The last time they had faced Thanos, they had been on the wide plains of Wakanda. The last time they had faced Thanos, he'd come to them and they had been unprepared to meet him, despite their best efforts. The last time they had faced Thanos, he had been spearheading an entire army and their team was double it's current size.

This time, they were on a foreign planet and their target area was a small wooden hut. This time, they had already lost many - and he had no army. This time, they came to him; and he was the one unprepared.

Thanos realized something was wrong a second before Carol rammed into him at full speed, and he was unable to do anything as the glowing woman wrapped herself around his neck and hauled him back in a chokehold. Bruce burst out of the ground moments later and he used the Hulkbuster to grab the gauntlet, tugging on it determinedly and trying to pull it off Thanos. At the same time, Rhodey flew in through the hole in the roof Carol had created when she blew through and he grabbed Thanos's other arm, pulling harshly and forcing the Titan to spread out as they pulled his arms far apart from his body.

And then Thor lopped off the arm with the gauntlet as he joined the others inside the hut, smashing his way through the wooden walls.

Thanos roared in pain as his arm was chopped just below the elbow and the gauntlet landed with a heavy clang on the ground. But the Avengers didn't release their hold on him and if anything, Carol's arms tightened around the Titan defensively in case he tried anything else just as the remainder of the team strode grimly into the small hut.

Steve walked at the head of the group, flanked on either side by Natasha and Arianna while Nebula and Rocket walked on the edges of their V-shape. The racoon reached the gauntlet first while the humans fixed their attention mostly on the huge Titan who was still grunting in pain as he watched them all convene.

Arianna found it strangely satisfying to see the Titan hurting so much, but there was also something very wrong that her teeth set on edge. She sensed it the second she stepped into the hut. And seeing Thanos now: he was already badly injured, his entire left side apparently burnt up as he hadn't been during their last battle. Perhaps it had been an aftershock of their battle, something Thor had caused right or a result of the Snap, but it had all been too easy. And everything in her experience told her it was never good when it was this easy.

As if on cue, Rocket muttered, "Oh, no."

Instantly, all eyes flew to the gauntlet Rocket had turned over and they all stared down at the empty rings where the stones had once been. Arianna hissed while Steve slowly exchanged looks with Natasha. The former assassin took a measured step closer to Arianna at the same time that Steve moved his eyes to Thanos.

"Where are they?" Steve asked in a hard, measured voice that belied the turmoil and hatred he felt as he stared at the purple giant before him.

Thanos didn't respond immediately as he continued to just pant from the pain and the chokehold Carol still held him in. A chokehold she tightened threateningly.

"Answer the question." Carol demanded.

Thanos grunted but finally he explained between huffs of breath, "The universe required correction. After that, the stones served no purpose, beyond temptation."

Arianna bared her teeth while Bruce shouted, "You murdered trillions!"

He let go of Thanos's severed arm to shove the Titan harshly back. Carol let him go at the same time, and Thanos went crashing down. Apparently he was far more weakened than they had realized as he remained on the ground, barely able to lift himself on his good side while he stared up at them balefully.

"You should be grateful." Thanos spat.

He then cried out as a knife suddenly imbedded itself deep into his right thigh, and he crashed back down a little as a result of the pain. Steve couldn't bring himself to be reproachful of his wife's action although he caught Arianna's arm to stop her as she took a murderous step forward, her brown eyes blazing with hatred and dangerous fury. They needed Thanos alive… for now, at least.

Natasha meanwhile took a deep, shaky breath before she asked in a low voice, "Where are the stones?"

"Gone." Thanos answered with grim satisfaction. "Reduced to atoms."

"No." Arianna shook her head slowly. "No, you're lying-"

"You used them two days ago!" Bruce agreed but Thanos was, once again, one step ahead.

"I used the stones to destroy the stones."

It was like the Avengers all took a collective, sharp breath and stilled in their places. What Thanos was saying was impossible… and yet, the proof seemed to be staring them in the face.

"It nearly killed me. But the work is done. It always will be."

