Steve Rogers clutched his side as he made his way through the trees of the Wakandan forest. The past day had been intense, as he, mere minutes ago, fought a war against hundreds upon hundreds of malevolent aliens that had invaded the country. Then what looked like a huge purple man had shown up.
Although Steve had assembled the rest of the team together, the gauntlet-wearing purple monster had practically mowed through everyone on his warpath to Vision. Steve had done better than the others, even managing to get a few good hits in and block one of his strikes, but got unceremoniously knocked out by the purple titan.
As he drifted through the woods, he heard the sounds of shouting and what sounded like a loud fingersnap. Finally finding his way out of the trees, Steve looked ahead to see Thor standing in the clearing, his new axe lying abandoned on the floor, and, distressingly, no purple man in sight.
"Where'd he go?" asked Rogers, glancing around him. Thor didn't respond, and Steve got a good look at him: the Asgardian looked positively sick to his stomach, and sported a thousand-yard stare that Steve knew could only come from a shell-shocked veteran. This, of course, only served to heighten the man's anxiety.
"Where'd he go?" asked the super soldier, again to no effect. Before he could make another move, a voice rang out:
"Steve?"
Steve turned questioningly, only to see Bucky Barnes, his best friend that he'd battled against a fellow Avenger to protect, and the last link he had to his life back in the 1940's, slowly turning into dust.
Bucky tried approaching Rogers, only to trip and fall to the ground, dropping the gun he was holding and disappearing in a heap of dirt.
Numbly, the super soldier walked over to the dust that used to be his best friend, before crouching down and placing a hand on it, his thoughts melting into a repeated chorus of "What just happened?"
M'Baku tore his his spear out of the last of the alien monsters on the battlefield. After a gruelling war against the unholy creatures, it had seemed as though the Wakandans and their allies had finally come up with a victory, considering that they had just killed the last of the things.
Until he looked ahead and saw one of his fellow comrades fading to ash before his very eyes. And then another. And another.
From there, the battle cries of war ceased to be heard as his Wakandan brethren, who had put their lives at risk to protect their families and an android, turned to dust, leaving only a horrified M'Baku to watch it all unfold.
Amidst all the chaos, Okoye lay injured in a part of the woods. She, along with the Avengers, had confronted the purple, gauntlet-wearing creature, who promptly tossed her -and the rest of the team- aside. This definitely hadn't been what she had been expecting when Wakanda opened up to the world, for sure.
The general relaxed slightly as King T'Challa made his way over to her, with a hand outstretched.
"Up, General, Up!" said T'Challa. "This is no place to die!"
Okoye grabbed onto his hand in order for T'Challa to help her up...
Only to collapse again as T'Challa's hand, and eventually the rest of his body, disappeared into dust particles.
Numbed by shock, Okoye glanced at her hand and back at where T'Challa used to be, before the gravity of the situation became clear.
T'Challa, son of T'Chaka, the Black Panther, was dead.
James Rhodes walked amongst the tall grass of the forest. He'd been forced to see the truth of the Accords for what they were to get here and he had lost the use of his legs to do so, an event that made him regret siding with the Accords in the first place. He'd also ignored General Ross to get here.
Though, that last one wasn't so much of a pain to do, risk of being potentially court martialed or not.
The Avengers had taken out the last of the aliens as far as he could see, so he was thankful. During the battle against the purple alien who arrived on Wakanda, the grape had proceeded to crush his armor with his... magical glove and toss him aside. He'd recovered, though, and was making a quick search for the rest of the Avengers. So far, everyone had been accounted for except...
"Sam!" He called out, getting no answer. The armored Avenger shouted the Falcon's name again, to no effect once more. It was almost like Sam had disappeared...
Rhodes regrouped with the rest just as Steve turned over the colorless husk that used to be the Vision. Rogers took a look at the gaping hole in the corpse's forehead. The titan must've gotten to him first. As for Wanda... She was simply gone.
The super-soldier then got into a sitting position and stared ahead into the woods, barely perceiving, but not acknowledging General Okoye's grief-filled screams, Natasha's arrival and Rhodes' confused inquiry.
As he sat amidst the tall grasses of Wakanda, Steve had begun to understand the gravity of the situation.
The Avengers lost.
They'd lost their unity as a team years ago.
They'd lost Earth's best defender.
And now... They'd lost everything.
A quiet "Oh, God" was all Steve could manage.