It had been three weeks.
Three weeks since Thanos wiped out half of the universe. Three weeks since we had failed.
The only glimpse of hope we had was the arrival of Carol Danvers, with her amazing cosmic powers. She had gone into space now, in search of Tony and the rest of his team. Hopefully at least some of them were still alive.
I stared at the numbers, rapidly climbing. The death count.
Your fault, your fault, your fault.
I chased those thoughts from my head, knowing that they wouldn't help right now.
"Coffee?" Said a voice from behind me. I turned and saw that it was Natasha.
"Thanks." I said, gladly accepting the warm drink.
"You haven't slept in days, Pipes." Natasha said. "You should rest."
"I can rest after we figure this out." I replied, drinking the warm coffee. She was right, though. In these three weeks, I had barely slept or ate at all.
We stood in silence for a few minutes, watching the numbers rise.
The room began to shake. I steadied myself against a table, wondering what it could be.
Had Carol found survivors?
I rushed outside, along with Nat, Steve, Bruce, and Rhodey. Pepper, Tony's fiancée, was already there. I felt so bad for her, not knowing if the man she loved was alive or dead.
The spaceship came into view, with Carol holding it up. She landed it on the grass, and the glow of her powers faded.
The entry hatch opened, revealing Tony and Nebula, one of the Guardians of the Galaxy.
Steve and Pepper ran over to them. Steve and Tony exchanged a few words, and then Pepper embraced him, tearful.
Rocket sat down next to Nebula. I realized that they were the only Guardians left. They held hands, mourning the loss of their family.
We brought Tony back inside, and he was given blood so he could heal. There was a hologram, flashing the faces of the people who died. We were explaining the whole situation to Tony.
"It's been 23 days since Thanos came to Earth." Rhodey said.
"World governments are in pieces." Natasha added. "The parts that are still working are trying to take a census. And it looks like he did… he did exactly what he said he was gonna do. Thanos wiped out fifty percent of all living creatures."
I winced as Wanda's face appeared on one of the screens. My little sister, who I swore to protect. I failed her, I failed the entire universe.
Your fault, your fault, your fault.
"Where is he now?" Tony asked. "Where?"
"We don't know." Steve answered. "He just opened a portal and walked through." Tony glanced at Thor, who was sitting on a bench, behind glass.
"What's wrong with him?" Tony asked.
"Oh, he's pissed." Rocket said. "He thinks he failed. Which of course he did, but you know there's a lot of that going around, ain't there."
"Honestly, until this exact second, I thought you were a Build-A-Bear." Tony said. Well, at least his sense of humor survived.
"Maybe I am." Rocket sighed.
"We've been hunting Thanos for weeks now." Steve said. "Deep space scans, satellites, and we got nothing. Tony, you fought him."
"Who told you that?" Tony asked, surprised. "I didn't fight him. No, he wiped my face with a planet while the Bleecker Street Magician gave away the Stone. That's what happened. There was no fight."
"Okay." Steve said.
"He's unbeatable." Tony continued.
"Did he give you any clues, any coordinates, anything?" Steve asked, starting to sound desperate.
"Pfft!" Tony said, making a 'no' motion with his hand. "I saw this coming a few years back. I had a vision. I didn't wanna believe it. Thought I was dreaming."
"Tony, I'm gonna need you to focus." Steve said.
"And I needed you." Tony seethed. "As in past tense. That trumps what you need. It's too late buddy. Sorry. You know what I need?" He abruptly stood up, pushing things off the table. "I need to shave. And I remember telling you… alive and otherwise, what we needed was a suit of armor around the world! Remember that? Whether it impacted our precious freedoms or not, that's what we needed!"
"Well that didn't work out, did it?" Steve said.
"I said 'we'd lose.'" Tony said "You said 'we'll do that together too.' And guess what, Cap? We lost. And 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."
"You made your point." Rhodey said, slightly exasperated. "Just sit down."
"Okay…" Tony said.
"Okay?" Rhodey said skeptically.
"No." Tony replied. "Here's my point. You know what?"
"Tony, you're sick." Rhodey reasoned.
"She's great, by the way." Tony said, referring to Carol. We need you. You're new blood. Bunch of tired old mules! I got nothing for you, Cap! No coordinates, not clues, no strategies, no options. Zero. Zip. Nada. No trust. Liar."
I thought he might be losing his mind.
He ripped his Arc Reactor from his chest and shoved it into Steve's hand.
"Here, take this." Tony said. You find him, and you put that on. You hide." He collapsed to the floor.
"Tony!" Steve said.
"I'm fine…" Tony trailed off. He slumped to the floor, unconscious.
…
We had put Tony in a bed, with Pepper at his side.
"Bruce gave him a sedative." Rhodey said, walking into the room. "He's probably gonna be out for the rest of the day."
"You guys take care of him." Carol said. "And I'll bring him a Xorrian Elixir when I come back." She walked away.
"Um, where exactly are you going?" I asked.
