The failure to retrieve the stones from Thanos is a major blow to morale.

He hadn't realised it until now, but he had subconsciously been relying on the idea that they would be able to fix all of this. He had internally been living with the idea that he really didn't have to deal with everything that had happened— he didn't have to deal with all the death, and loss, and pain, because they could make it go away.

But… they can't.

He can see it effecting the others, he can feel it seeping into the very air of the compound. All of them, in one way or another had been holding out for this last mission… and now they have nothing to hold on to anymore.

The magnitude of that despair is almost paralyzing, and he finds himself tongue-tide and numb the next morning as he makes his way into the common area for breakfast. Pepper comes in with him, and Natasha, Clint, and Rhodey are already there, the group quiet and somber as they sit dejectedly over their food.

Tony flicks his eyes over them as he comes in, and Rhodey gives him a half-hearted wave of acknowledgement as he heads over to the coffee machine. At the counter, Natasha's eyes track him over her own cup, but Clint doesn't even twitch as he comes in, the man staring blankly at the edge of his cereal bowl.

Tony swallows uneasily at the empty expression on his face, and he watches Natasha turn and nudge him gently, the man blinking once at her, before shifting and starting to mechanically lift his spoon to his mouth, his eyes remaining unfocused as he eats.

Tony cannot imagine what it must be like for Clint to have come to the compound to find his whole family dead, but… he imagines it is a good thing that Natasha is here with him right now.

The room remains quiet and somber as he heads to the coffee machine, and the sound of the machine as it starts up feels louder than usual as he glances at the near-empty tin of coffee. "We'll have to order more," he mutters without thinking, his mind mostly focused on his waiting cup.

"If we can get more," Rhodey comments, and he pauses, his mind short-circuiting for a moment as he is confronted by the huge secondary problem with what Thanos had done.

Yes, he had killed half the people, and by doing that…

"Can you even buy things?" he muses dazedly, his mind spinning as he thinks over stocks and world economies and labour shortages. He would not be surprised to learn if the entire global economy has ground to a halt because of this. World governments are probably a mess right now, looting is probably rampant.

He cannot even fathom the depth of this tragedy yet. Whole communities have probably been decimated. How many orphaned children are there now? How many old folks left without caregivers? How many chains in the system have been shattered because of this? How are they ever supposed to fix any of this?

He blinks out of his spiral as Pepper nudges him gently, and as he looks up at her he notes that Steve has now arrived in the dining room, the man sporting his own pair of bags under his eyes as he scans the room and its occupants. "I think… we're going to need to have a meeting soon," he says quietly.

They all assemble in the meeting room and begin to outline their current situation.

"Most of the world governments are in disarray," Steve says from his position at the front of the table, his back straight and stiff as he talks. Tony flicks his eyes from him to the group, and they all sit and listen in various states of dejection, their eyes dull and tired. It is clear from the onset that the disaster is too big for them to deal with, and even thinking about doing it in the midst of their grief is difficult.

"There is still some functioning infrastructure," Steve continues, his face still mostly blank as he lists off his report. "From the rudimentary censuses people have been doing, it seems Thanos did what he set out to do… wipe out half of all living life on Earth."

He clears his throat and taps the console on the table, a holo-screen popping up to display several graphs and statistics. "Our main problem now," he says, darting his eyes up to them for a moment. "Is sustaining the remaining population. Supply-chains have broken down and people are running out of supplies."

His mouth twitches downwards, and he brings up another set of statistics. "On top of that," he continues. "Besides killing half of our population, preliminary evidence seems to show that Thanos wiped out half of all living life on Earth, so plants and animal life as well."

Tony blinks and chokes, sitting up abruptly in his chair in surprise. "What?" he sputters, his eyes meeting Steve's in a bewildered look. "Why?" he demands, his hand pressing down angerly on the table. "How can that possibly be helpful to us? Isn't his whole thing 'making more resources available' or something?"

A month on a ship with Nebula had been long enough for him to become intimately aware with all of Thanos' 'logic' behind his goal to eliminate half of all life in the universe — and while the idea is neurotic enough as it is — he cannot begin to understand why Thanos would then wipe out half of those resources on top of everything else.