The Titan pushed himself up again to stare them each in the eye.

"I am inevitable."

Thanos cried out again as a knife imbedded itself in his left shoulder this time, plunging into the already sensitive tissue. He crashed back down while Arianna stood, shaking from head to toe as she barely refrained from lunging at the Titan or letting the tears that pricked her eyes fall.

"Ria, stop." Rhodey warned before he looked to his other teammates beseechingly. "We have to tear this place apart. He has to be lying."

But Nebula disagreed as she stated with a slight tremor in her voice, "My father is many things. A liar is not one of them."

At last, Thanos's eyes really fell on his youngest and the Titan breathed out softly.

"Ah… Thank you, Daughter."

Nebula dropped her gaze, but for once in her life it was not in submission - it was in pity and sorrow. Thanos gazed at his daughter with a softness he had never had for his youngest and he there was a distinct note of regret in his voice as he continued.

"Perhaps I treated you too harshly-"

Thanos didn't cry out this time when another knife imbedded itself in his other shoulder, this time shattering bone. It was another expert shot, as always, intended to cause the most pain without killing. But that turned out to be a moot strategy as, at the same time that Arianna had lost her temper yet again, Thor lost his as well.

With a roar, his Stormbreaker swiped through the air so fast it whistled - and Thanos's head bounced off the ground before it rolled away from the rest of his body as the mighty Titan collapsed in a heap with a loud crash.

"What?" Bruce gasped.

"What did you do?"

Rocket's whisper was drowned out by Arianna's furious shout as she stormed up to the Norse god.

"I would have had him screaming for mercy! What did you do?!"

Steve grimaced, briefly shaking off his own shock at Thor's impulsive actions in the face of Arianna's rage. He stepped forward, dreading just how bad this fight was going to be and preparing himself to step in again if need be.

But Arianna stopped dead in her tracks as soon as she was in front of Thor and she saw the god's face. Thor didn't even look at her, his eyes staying fixed on Thanos with a haunted expression that was far too familiar for Arianna to mistake the look in them. It was then that Arianna remembered that Thor too had lost pretty much everything since the last time he'd come to Earth, recalled Thor telling them of his reformed brother's death at Thanos's hand. Falling silent, Arianna backed off while Thor finally answered her earlier tirade in a voice so tight it cracked.

"I went for the head."

And with that and without meeting any of their eyes, Thor turned and walked away. Steve let the god go, and instead stared back down at Thanos's unmoving body. With the shock wearing off, the reality of their situation was really sinking in and it was like Steve's body was being filled with lead. Every limb and muscle felt heavy, and on top of that it was like a giant weight was further pressing down on him as Steve realized… there was nothing they could do. The stones were gone, Thanos was dead… and there was nothing more.

Steve's gaze automatically lifted toward his wife like a knee-jerk reaction as he instinctively sought some comfort or reassurance; what he got was far from it. Arianna was also staring down at Thanos's head. With the anger wiped away, only a shattered expression remained and her eyes as she stared at the beast that had stolen their world from them… It was like the final nail to the coffin and Steve felt himself sinking under the weight of the truth.

There was no going back.

They had failed.

Five years later

In a large community centre, a circle of people of varying ages sat in a small clearing they had made beside the rows of stacked chairs, listening to a bespectacled man of about forty to fifty as he spoke in a quiet, uncertain tone.

"So I, uh… Went on a date the other day. It's the first time in five years, you know? Sit there, dinner… I didn't know what to talk about."

The man hesitated in his story, his eyes automatically turning to Steve as if seeking some guidance.

Steve smiled kindly at the man before prompting softly, "What did you talk about?"

"Same old crap, you know?" The man sighed. "How things have changed, and… My job, his job... How much we miss the Mets."

An elderly woman smiled sadly as she listened to her fellow's words, clearly blinking back tears as the man paused briefly.

"Then things get quiet…"

Another woman, younger, closer to thirty, twitched a little bit and sympathy flooded her expression even as she dropped her eyes and continued to listen quietly while the man continued forcefully.

"Then he cried while they were serving the salads."

