a/n: aaaand back to our east coast fam
Maggie wakes up the morning of her thirteenth birthday with her right arm in a cast and sling before it's even light outside. Her eyes meet an unfamiliar ceiling. She sits up slowly, wincing as pain travels up her broken arm. She's on a huge pullout couch bed, nestled between Pepper and Wanda.
On the other side of the room is a holo table, where Clint and Daisy are monitoring the rising death count, projected in the air in front of them.
"This is a nightmare," Daisy murmurs.
"I've had better nightmares," Clint says.
The events of the day prior suddenly hit Maggie like a train. She remembers with a shaky exhale, tears gathering in her eyes.
Daisy and Clint both turn at the sound, surprised to find her awake. Beside her, Wanda stirs, her eyes still red and swollen from earlier. She places a hand on Maggie's arm.
"Hey, hey," she whispers. "Lie back down. You need to rest."
But how can she? Maggie's parents are…
"I know," Wanda says, rubbing her arm. "I know they are. And we're going to fix this. But we can't fix it right now. We need to rest."
Daisy and Clint approach the bed now, their eyes reflecting the sadness Maggie feels. Everyone's feeling this loss, and more. Daisy lost her whole team. Wanda lost Vision. And Tony and Peter's fates are even more doubtful than before—first going to space with Thanos' forces, and now half the universe has been erased.
Rocket's curled up on a nearby chair. His ears twitch from the noise and his eyes silently open, watching Maggie. Today, he lost Groot; Maggie can't imagine how that feels.
"I'm sorry," she murmurs, well aware that nearly everyone is awake and staring at her now. She tries to swipe her tears away with her uninjured arm, but she can't stop them all.
Moments later, Rhodey suddenly walks into the room. "Hey," he says. "So, that thing just stopped doing whatever the hell it was doing."
He gestures toward the room next door, which has become a new makeshift lab, since the actual lab (and at least half of the base) was destroyed. There, the adults have been monitoring some device Fury gave to Daisy before he disappeared.
"It's a pager," Daisy says, as if it's obvious. "It pages people."
"I know what a pager is." Rhodey rolls his eyes. "It doesn't look like any ordinary pager to me."
Clint cuts in before their exchange can evolve into an argument. "Let's go check on it," he says to Daisy, who nods.
They leave the room with Rhodey. Maggie hates sitting idly by and wants to follow, but Wanda grabs her hand and shakes her head.
"I'll put you to sleep if I have to," Wanda warns, her tone as playful as she can muster right now, but her eyes don't flash their usual red.
Maggie finally lies back down. "Is your magic back?"
Wanda lifts her hand above them and moves her fingers, but nothing comes out. She really must have overdone it earlier.
"It happens," she says vaguely. "Just give it a few days."
"I'm sorry about Vision," Maggie says quietly. She never got the full story on what exactly happened to him, but she knows Thanos got the Mind Stone, so she can guess.
"Thanos will pay," is all Wanda says. "Now sleep."
Wanda closes her eyes, so Maggie tries to sleep, too. Her mind's racing with a million thoughts, and she can't quite get comfortable since she's packed like a sardine into the bed with a broken arm.
Just as she finally starts to drift off, an unfamiliar voice suddenly comes from the other room, asking, "Where's Fury?"
Maggie spends her first morning as a teenager seeing an alien, who was originally a human, off back to space.
Her name is apparently Carol Danvers—known across the universe as Captain Marvel. Another captain. Maggie wonders what Steve would think.
The remaining Avengers explained the situation to Carol while Maggie had gone back to sleep. From what Maggie heard later, Pepper tearfully asked her about trying to find Tony and Peter, and Carol had agreed to it, once she accepted Fury was gone and there was nothing else she could do on Earth at the moment.
So, Maggie watches her take off back to space outside the base, the morning dew of the grass seeping through her shoes. Pepper, wrapped in a blanket with her, pulls Maggie in closer when a chilly breeze blows.
"Hey," she says, and Maggie looks up at her. "Happy birthday."
Maggie doesn't respond, instead looking back up at the sky, where Carol had flown off just moments before.
Cassie and Hope arrive at the base later that day. Clint had flown a quinjet out to San Francisco to pick them up after they'd finally been able to make contact with them.
To Maggie's surprise, both Cassie and Hope are carrying gifts when they walk into the base. Cassie immediately throws her arms around Maggie.
"I'm so sorry," she says. "My parents are gone, too."
Maggie stops herself from pointing out Cassie still has Hope.