"We think that is exclusive to Earth," Carol speaks up, drawing his gaze to where she sits across from him. Her fingers tap on the table and her mouth presses into a thin line as she flicks her eyes around the room, her shoulders stiff. "When Fury called me, I was off planet to see the destruction on other worlds," she shifts to meet his gaze. "They didn't seem to lose their plant or animal life."

His brow furls at that and he sits back in his chair. "Why us?" he asks, a note of bitterness colouring his voice as his expression drops deeper into a scowl. Not only did Thanos have to kill half their population, but he decided to screw them over extra well, just to top everything off.

"A punishment."

His head darts up as Nebula speaks up, her voice rough and her eyes downcast, her fist clenched tight on the table. Her eyes flick up and her mouth twists unhappily. "Earth is the site of his most visible defeat," she continues, her eyes glancing over them each as she speaks. "Loki betrayed him—" Thor twitches at the mention of his brother. "—and not only did he lose the Tesseract, which would have enabled him to go after the stones years ago, but he also lost the Mind Stone, which he had only just acquired."

Tony swallows dryly at that, a hollow feeling of shock and anger settling in his chest as he processes her words. Somehow, despite everything Thanos had done, this just makes it worse. Earth might very well starve, thanks to him, and he had done it to be vindictive.

His thoughts are distracted from that subject when he sees Nebula swallow almost nervously, her eyes coming to rest on Thor. "I believe that was why he was so… thorough, with the Asgardians as well," she says softly, her eyes dropping away from his. "He was not… pleased, when Loki failed."

Thor growls low in his throat at that, but the sound doesn't seem to be directed at Nebula, instead he glares heavy and hard at the table, his arms folded tightly in front of his chest. "All these years, I thought Loki power-hungry," he mutters under his breath. "I never questioned that he had attacked Earth only for himself."

Tony's lips press together as he watches Thor struggle. The man is not only busy dealing with the recent death of his father, but also the virtual destruction of all his people, and the sudden realisation that his brother Loki (who is also dead) may not have been the villain he had thought he was— and may have been actively trying to thwart the real villain all this time.

He can't really imagine what it would be like, trying to deal with all of that, and— as he watches Valkyrie keep a careful eye on Thor as he broods— he imagines it is a good thing they have at least one Asgardian still here with them.

Steve calls the meeting back to him after that, and they begin discussing various recovery efforts being put in place, as well as the major problems facing them. "We still have a while until winter," he says, his mouth pressing down unhappily as he flicks through various holo-screens. "But that is going to be a problem if we aren't able to get power to people. We're going to have a lot of secondary-deaths throughout all of this."

Secondary-deaths are a major issue thanks to the Dusting (as people seem to be calling it). Children without parents, patients without doctors, vehicles without drivers… the list of reasons goes on, but Thanos had killed more than just half of the population with his snap.

And power is one major problem they are going to have to deal with if they want to avoid even more secondary-deaths.

That is when Pepper steps in, and Tony blinks as he looks over to where she sits next to him. "Mining for oil and coal isn't very feasible right now," she says, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "So we are having difficulty keeping some areas electrified, as well as providing much needed internet and service connections to the population."

She glances briefly at him, and her mouth eases up slightly as she turns back to the group. "We do have some alternative methods in place though," she continues, "with hydro and nuclear plants. The problem is mostly labour right now, and…" she glances back at him and smiles. "We have the arc reactor system in place for the tower in New York."

He blinks at that, and suddenly remembers all the green initiatives he had been putting in place before all this. His arc reactor— of course! He listens in slight awe as Pepper goes on to explain how the Tower had been transformed into a temporary shelter, as well as a home base for many of the emergency organisations trying to deal with the situation.

"If we can get the manpower and resources to install more arc reactor systems," she concludes. "Then we might be able to get the world power grid back up and running."

That single goal shines like a bright ray of hope, and Tony lets out a breath, glad to have something positive — something he can actually do — to hold on to.