"What about you?" A bald man also wearing spectacles inquired carefully.

The first man hedged as he tried to remember the timing as he answered, "I cried just before dessert."

Steve watched the other man keenly, worriedly. But the man took a deep breath, composed himself and admitted a little nervously and a little hopefully, "But I'm seeing him again tomorrow, so…"

The man trailed off and Steve nodded encouragingly when the man turned back to him once again as he finished his story.

"That's great." Steve emphasized, speaking to the man first and then extending his attention to everyone in the circle. "You did the hardest part. You took the jump, you didn't know where you were gonna come down. And that's it. That's those little brave baby steps you gotta take."

Several people nodded, some meeting his eyes with a mixture of sorrow but also hope. Others, who weren't quite there yet lowered their eyes but they still listened as Steve continued.

"To try and become whole again."

Steve looked around at the faces around him. Some were new and others were back after relapsing; but they all wanted to try. They were all hoping to take those first steps toward recovery.

"To try and find purpose."

Steve paused before he shared his own personal experience too, knowing it was what helped people stay with the program, continue their path.

"I lost the first love of my life in '45 after I went in the ice and woke up 70 years later. And then just as I thought I had a life again, I lost it all again. My best friends, my son..."

Several faces lifted as Steve spoke, the other folks in the circle relating to the human pain echoing in the supersoldier's voice. The elderly woman brushed her tears away brusquely while the bespectacled man who had been brave enough to speak up this meeting sniffed audibly.

"But you gotta move on."

Steve paused as his throat threatened to clog up, his words instantly taking his mind to Arianna. He swallowed stiffly against the pain before repeating a little more brusquely.

"Gotta move on."

Steve looked each person in the eye as he reminded them all, "The world is in our hands. It's left to us, guys. And we gotta do something with it. Otherwise… Thanos should've killed all of us."

At the Avengers base, Natasha sat back in her chair in the living room that was now her meeting room as the meeting with her fellow active Avengers ended. Mostly. Rocket, Nebula and Carol, who were all off-world as they helped out other planets recovering from the Snap, signed off the comms alongside Okoye. The Wakandan General had stepped up as the main contact in Africa although she remained based out of her home country where she was doing what she could to help her people heal from their losses. It was no easy feat, considering they had lost most of their monarchy.

Rhodey, who had shouldered pretty much the rest of the world outside North America where Natasha and Steve remained based, remained on the comms however. He hadn't reported anything during the meeting, but now he seemed almost nervous. Natasha tilted her head questioningly.

"Where are you?" She questioned.

"Mexico." Rhodey explained. "The federales found a room full of bodies. Looks like a bunch of cartel guys. Never even had the chance to get their guns off."

"It was probably a rival gang…" Natasha muttered, but Rhodey shook his head.

"Except it isn't. It's definitely Barton."

Natasha tensed, not looking back at Rhodey from where she had leant back in her chair.

The colonel went on tentatively, "What he's done here, what he's been doing for the last few years, I mean, the scene that he left…"

Words seemed to fail Rhodey for a moment before he admitted honestly, "I gotta tell you, there's a part of me that doesn't even wanna find him."

Natasha said nothing for a long moment, her green eyes staring into nothing as she tried to work through the emotions whirling inside of her. She had never been the greatest at emotions, although she had come a very long way from who she had been. From the monster Cint had found and rescued many years ago. And now he was out there, alone...

"Will you find out where he's going next?" Natasha asked quietly, trying to act like it wasn't killing her as she bit into her peanut butter and jam sandwich. Like she wasn't blinking back tears.

Rhodey stared at her sympathetically, and with a hint of pity. "Nat…"

"Please." Natasha whispered, eyes shining with tears.

Rhodey exhaled but nodded; there was no way he could deny his teammate when she looked like that. Natasha was suffering enough as it was, not to mention how burdened she was under the heavy weight she had willingly shouldered as the new leader of the remaining Avengers.

"Okay." Rhodey paused before he continued. He always asked, but the new talk of Clint made him hesitant to bring it up. "How's Ria?"