"Happy birthday, Maggie," Hope says. She hands Maggie a gift bag. "I heard about what you did yesterday. Your parents would be really proud."
"Thanks." Maggie manages a weak smile.
What a way to start thirteen.
Days turn into weeks for Maggie's new life without parents, during an apocalypse.
Within the first week, Pepper's completely taken over as Maggie's new "guardian" (she will not say mother), making sure she's eating and sleeping, as well as figuring out the school situation. Unsurprisingly, school's canceled for the rest of the school year.
She's not sure if Cassie has to convince Hope or if it's simply because they don't really have anywhere else to go, but Cassie and Hope have pretty much moved in with them for the time being. Despite the circumstances, Maggie enjoys Cassie's constant presence, especially because they can avoid the overbearing adults together.
Wanda's powers take forever to come back. After three weeks, she's barely able to create a red flicker with her hands, let alone perform actual telekinesis.
Pepper slowly returns to her SI work, though it's still completely remote. Restructuring the company to accommodate for the circumstances is a lot of work. Since Wanda's powers are out and there's not much else to do, Wanda becomes an intern of sorts for Pepper, helping her out with administrative tasks. Sometimes even Maggie and Cassie help, too, when they're bored out of their minds and need a distraction. (They're usually just trying to dodge Sam and his probing counselor-style questions.)
Daisy's life becomes just as chaotic as Pepper's since Fury left her in charge of S.H.I.E.L.D. Clint promises to help her every step of the way, and by the second week, they're traveling back and forth between the base and D.C. to start figuring things out.
The days start blurring together soon enough. They're definitely nowhere near settled into this new lifestyle yet, but Maggie's hopeful that it isn't permanent. Thanos and the Stones are still out there—can't this whole thing be undone?
Maggie's thinking about it all again one night while she gets ready for bed. She stares at herself in the bathroom mirror, noting how much paler and more tired she looks compared to before. Though she finally has a proper bed to sleep in rather than a pullout couch bed shared with two other people, she doesn't usually get more than five or six hours of undisturbed sleep a night. Her record so far is seven hours straight, which only happened the night of her birthday because of her lack of sleep the night prior.
Suddenly, the mirror starts to shake. Maggie jumps back in surprise, startled, as it rumbles more aggressively. The ground shakes for a few seconds, and it's all Maggie's brain needs to go back—
—she looks outside and sees a ship slam into the barrier, trying to break through, and Natasha pulls her along through the base—
—there.
She stumbles out of the bathroom, hyperventilating, trying to get a sense of her surroundings. Cassie suddenly appears, calling her name, but her voice sounds like she's underwater. Maggie collapses into her arms, her chest tightening as if she's the one in space, with no air to breathe.
Cassie suddenly yells over her head, and Hope appears a few moments later. Hope replaces Cassie's hands on Maggie's arms, carefully guiding her to sit on her bed. Distantly, Maggie registers Hope trying to coach her through a breathing exercise. Maggie notices Cassie looking scared, just behind Hope, and realizes it's because of her.
After a few more moments, the feeling of impending doom starts to pass, and Maggie manages to copy Hope's breathing. Hope squeezes her hand, further grounding her.
"That's it, you're right here," Hope murmurs, her thumb brushing over Maggie's knuckles. "Just nice and slow. You're doing great."
Maggie nods, finding comfort in Hope's words, then hating herself for it; how dare she seek comfort from a mother who is not her own, while hers is gone.
Cassie interrupts her train of thought. "Hope," she says, a little rattled herself, "why was everything shaking?"
"Danvers is back," Hope says, releasing Maggie's hand now that her breathing is close to normal. "And she brought a ship."
Maggie blinks. "Uncle Tony?"
Within minutes, Maggie and Cassie are following Hope outside in their pajamas and mismatched shoes thrown on in a hurry. Everyone else is already there, watching as Carol descends next to the ship.
Even in the darkness, Maggie recognizes the Guardians' ship. She sees Rocket's ears perk up in hope as he steps forward. The door on the ship opens and lowers to the grass.
Tony and a blue alien walk out. No sign of Peter or Strange.
Maggie's breath catches at the sight of the alien, given their most recent encounter with aliens, but she realizes they must be friendly since they're with Tony. Looking more closely, she realizes they must be Nebula, Gamora's sister. She's never met Nebula before, but has heard stories about her from the other Guardians the few times she's seen them.
As Tony and Nebula near the ground, Maggie realizes Nebula's supporting most of Tony's weight. Pepper hurries forward to help Tony.