He can feel the spark settle into the group, their morale raising ever so slightly as they continue to discuss other issues, such as medical care and housing. They don't have a lot of solutions, and they don't even have a lot of hope that they will be able to fix things… but they do seem to at least be in agreement to try.

Carol makes it clear that she can't stay with them though. "I have some friends here that I need to check on," she says as she looks over the table. "But I already have responsibilities outside of Earth. I'm glad to stay in contact and provide help where I can, but other planets don't have you guys like Earth does."

There isn't really anything they can do to protest that, (and to be honest, Tony is perfectly aware that he has absolutely no idea what kinds of things she must have to deal with out in space. He is honestly still reeling from the fact that she exists at all, and that Fury had never told them about her before.)

He is glad to have her though, if only because his actual survival had hinged solely on her, and it is comforting to know that they can call her in, if they really need to.

Steve nods in acceptance at her, before he breathes in and turns back to them. Tony's stomach flips uneasily as he watches his face settle back into the solid blankness he had come to recognise from before. Whatever Steve has to say, it is going to be painful, and the man is avoiding it, even as the words come out of his mouth.

"Now that Tony is back…" he says quietly, his eyes flicking around the table. "We should probably think about doing a funeral."

His face softens a little once the statement is out in the air, but Tony finds a pit opening up in his stomach for an entirely new reason now. He hadn't thought of that. He had been too busy trying to survive in space, and then trying to deal with coming back to Earth, to really think about what should be done for the people who had died.

His mind flashes back to his nanite ball of Peter's ashes, and he swallows heavily.

"We don't—" His eyes dart over as Bruce starts talking, the man looking awkward and sad as he looks down at the table. "We don't really… have anything to bury— not for most of them."

The mood goes heavy again, and Tony's lips press together. That is another facet to the horror of what Thanos had done to them. He had killed half of their population… but there is nothing left of them. Besides the little ball of Peter's ashes, he has nothing left of him.

Others have even less than that, and to lose so much and be left with nothing afterwards… Every culture on Earth has rituals over the burying of the dead. It is something that helps with the mourning process. Laying the dead to rest is important for those left behind— and Thanos had taken that away from all of them.

"I have—" he looks up at the rough voice, and he blinks as he hears Clint speak for the first time since he had gotten back, the man's eyes focused intently on his clenched fists on the table. "I have… ashes, for— for mine," he says, his voice strained and soft as he tries to work around his emotions. His eyes dart up and he swallows painfully. "They— they were in the bunker. So. So it— they were still—"

His voice cuts off and he looks away as Natasha reaches out for his hand, her eyes shining as she looks at him. "What if… we chose a spot by the river?" she asks quietly, looking over at the rest of them. "We can bury what we have, and we can make a plaque with all their names."

It is a relief to have something, anything they can do for their fallen friends, and the others agree to the plan. Soon Steve has JARVIS helping them find a good plot of land by the river, while the others start planning the painful list of names for the plaque.

Steve adds Bucky's sister to the growing list, and Tony looks over as Pepper shifts next to him, sadness colouring her voice as she looks down. "Can you— can you add my parents too?" she asks softly. "They didn't make it either."

His mouth drops open at that, and he finds himself reaching instinctively for her hand, her eyes darting to his as he clasps it tightly. "I didn't—" he swallows, his mind reeling as the extent of what Thanos had done keeps growing. "I didn't know," he says, even though the only reason he hadn't known is because Pepper hadn't told him before.

In front of him, Pepper offers him a soft, sad smile, and she shakes her hair away from her face, blinking back a few tears as she looks at him. "It's okay," she says quietly, her eyes flicking away as she squeezes his hand. "They— they were old anyways."

It isn't really okay, and he doesn't let go of her hand for the rest of the meeting.

oOo

It is sunny and quiet the day they set out to officially dedicate the memorial for their friends. The site isn't too far away from the compound, the nearby river setting a calm backdrop as they stand amid the greenery, looking towards the new metal pillar that he had had JARVIS make for them.