"She's… the same." Natasha averted her gaze as she spoke.

Rhodey knew what that meant; with a sigh, he nodded his farewell to her before he signed off the comms. Natasha leant back in her chair, rubbing her forehead and fighting back tears as she thought about her 'siblings'.

The news of Clint's recent activities weren't surprising, exactly. The new Avengers, specifically Rhodey, had been tracking the movements of the person the underground world was calling 'Ronin' ever since the man had appeared five years ago - although 'movements' was probably not the right word. The gruesome aftermaths might have been a better term. Ronin knew how not to be found. No one had ever caught him in action, just seen the results of his attacks: criminal gangs who had survived the Snap completely decimated and left in bloody messes. There was nothing left at any of the sites aside from the bodies but Natasha had easily recognized Clint's handiwork. Swift, utilitarian, efficient and almost painfully accurate. But the pain that was clearly etched into each attack, the viciousness and destructive recklessness of the massacres… as if Natasha needed proof that her brother was in agony at the loss of his family.

And then, as if having her brother on the brink of insanity wasn't enough…

As if on cue, the sound of a door opening had Natasha glancing across the room and she watched as Arianna passed by the living room doorway on her way back inside the facility. Her 'sister' didn't see Natasha, too absorbed in her own head as she returned home and went straight to her own room. Like she always did.

Unlike Clint, who most of the world thought was missing, Arianna appeared to the world to be doing perfectly well. She had disappeared from the public eye for a year or so following the Snap but now, she went out daily to help charities that supported those impacted by the loss of their loved ones and she was on occasion seen with Rhodey when she helped resolve some local criminal activity in New York. The only public sign that Arianna was perhaps not as recovered as people thought was the fact that she was always notably missing during the annual Remember Fifty ceremony in Times Square.

Started four years ago, the ceremony was the only time of year when the iconic intersection was completely closed. All roads were blocked and all shops closed; only the enormous billboards remained lit with the faces and epitaphs of those who had been lost in the Snap. Every year, people gathered in the square where the President presented a speech for the country to remember the half of the world's population that had been decimated because of Thanos. Every year, the Avengers were invited to the ceremony to honour their role in the war; but only Rhodey and Natasha had gone every year without fail. Steve had gone twice, once for the first ceremony where Bruce joined him and once most recently for the five year anniversary. Tony had been present for the third year anniversary, and even Nebula and Rocket attended a total of three times each. But of the original Avengers, who had somehow all made it out of the Snap intact, three never showed up no matter how many years went by. Thor hadn't been seen or heard from since he and half his people moved to Norway. Clint, well… And as for Arianna, she mysteriously fell ill every year on that one day and that day alone.

None of the team commented on Arianna's absence each year. Because while the rest of the world remained largely oblivious to it, it was too painfully obvious to those who knew her that Arianna was not okay. She was nowhere near okay.

"You know I'd offer to cook you dinner but you seem pretty miserable already."

Natasha's lip quirked up in response to the familiar voice and she looked back toward the doorway of the meeting room. Arianna was nowhere in sight now, but while Natasha had been brooding alone it seemed the brunette's husband had returned to the base too. Steve returned the slight smile from where he leant against the doorway and Natasha eyed him critically.

"You here to do your laundry?" Natasha teased and Steve's smile widened just a fraction.

"And to see a friend."

Natasha scoffed. "Clearly, your friend is fine."

Pushing off the doorway, Steve entered the room.

"You know I saw a pod of whales when I was coming up the bridge." He revealed

"In the Hudson?" Natasha asked, a little bit impressed. Steve shrugged.

"There's fewer ships, cleaner water..."

"You know, if you're about to tell me to look on the bright side…" Natasha said slowly as she discreetly blinked back her earlier tears. "Um… I'm about to hit you in the head with a peanut butter sandwich."

Steve smiled a little wryly… and a little sadly.

"Sorry. Force of habit." He tossed down his jacket and car keys before taking a seat across from Natasha heavily.