"To kill Thanos." She said without looking back. Natasha and I glanced at each other and then walked after her.
"Hey, you know, we usually works as a team here, and between you and I, morale's a little fragile." Nat said.
"We get that outer space is 'your territory' but this is our fight too." I added.
"Do you even know where he is?" Rhodey asked from behind us.
"I know people who might." Carol said.
"Don't bother." Nebula said. She had been standing in the corner, preferring to be alone. I can tell you where Thanos is." We made our way back to the main room, and she told us what she knew.
"Thanos spent a long time trying to perfect me." Nebula said. "And 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. And his answer was always the same. 'To the Garden.'"
"That's cute, Thanos has a retirement plan." I muttered. I guess my sense of humor had survived as well.
"So where is he?" Steve asked. Rocket stepped on the table, showing a hologram.
"When Thanos snapped his fingers, Earth became ground zero for a power surge of ridiculously cosmic proportions." Rocket said. "No one's ever seen anything like it. Until two days ago, on this planet." He pointed to a planet on the hologram.
"Thanos is there." Nebula said.
"He used the Stones again." Nat said, worried.
"Hey hey hey." Bruce said. "We'd be going in short-handed, you know."
"Look, he's still got the Stones so…" Rhodey trailed off.
"So let's get him." Carol said. "And use them to bring everyone back."
"Just like that?" I asked.
"Yeah." Steve said. "Just like that."
"Even if there's a small chance that we can undo this… I mean we owe it to everyone who's not in this room to try." Natasha said. She was right. For Wanda, Sam, countless others.
"If we do this, how do we know it's gonna end any differently than it did before?" Bruce asked. Ending in failure, he meant.
"Because before, you didn't have me." Carol said. Wow, she had more faith in herself than the rest of us combined had in ourselves.
"Hey, new girl, everyone in here is about that superhero life." Rhodey said. "And if you don't mind me asking, where the hall have you been all this time?"
"There are a lot of other planets in the universe." Carol explained. "And unfortunately, they didn't have you guys."
Thor, who had been eating Hawaiian rolls, stood up and faced Carol. Without a word, he held out his had and his axe, Stormbreaker, flew to his hand, missing her by inches. Carol didn't flinch, not even a little but.
"I like this one." Thor said.
"Let's go get this son of a bitch." Steve said.
…
We were all in the Guardians's spaceship, the Benatar, prepared to go to "The Garden."
"Okay, who hear hasn't been to space?" Rocket asked. I raised my hand along with Steve, Natasha, and Rhodey.
"You better not throw up on my ship." Rocket grumbled.
"Approaching jump in 3... 2… 1!" Nebula said. The ship jumped into a wormhole, going faster than I ever imagined. This was exhilarating, this was amazing.
The ship slowed to a stop in front of the planet. Carol flew out into space.
"I'll head down for recon." She said. The rest of us unstrapped ourselves from our seats and prepared for what was coming.
A few minutes later, Carol returned, with a slightly confused expression on her face.
"No satellites, no ships, no armies, no ground defense of any kind." She said. "It's just him."
"And that's enough." Nebula replied.
We made our descent, far enough away from Thanos that he would't be able to spot us.
Carol flew ahead, ready to overpower Thanos. Bruce, with his Hulkbuster armor, followed. Thor flew in and sliced off Thanos's hand, the one with the glove. Rhodey and Rocket went next.
Finally, Steve walked into Thanos's hut, flanked by Natasha and me. I stared at him murderously. I wanted to kill him right then and there. He looked weak and wounded. Good.
Rocket rolled the Gauntlet over and, to my horror, the Stones weren't there.
"Oh no." Rocket whispered.
"Where are they?" Steve asked.
"Answer the question!" Carol said.
"The universe required correction." Thanos said. "After that, the Stones served no purpose, beyond temptation."
"You murdered trillions!" Bruce shouted. He shoved Thanos against the ground, furious.
"You should be grateful." Thanos said. His words made me want to puke.
"Where are the Stones?" I asked, my voice shaking. This had to work, we had to bring everyone back.
"Gone." Thanos said. "Reduced to atoms." No, that couldn't be possible. They had to be here.
"You used them two days ago!" Bruce argued.
"I used the Stones to destroy the Stones." Thanos explained. "It nearly killed me. But the work is done. It always will be. I am… inevitable."
"We have to tear this place apart he- he has to be lying." Rhodey said.
"My father is many things." Nebula said. "A liar is not one of them."
"Ah, thank you, daughter." Thanos said. Nebula flinched. "Perhaps I treated you too harshly."
Suddenly, with a swing of Stormbreaker, Thor chopped Thanos's head clean off. Blood splattered on Nebula's face, and she wiped it off.
"What… what did you do?" Rocket asked.
"I went for the head." Thor replied, recalling the words Thanos had said to him three weeks ago, when we all failed.
Thor walked out of the hut, getting blurrier and blurrier as he left. I realized the blur was my tears, tears for the ones we had lost and were never getting back.