It is a simple monument, smooth and somber, with a list of everyone who had died etched in neat rows along the front. It sits before a small grave, and Tony knows that Steve and Thor had spent the previous day digging it out and setting in the metal casket, the box sitting open for them now as they approach.

He has the ball of Peter's ashes in a small wooden box now, and he clutches it to his chest as he watches Clint approach the small grave, Natasha helping him as he kneels down. The two of them hold four similar looking boxes.

The wind that rushes through the greenery around them does little to muffle Clint's sobs. Tears slip down his face as he carefully sets the boxes inside the tomb, one each for Laura, Cooper, Lila and Nathanial.

Tony's stomach twists as he watches him, and Natasha doesn't waste any time in pulling him towards her, her hair swinging down to hide her face as he cries into her shoulder. As he watches, Tony is pretty sure Natasha sheds tears of her own as they sit there, and it takes a moment before they are able to stand up again, Clint breathing deeply and shuttering as they shuffle off to the side and Thor comes forward.

He moves slowly, his expression haggard as he takes his place next to the tomb. He doesn't have ashes like Clint, in fact, he hardly has anything of the people he has lost, but in his hands, he clutches one of his armguards, the armor etched with silver horns, a memento to his deceased brother.

Tony watches silently as he places it in the grave, the metal clinking dully against the casing, the sound loud in the silence. Thor sits frozen after that, his eyes fixed mutely on the engraving of Loki's name on the tombstone, the word only one in a long list of people the man had lost. After a few moments, Valkyrie comes forward and lays her hand on his shoulder, the touch seeming to help bring him back, his head turning to her briefly before he stands up and steps back again.

Rocket and Nebula come forward next, the two of them holding a small collection of mementos to their fallen friends. Most significantly, Rocket has a small pot with him, a stick from Groot's room planted within, the branch dry and dead. Tony watches him set it inside, his small hands brushing over the little stick with a look of absolute sadness in his eyes.

Nebula sets one of Gamora's daggers in the grave and turns away quickly, her head bowed, and her hands clenched by her side as she stalks away. Rocket takes a moment longer before he too steps back, the two of them continuing to stand together in the rough semi-circle around the grave.

The wind whistles through the grass and Bruce comes forward, his eyes somber and downcast as he slowly kneels to set a small, miniaturized van into the box. The thing had been a gag gift from Scott years ago, and it looks painfully small in Bruce's hands as he puts it down and stands up. He doesn't say anything as he moves away, and then suddenly, it is his turn.

He finds himself stepping forward on numb legs, only vaguely aware of Pepper walking beside him as well. His eyes feel wide and empty, and when he swallows his mouth dry is dry, his heart pounding in his chest as he clutches Peter's box tighter in his arms.

The rushing of the nearby river seems to fill his ears as he steps closer to the grave and watches as Pepper kneels down next to it. She doesn't have any of her parents' ashes, but instead she sets a picture of the two of them inside the box, their faces smiling up at them as he moves to kneel down beside her. His breath catches slightly in his chest as he settles his box gently nearby. His fingers brush over the wooden lid, and his eyes grow wet, his throat closing up as he stares down at the little box.

This… this… he never wanted to have to do this. Never, ever, did he want to be here, burying Peter.

He blinks back his tears as Pepper reaches up to clasp his shoulder, and he looks over to see her with her own tears in her eyes, her hand coming up to wipe them away as she breathes in shakily. His heart squeezes, and he reaches forward to grab her hand, wiping his own face as he helps her to her feet and steps back, Rhodey coming up to stand in quiet solidarity by his shoulder.

Tony nods at him and sucks in his own shaky breath, leaning ever so slightly against him as his hand squeezes Pepper's and he watches Steve step forward. The man's face is grave and somber as he kneels down by the grave.

He doesn't have ashes for Bucky either. He hadn't said anything about it, but Tony had heard from Natasha that Bucky's ashes (along with everyone else who had died in Wakanda), had been scattered and lost in amid the dirt of the forest floor. It is why they don't have his ashes, and why they had never been able to find Sam after the attack.