Natasha examined the blond man across from her - physically, he looked almost exactly the same as he had when they had first met over ten years ago. The supersoldier serum slowed his aging, keeping him from showing any wrinkles even if it was just a few crows feet in the corners of his eyes. But even so, Natasha could almost see the years on him in the way Steve held himself, the way his shoulders always looked like they were carrying a heavy burden, the expression in his eyes that said he had seen far too much.

Her heart went out to her friend as Steve began slowly, "You know, I keep telling everybody they should move on and... grow. Some do."

A tiny smile lifted the corners of his lips automatically as he thought about the people from his program who had managed to move on with their new lives and found new purpose, new meaning. He was genuinely proud of those folks, especially those who went on to become mentors for those still struggling through the program.

His smile dropped quickly though and Steve sighed.

"But not us. Whether for better… or for worse.

Steve went quiet and Natasha allowed him to fall into his thoughts, knowing they weren't too far off from what she had been thinking before Steve had announced his arrival.

It was no secret in the base that Arianna woke screaming almost every second or third night when she finally wore herself down too much to stay awake any longer. It was one of the reasons why Rhodey rarely ever slept at the base anymore and what had ultimately sent Bruce running as well. It wasn't that they didn't care; it was the opposite. They cared too much to bear the screams of the broken woman that the woman they'd known had become. A woman they had discovered over time they couldn't help no matter how badly they wanted to. But it wasn't Arianna's haunted wails that was why Steve no longer resided at the facility either… or why Natasha never left it.

Natasha watched as Steve pulled himself from his thoughts and his eyes refocused on her. With his attention back on her, Natasha resumed their conversation as she gestured around her.

"If I move on, who does this?"

She indicated the various meeting notes, folders and the hologram set-up on the table.

"Maybe it doesn't need to be done." Steve countered. Natasha's eyes grew infinitesimally sadder as she brooded over his words carefully.

"I used to have nothing. And then I got this." Natasha gestured around them. "This job. This family."

She smiled a tiny bit at the word, although it fell quickly. It always did now; the word, which had once been warm and inviting to her, had become pained and difficult. But even so, she wouldn't trade it for the world.

"And I was... I was better because of it." Natasha took a deep, shuddering breath. "And even though… they're gone…"

She paused, as if trying to put her feelings into words - another thing she had once been terrible at. Another thing Clint and Arianna had taught her. The thought gave her the strength to say what she needed to out loud.

"Now, I'm still trying to be better."

Steve nodded slowly, his gaze softening and filling with a little bit of pride for his friend. For her courage. He had obviously sensed what was on her mind, however, and Steve's gaze dropped after a moment as it always did when he thought about his wife. Natasha examined Steve silently, wishing she could do something to help. Anything. For both him and Arianna.

"Steve-"

A beeping cut her off as the monitor alerted her to the fact that there was someone at the front gate. Natasha absently switched it on, wondering if Arianna had ordered delivery as she sometimes did on the rare days she remembered to feed herself.

"Oh, hi! Hi!" A somewhat familiar voice called over the speaker. "Uh, is anyone home? This is Scott Lang. We met a few years ago, at the airport?"

Natasha slowly turned to stare at the screen that was showing the feed from the security camera at their gate where a middle-aged man was shouting at the camera from in front of a van that was painted a startling shade of orange.

"In Germany?" The man continued to ramble while Natasha remained so stunned she couldn't move in her seat. "I got really big and I had my mask on. You wouldn't recognize me."

Steve had slowly gotten to his feet by this point, unable to take his eyes off the screen in his own disbelief.

"Is this an old message?" Steve asked Natasha, his eyes glued on the man who looked like he hadn't aged a single day since they had parted after Steve broke him out of the Raft prison. Except that was impossible since this man was not a supersoldier… and he was supposed to be Snapped.

"Ant-Man?" Scott was still shouting at the camera, completely oblivious to the Avengers' shock. "Ant-Man? I know you know that."

"It's the front gate." Natasha whispered as something she hadn't felt in five years filed her now. Hope.

"I really need to talk to you guys! Hello? Hello?"