vision and hearing came back in full effect.

"Pete, come on!" one of the people above him, which turned out to be Rhodey, exclaimed.

With the help of Bruce, who was right there with them, they helped Peter up to his feet before they all ran towards the building and the overhead covering where Pepper was waiting for them. Once they were at safety, they looked back over to the two kids as the screaming and the lightning stopped altogether and rain began to fall.

With Jamie and Torunn, the redheaded boy was now crying fully himself, now had her in a hug and she hugged him tightly. Tears came down hard from her eyes as she cried into his shoulder. As they did, the rain around them came down a bit herder, mirroring he tears.

Peter let his head down and fell to his knees and held his head in his hands, saddened at the sight of the two kids in the courtyard. Bruce and Rhodey were saddened by it as well. And like the kids and Peter, they let tears, which they had been holding back for a long time, flow fully from their sockets.

Back inside, the others were crying as well. Having watched the events outside, combined with the events of the past month, they all wept without shame, finally letting all of their pent up emotion go. And though it felt good to let it all out, it was still hurt, especially for the kids, to accept it. But sometimes, the truth hurts.

Well...I finally did it. The kids now know the fate of their parents and we have now scene their reactions to it. This was a hard one to write because I didn't want to rush it. But I do hope that it was good enough for you guys to believe.

I'm sure it goes without saying, but I've decided to continue this story. I wanna finish what I started and keep up despite the harsh loss. So yeah, I'm doing it.

Anyway, til next chapter, y'all. It's gonna be a whole new ball game. ;)