Instead of ashes, Steve holds two framed pictures in his hands. The one is a picture of Sam, the man's face set in an expression of glee as he swoops through the sky on his Falcon wings. The other picture is one of Bucky and his sister Hannah, the two of them sitting smiling next to each other, blue and yellow scarves wrapped around their necks.

Steve remains silent as he sets them inside and sits back, looking down at the grave. As he watches him, Tony finds he can't read his expression, the man's face mostly blank and his eyes distant as he stands up and steps back. His movements are smooth and calculated, almost scripted, as he breathes in and looks around the group.

He says a few words after that, but Tony doesn't hear much of them. There isn't much to say anyways, not with all of them suffering through the same thing all at once. After Steve is done, Bruce and Thor move forward to settle the lid over the grave, and Tony feels mostly numb as he watches their mementos get closed away.

His eyes remain stubbornly dry as he watches Thor and Bruce begin to shovel dirt back over the box, and it doesn't take long before the small grave is covered. Thor steps back once they are finished, and they all watch as Bruce takes out a small packet of seeds from his pants pocket.

Seeds are precious now, but they are lucky enough to have some from Bruce's gardens, and they had all agreed that this is a worthy cause. They might not be able to buy commercial flowers easily anymore, but they can still plant some by their friends' grave.

"I'll come back and water these regularly," Bruce says quietly, almost to himself as he finishes planting the various seeds. "It shouldn't take long for them to grow."

He moves back after that, and they slowly start to disperse back to the compound. Inside, Tony knows there is a small spread of food waiting for them, so they can have a chance to sit and process the events of the day a little. It is limited, of course, given the scarcity of resources right now, but he thinks today is a day that calls for a bit of leniency.

He doesn't head back with the others right away though, because as he turns away with Pepper and Rhodey, he notices Steve still lingering by the grave. His hands are shoved in his pockets as he looks down at the tombstone.

His lips press together at the sight and he glances back at Pepper with a half-flash of a smile. "I'll catch up with you," he says quietly, as he slips his hands out from hers. Pepper flicks her eyes from him to Steve, and she nods silently, her mouth pressing up briefly at him before she moves to follow Rhodey back to the compound.

Tony catches sight of Natasha following him with her eyes as she guides Clint back, taking in everything at a glance. Her gaze darts to Steve in a single jump, and he nods briefly at her, accepting the unspoken signal as he shoves his own hands in his pockets and turns to walk back to over Steve.

Steve doesn't move as he approaches, but he knows he hears him come up to stand next to him. It is hard to sneak up on someone with enhanced senses.

To be honest, he isn't really sure what to say.

Things like 'I'm sorry,' or, 'It'll be okay,' don't really seem to fit the situation, and besides, he doesn't really think that will really help Steve. And he wants to help Steve. He can see him hurting, even if the man seems determined to do it quietly, and it feels weird to see him like this, so silent and closed off.

He can still remember, back when Steve had first learned that Hydra had Bucky, and that they had been torturing him for seventy years. He had had a complete and total breakdown in his lab. Back then he had been at a loss for what to do too, mostly relying on things that Pepper, or JARVIS would do for him.

He doesn't know what he would have done though, if Steve hadn't had a breakdown in his lab, if the man had managed to hide it for long enough to go fall apart in private.

The Steve from years ago had been devastated, and he knows this Steve is the same… but he doesn't know how to help him.

If Steve would talk about it, then maybe—

He blinks as Steve shifts next to him, his eyes never leaving the tombstone in front of them. "You know," he says softly, the sound of his voice suddenly giving Tony hope that maybe now the man is willing to open up a bit. Maybe now they can lance the wound a little and let it drain and begin to heal.

Beside him, Steve swallows and starts again. "You know, this is his second empty grave."

Tony's blood runs cold at that, because he hadn't actually thought of that before now. But before he can say anything to try to make something out of the inch that Steve has given him, the man shifts again and closes the door on him, his eyes tired and sad, but still far too empty as he turns to look up at him.

"We should get back," he says quietly, closing off the conversation as his gaze slides away and he turns to start walking back towards the compound.

