It was hard to keep track of time on the spaceship where nothing was happening. But... Tony was proud to say that he had thought of scratching the wall for each day he woke up. And, if he didn't wake up one day... Well, it wouldn't be his problem then, would it?
Three weeks. Twenty-one days. That was how long it took for Rose to stop screaming. At some point, he had just gotten so used to the muffled voice that he had just started to ignore it. He didn't know how she wasn't dead, but if what Thanos had done hadn't killed her, dehydration and starvation must have been child's play at that point. The first time he had tried to uncover her mouth, the screaming had been so loud he instantly let go in shock, and he hadn't been able to move her hand since.
Then, almost randomly, he had woken up... and it was quiet. Nothing echoing throughout the ship. He bolted upwards. His body, which had been surviving off of alien junk food and barbecue peanuts, groaned at the action. Rushing into the main part of the cabin, he stared at the moving figure of the young witch. "... Rose?" He asked, unsure if he was just delirious.
The girl flinched at the word, and all the sudden, he realized she was shaking. A lot. He grabbed the blanket he had been using and all-but tossed it on her. The screaming started again, but... there wasn't so much raw... pain this time.
"I was finally getting some good rest," a blue-plated cyborg said as she poked her head up from where she was sleeping.
"I... She looked cold." Tony justified.
"This ship's temperature is just below seven degrees Celsius. I am more surprised you aren't cold." She stared at him, a small speck of concern present in her eyes despite her flat, metallic voice.
Tony shrugged it off. The blood rushing through him was enough to keep him warm... for now. "What can I say? Anyway, who knew aliens used metric?"
Nebula's face twitched into what could almost be defined as a smile. Almost. "Water is a valuable resource. Basing a measurement around it is not the worst idea that humans have come up with. That would have to be stand-up comedy."
"Was that a joke?" Tony asked, arching an eyebrow. "That sounded suspiciously like a joke. Be careful, too much more and I might just start to like you, Snow Globe."
Light started to fill the cabin. Tony turned around, and immediately had to cover his eyes. At the same time, Rose's screaming began to die down, until... they stopped. The light dimmed. Before, Rose's skin had been bright red, as if she had scrubbed her skin too hard in the shower. Now, it was back to her original paleness. "Rose?" Tony asked again.
The girl's face shot to him. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her tear ducts looked as if they had been working overtime. "Tony..." She whimpered slightly. "We... we lost." There was no question in her words, just grim acceptance. She then took in Nebula. "Peter...? Strange...? Mantis...? Quill?!" Tony shook his head, his heart breaking again at the mention of Peter. "No..."
"How are you alive?" Nebula demanded to know. "The Infinity Stones are incredibly powerful. They chose for you to die, yet you're still here."
Rose slumped down. "That... You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
Tony raised an eyebrow. "I've seen a lot of weird stuff. Try me."
"I'm immortal." A pin dropped.
"Al... right. Like... Immortal like Thor and Loki?"
Rose shook her head. "No. Norse gods simply have an extended lifespan, and are reborn over and over until Ragnarok. I... can not die."
Tony thought about this for a second. "Okay. You were right, I don't believe you."
"I survived a sword directly through the lung, not eating or drinking anything for multiple weeks, and had my body disassembled and reassembled constantly on a molecular level trillions of times... and you don't believe me?" Rose's tone hadn't changed much, her voice was still soft, but some of her sass had started to come back, her words not matching the serious point her words made.
Tony opened his mouth, then closed it, thinking about his words. "Okay. Point made. Why are you fine now?"
"I'm n... I don't know."
"We are... not in a good spot." Tony admitted.
Nebula piped in helpfully. "We're over 1000 light years away from Earth. Food will run out in three days, now two with you here. We're out of power, Metal Man is out of nano technology, and water is... We have a few bags left."
They all looked contemplative for a moment, before Tony had an idea. "Wait, Rose! When you did that little snap, crackle, pop thing back on Earth, you charged my suit to astronomical levels... literally. Is there any chance that you could do that again here?"
Rose looked him confusedly for a moment. "Rice... Krispies?" Then her eyes widened. "You mean Apparation! I... I might be able to. My body is still reeling, and my magic has to replenish from the battle and healing my body." She got to her feet, but stumbled. Tony leapt to catch her, and he could suddenly feel just how weak the girl had gotten. Her arms had lost most of their muscle, and he hadn't missed her wince when he caught her.
The girl held out shaking arms in front of her, and Tony could see her bracelets shake around her wrists. For a moment, nothing happened. Then... a small wisp appeared, but that was all. It quickly dissipated into the air, and Rose all but collapsed. "What was that?" Tony muttered. He turned to the girl. "What happened?" His voice started to raise.
"Tony," Nebula warned.
"Magic's... almost... depleted..." Rose muttered. "It was keeping... me alive..."
Silence reigned king of the ship for a solid few minutes. Eventually, Tony broke the silence. "Please..." It was a word the billionaire wasn't used to saying. "... I have people to get back to. So... please... please try. Just one more time."