Tony watches helplessly, his mouth dry and tongue-tied as he stands there. Words rise up in his throat— so many things he wants to say, so much grief he wants to share— but all he can manage is a strangled "Yeah," sadness twisting around in his stomach as he casts one last glance towards the gleaming metal of the tombstone.

His eyes catch on Bucky's name, and he looks away again.

oOo

After that, they do their best to try to cope with the mess that Earth is. It is too much, really, but they do their best, all of them gradually shifting to focus on specific issues that best suit them. Carol leaves like she said she would, but remains in contact, giving them regular updates of the situation beyond their solar system. (She doesn't say much, but she had gone to check on her friends while they had been doing their funeral, and Tony gets the impression the news hadn't been good.)

Steve and Natasha deal most with of the politics of things, negotiating with the remnants of governments and receiving reports from all over the world as humanity struggles to come back from Thanos' attack.

Bruce coordinates with them for medical care, heading out from the compound at all hours as he works with the limited organisations around them to help keep more secondary-deaths from occurring. "Never thought my days on the run would be useful like this," he comments as he works with limited supplies and overwhelming need.

Thor is a little harder to mobilise than the others, the man threatening to sink into a depression as he reels from the loss of his family and his people. Valkyrie seems to help though, and more often than not she is able to get him out and use his strength to help with clean up or the delivering of much needed supplies.

Rhodey, Nebula, and Rocket stick to the more manual side of recovery as well, the troop heading out daily on cleanup brigades, the world now having to deal with a surplus of abandoned things and damage from looting. Rocket's ship is a significant asset, and more than once he and a few of the others had blasted off to help Carol with something in her side of space.

Clint doesn't go with them very often, but he doesn't sit at home doing nothing either. Instead he settles in and focuses all his attention on a project of his own. Tony probably shouldn't be surprised that the man copes with the loss of his family by focusing all his efforts on helping people cope with the same thing.

After the Dusting, there are thousands of children in New York alone that are suddenly without guardians, and Clint dives headfirst into helping the organisations busy trying to provide care and reunite estranged family members in the wake of the attack. Tony doubts things will return to normal any time soon, but there are rudimentary systems being put in place, shelters popping up and small clusters of people trying to pick up the broken pieces of the world around them.

Of course, there are still plenty of other people busy throwing compassion to the wind and either running wild or trying to exploit the situation for their benefit. Infamous "preppers" are a problem too, and there has been several cases where either Thor or Nebula have to stand as security at one of the aid stations, ready to fend off anyone willing to use this disaster as an excuse to hurt others.

It is a frustrating situation, but one that will only get better as they rebuild what they can, so Tony focuses down on what he can do to try to remedy the situation.

That mostly consists of using his arc reactor to try to reignite the electric and communication networks across the globe. Pepper helps him, deftly organising the remnants of Stark Industries as they work on drawing up contracts with nations and finding resources to build what they need.

It is a slow process, but it is at least something.

Because of his work with the arc reactor, he spends most of his time in his labs (he is certain Judith would probably disapprove at the behaviour, but to be fair, he doubts most of the rest of the world is doing much better at the moment.)

He comes across his notes on time-travel almost instantly. The file stares at him amid his plans for arc reactor powered cars and his blueprints for his nano-suit.

He stares at it, unable to know what to feel. He had started the file years ago now, back when he had first seen the time-travelers that had come and tipped him and Steve off about Hydra's presence in SHIELD. There isn't much in the file, just a few videos of them, and then a few scrawled speculations of what kind of time machine they had used.

He had almost forgotten about this. The others hadn't mentioned it either. He isn't surprised, he and Steve had the most concrete experience with this, and he doubts the others, or Steve, had really made the connection between the time-travelers and what is happening now.

He had always intended to come back to this file. His other-self had obviously built a time machine, and he had always assumed he would build one too, eventually. Of course, he hadn't really speculated on why he would build a time machine, he had been busy with other things and— and he had thought he still had time.

Their time-traveling selves had been older than them, and he had thought they still had time before they caught up to whatever reason they had needed to come invade their timeline and go after the Infinity Stones.

But he had been wrong. Thanos had come four years earlier than he should have, and he can't help wondering if his other-self had built the time-machine years ago, so that the other timeline could fight the Titan properly.

Should he have built the time machine before now? He had known about it all along. If he had built it before Thanos had come, then maybe they could have gone and gotten the Infinity Stones for themselves. Maybe they could have fought Thanos that way.

But he hadn't done that, and instead they had been forced to scramble as they tried to fend the Titan off.

And now the stones are gone.

He stares at the time-travel file, and he can't decide what to do with it. Technically he could still try to build a time machine. They could go back in time too…

But he worries it is too late. If their other selves had been gathering the stones to fight Thanos… then they are too late. And, he knows the time-travelers must have come from before Thanos had used the stones, because they had Scott with them.

Scott had been one of the time-travelers… and he is dead now.

That is what really holds him back from trying to build the thing. Not only would it be a selfish waste of time and resources in a last ditch-effort, but… he doesn't even know what it will do. They don't have Scott, and since the other timeline had gotten the stones before all this, he doesn't know if gathering the stones after the Dusting will even be helpful.

Is it even possible to reverse what Thanos had done? Even if they had the stones, he isn't sure…

And he knows the other timeline hadn't tried to undo anything, because they had been trying to stop Thanos before he had snapped. They had had Scott, so they had time-traveled before this whole disaster had started.

They had had time, and resources, and an Earth that wasn't tittering on the brink of collapse. He… doesn't have any of that.

So, he sets aside the time-travel plans. For now at least.

He needs to focus on actual concrete things that will help people right now. Wasting all his time and resources on a last-minute time-travel plan that might not even work isn't fair to the real people who are suffering right now.

And also, they had just come back from failing to fix things with Thanos after the Dusting, he doesn't think he or the team can stand getting their hopes up again— only to fail, again. So for now he will hold off. He needs to work on more immediate problems before he starts throwing all his hopes and dreams onto the actions of another timeline.

That decided, he sweeps the offending file away and reaches for the arc reactor car one. If he can refit cars to run on that instead of gas, that will be actually helpful.

oOo

Working helps keep him from thinking too hard about the depth of tragedy his new reality is.

He keeps himself busy – they all do – working to help fix the planet. He doesn't stay shut away from the others completely though, he tries to come up from the lab regularly enough, if only for Pepper.

He is actually having lunch with her, a few weeks after his arrival back on Earth, when it happens. One moment he is commenting about how lucky they are to have Bruce's gardens, and the next he is staring in surprise as Clint rushes into the room, the man looking more excited and engaged with the world than he had since Tony had arrived back on Earth.

His eyes land on them and he makes a beeline for the counter, his eyes wide as he breathes rapidly, thanks to his run. "I got—" he sucks in a breath, his hand coming up to wave at them, revealing a phone clutched tight in his grip. "I got a call from one of the orphan organisations," he gets out finally, coming to lean against the counter as he catches his breath.

Tony flicks his eyes over him, trying to figure out why this is so significant. He knows some of the phonelines are up and running again, and he knows that Clint has been working with some of the children organisations, so he isn't really sure why this call in particular is so important.

Thankfully, Clint continues. "It's Cassie," he says finally, his eyes bright as he stands up straight. "Scott's daughter. She— she's still alive. Someone found her."

AN: So, we start dealing with the aftermath. I really wanted to do a funeral, because I feel like that is something they needed to help them deal with everything that had happened. It is rough for them right now, but they are doing their best to try to pick up the pieces. Oddly enough, living in 2020 gave some interesting perspective for writing this.

Unfortunately, the destruction makes it hard for Tony to justify working on time-travel right now, especially since he is pretty sure it won't work, since Scott is dead to him.

But, they found Cassie.

Also:

Marvel, trying to be all dramatic: And then, people call it, The Decimation!

Me, who knows how the internet works and that people wouldn't come up with a fancy name in the middle of a disaster and would probably be very literal when describing this universal experience: They call it the Dusting. Because people turned to dust all over the place.