Rose didn't respond for a few moments, and Tony was almost worried she had gone unconscious again. Finally, she weakly groaned, "Bet you're wishing you had taken that offer, huh?" She slowly placed an open palm on the floor of the ship, and... With a snap, she Apparated to the other side of the cabin. And then back. Again, and again, and again, until she eventually didn't catch herself and slammed into the cabin wall, making both onlookers wince. Tony rushed over to the girl and scooped her up as gently as he could. He was losing lots of his muscle, as well.
"Check..." He grunted, "the main console." He instructed his alien companion. He moved to the makeshift bed that had been made, carefully depositing the witch before rushing over to Nebula.
"29.43%..." She told him. "This ship is much larger than your suit. Probably more advanced, as well. But it should be more than enough to get us to Earth."
Tony raised an eyebrow, finally reinvigorated by the idea of potentially getting home for the first time in weeks. "More advanced? This hunk of metal?" He rapped on the wall and immediately regretted it due to the ensuing pain, but managed to put on half a snarky grin. "Never."
Tony was almost stumbling off the craft as it touched down in front of the Avengers Institute the next day. Night had set already, yet that didn't stop half a dozen people to come out to meet him. Steve gripped... Steve? Tony blinked a few times. So... Captain Stars 'n Stripes was back, huh? He briefly remembered something about a phone call that had seemed like ages ago, now.
Steve gripped his arm and led him down to stable ground, the first time he had touched earth in over three weeks. Nebula was right behind him. Her cybernetic components meant that she hadn't lost as much strength as he had, but her legs were still slightly shaky. "Couldn't stop him," Tony huffed out to the blond man who was currently holding him up. Christ, he was out of shape.
"Neither could I," Rogers replied.
Tony stopped walking for a moment, breathing in deeply. "I know. I lost..." he teared up slightly. "Almost everyone. I lost the kid." He referred to Peter, the Spider-Man. Steve hugged him. It was weird. For a second, instead of the extreme dissonance that had compiled around them, they felt the exact same. Then it was gone.
"Tony... we lost."
"Is... Is uh, Pepp-" For a second, Tony looked every single bit like a frail, old man. Not a playboy. Not a billionaire. Nor a philanthropist, or a genius, or Iron Man. A frail, worried man. Luckily, he was cut off by a redhead hugging him. "Oh, good."
"Oh, my God." Pepper squeezed her fiancé tightly. Minutes ago, she hadn't been even sure he was alive. "Oh, my God." She whispered again, breathing him in and crying. Tony kissed her and closed his eyes.
"It's okay..." He muttered. "It's okay." They starting walking off before he stopped. "Wait..." He turned around to look at the loading ramp. Soft footsteps could be heard. Rose, who had been asleep again for the past day, had woken up just in time. She was swaying as she walked down the ramp, finally stopping and observing the scene in front of her. She smiled softly.
"Good..." She whispered, although it was soft enough that only a few people could even read her lips. She smiled for the first time in weeks, letting herself fall on her back and look up at the night sky. The beautiful, beautiful night sky that she used to study from the Astrology tower, or stared at while sitting on top of the ruined Slytherin tower sharing gumdrops and Every-Flavored Beans with Luna and Ginny... Almost. This wasn't her universe, not her Earth... her head tilted towards the beautiful redhead and handsome raven-haired man beside her... not her parents.
There was so much she had failed to do... so much she had to do... but, for now... she breathed in deeply, and smiled.
"It's been 22 days since Thanos came to Earth." Rhodey started. Pictures of missing heroes showed up on holograms in front of them.
"World governments are in pieces. Both the American and Russian Presidents are gone, the United Kingdom's Prime Minister, as well as Canada's, not to mention countless bureaucrats. The parts that are still working are trying to take a census and it looks like he did..." Natasha sighed. "Exactly what he said he was going to do." Stark was hardly paying attention. In front of him was a hologram of Peter... He sighed and looked away. "Thanos wiped out 50% of all living creatures."
"Where?" Tony asked suddenly. "Where is he now?"
"We don't know. He just opened a portal and walked through," Steve replied, crossing his arms. Tony scoffed.
Rose finally spoke up. "How many of you were there?"
Heads turned. "I'm... sorry. I don't think we've been acquainted," Steve said. "Steve Rogers."
Green eyes bored into the man's head. For a second, he felt uncomfortable, and he couldn't really tell why. The girl didn't look too threatening. Hell, the instant he looked at her he felt like he needed to protect her and hide her away. He shook it off though. "Steve Rogers..." she rolled the name over her tongue. "I see." For some reason, the words held more weight than they should have. "Rose Potter." Suddenly eager to get the attention off of herself, she flicked her eyes over to an attached room. "What's the deal with Runway Hitchhiker over there?" Eyes turned towards Thor, who was sitting in isolation.
The raccoon spoke up. "He's pissed. He thinks he failed. Which, of course, he did, but so did the rest of us."
"Honestly, until this exact second, I thought you were-"
"Tony." The single word stopped him. Rose's eyes were glowing. He swallowed and remembered her displays of power during the fight with Thanos. But more than that, he remembered how fragile she had looked on that ship, and how she had gotten up despite that and had thrown herself into metal walls so that he could see Pepper again. More than he feared her, he respected her. So, for the moment, he shut up.
The room was silent for a few moments after, witnessing the interaction. Eventually, Steve spoke up again. "We've been trying to track Thanos for three weeks now. Everything we've done came up short, and then some. Tony, you fought him-"
"Who told you that?" He interjected. "I didn't fight him. No, he wiped my face with a planet, and then a moon, will a neuroscientist with an affinity for card tricks played 52 pick-up and lost. She," he pointed a finger at Rose, "She fought him. And we still lost."
Rose blushed slightly and tried to hide her face. Steve sighed. "Did he give you any clues? Any coordinates? Anything?" Stark stared at him for a second, awestruck almost.
"This isn't a movie, Rogers. We don't get the villain monologuing, revealing their master plan and the future to us. Of course he didn't tell us anything." Tony shifted in his chair. "I saw this coming a few years back, you know. When Wanda messed with our brains. I didn't want to believe it. A suit of armor around the Earth... that's what we needed."
"Tony, I'm going to need you to focus."
"And I needed you. As in past tense. It's too late for anything, now, Steve. We lost. It's over. And now what? You know what I need? A shave, a bottle of whiskey, and a hamburger." He stood up, tearing the IV out of his arm.
"Tony, Tony," Steve tried to calm him down.
The man whirled around. "No. I told you what was going to happen. I told you we were going to lose. And you said, "We'll do that together, too". Well, where were you when we lost, Steve? Because it wasn't with us. We can't change what happened. We. Lost."
"That's... not quite true." Rose muttered. "We lost, but that doesn't mean we can't change what happened. If we can use the stones again... we could reverse everything that happened." Nebula nodded in agreement.
Tony laughed slightly, although it quickly turned into a cough. "Oh, that's cute," he muttered. He walked up to Steve and then... pulled the Arc Reactor off of his chest. There was no hole behind it, the doctors had fixed him up quite well. He didn't need it anymore, just like he had told Pepper. "You go find Thanos. You put this on, and then you go and hide. That's what you do best, after... all..." He started to sway, and then he collapsed on the ground. Multiple people rushed over, quickly moving him onto a bed and giving him a sedative so he could rest. He needed it, after all.
"So, where is he?" The million dollar question.
"I could probably go planet to planet," Captain Marvel, a young(?) blonde woman, spoke. "It would take a while, though, and there's still no guarantee-"
"How big is the universe, anyway?" Rhodey asked. "Like... how fast can you travel to-" The group shushed him. Rocket took the center stage... er... table.
"When Thanos snapped, Earth became the home site to the largest energy wave the universe has ever seen. Until, two days ago..." A hologram on the table showed various images. "... on this planet."
Rose stared at the raccoon. "I feel like you could've... mentioned that before we-"
"Well, sorry I'm not on your schedule!" The raccoon snapped at her sarcastically, and she was surprised enough that she actually stopped talking for a moment. "You're not the only one who lost someone, Power Puff."
Nebula interjected. "Thanos is there."
"You know this for sure?" Steve asked, hand on his shaved chin.
The blue android nodded. "He always talked about a place he would go to once he had finished his plans... A garden." Rose snorted.
"Psychopaths into botany," Rose noted dryly. "Charming."
"So... he used the stones again?" Natasha asked, although the question was practically meaningless. Thor came out of the room, Captain Marvel perked up, and Rose straightened her shoulders.
Bruce noticed the change. "No, no, no, no. We'd be going in shorthanded. He beat us all easily and that was before half of us-" He cut himself off, and the room got slightly quiet.
Rhodey tried to pick it up. "Bruce is right. He's still got the stones-"
"So, let's get them. Like Teenage Witch over there said. Bring everyone back." Captain Marvel spoke up, her hands on her hips.
"Just like that? What's your-"
"Yeah. Just like that," Captain America agreed.
"E-even if there's a small chance that we can undo this-" Black Widow started.
Rose finished for her. "We have to try."
Bruce continued to try and be the voice of reason. "If we do this, how do we know it's gonna end any differently that it did before?"
"Because before you didn't have me," "I've learned from my mistake... the head is my target now," "I can fight at full strength if I'm not trying to hold back for others' sake," came multiple responses. Surprisingly, it was Cap who slammed his foot down.
"Because... we were separated before. But, now... now we're together." He looked around the room. "Avengers... Assemble."
It's been eight months? WHAT THE HECK? I'm so sorry guys. I... gotta say, corona did not treat my mental state well. I haven't felt like myself in ages, and definitely haven't been in the mood to get out of bed, never mind write thousands of words. That being said, I'm so, so sorry that you guys waited so long for this chapter with such little action. I'll try to start writing again more regularly, but... you know me. I've never been able to keep a schedule. Here's to hoping, though.