"Oh my God, Tony," she cries, hugging him carefully.
Tony coughs. "It's okay."
For a few moments, nobody moves, until Maggie slowly walks toward them.
She stops a few feet away from them, silently watching their tearful reunion. Nebula steps away from the couple to sit back on the ramp, where Rocket approaches her with lowered ears. He sits next to her and takes her hand.
Finally, Tony sees Maggie standing there. "Kid." He frowns at her sling. "Your arm?" Then he looks out at the rest of his welcoming committee.
Maggie knows he immediately notices who's absent—who would never miss his homecoming after being missing for a month.
"Your parents?" he asks, voice shaking, his eyes settling back on her.
She ducks her head. Now that Tony's back, at least he and Pepper can have some peace together. And Maggie's of course happy to have him back, too. But it doesn't change the fact that her parents are still gone.
"Kid," Tony repeats, and she looks up. Pepper's released him from his hug, now standing beside him to support him. His eyes shine with tears. "Come here."
That's all Maggie needs to hear before she's running into his and Pepper's open arms. Surely, she thinks, she'd be out of tears by now—but she's crying into Tony's chest, full sobs, her fingers curling so tightly into the fabric of his tank top, her knuckles turn white.
"I'm sorry," Tony's murmuring into her hair. "I'm so sorry."
Once again, Bruce tries to enforce a "medical treatment, then debrief" rule, but as soon as he has Tony set up in a chair with an IV, Tony's in the war room with the others, looking at the data on the holo table.
It's way past midnight at this point—normally Pepper would have long sent Maggie to bed, but given the circumstances, Maggie figures she has other things on her mind. Maggie and Cassie sit next to Pepper on the couch bed, watching the Avengers exchange information.
"It's been twenty-three days since Thanos came to Earth," Rhodey says. "World governments are in pieces, but from what they're able to gather so far, it looks like he did…exactly what he said he was gonna do. Wipe out fifty percent of all living creatures."
"Where is he now?" Tony demands.
"We don't know," Sam says. "He just opened another portal and walked straight through."
"We've been trying to track him down for three weeks now," Bruce says. "Deep Space scans, satellites, everything. And we got nothing."
"Tony," Clint says, "you fought him—"
"I didn't fight him," Tony snaps. "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—"
"He's unbeatable."
Clint starts to sound annoyed. "So did he give you any clues, any coordinates, anything?"
"I saw this coming a few years back," Tony says with a suddenly faraway look in his eye. "I had a vision. I didn't wanna believe it. Thought I was dreaming."
He glances at Wanda, who just averts her eyes.
"Tony, we need you to focus," Clint says.
"You know what I need?" Tony suddenly stands, knocking things off the holo table with a loud clatter that makes Maggie flinch. "I need to shave. And get back out there—"
"Tony," Rhodey cuts in, grabbing his arm.
"I got nothing for you guys," Tony says, almost falling over. Rhodey catches him. "I got no coordinates, no clues, no strategies, no options. Zero. Zip. Nada. No way out of this one."
His rant silences everyone. He just stands there, panting, for a few moments, until he slumps back into his chair.
"She's great, by the way." He gestures to Carol. "We need her. New blood."
Carol smiles. "Thanks. I'll bring you a Xorrian Elixir when I come back."
She suddenly turns and walks away.
Daisy stops her. "Where are you going?"
"To kill Thanos," Carol answers as if it's obvious.
"We, uh, usually do things as a team around here," Rhodey says. "And do you even know where he is?"
"I know people who might."
"Don't bother." Nebula stands next to Carol. "I can tell you where Thanos is."
"Thanos spent a long time trying to perfect me," Nebula says. "And when he worked, he talked about his great plan. Even disassembled, I wanted to please him. I'd ask where we should go once his plan was complete. His answer was always the same." She pauses. "To the Garden."
"That's cute," Rhodey says. "Thanos has a retirement plan."
"So, where is he?" Clint asks.
Rocket jumps up onto the holo table. "When Thanos snapped his fingers, Earth became ground zero for a power surge of ridiculously cosmic proportions. No one's ever seen anything like it…until two days ago." He pulls up a projection of a planet. "On this planet."
"Thanos is there," Nebula confirms.
"And he used the Stones again," Clint says.
"Hey, hey, hey," Bruce cuts in. "We'd be going in short-handed, you know."
"Look, he's still got the Stones, so…" Rhodey says.
"So, let's get him," Carol says, "and use them to bring everyone back."
"Just like that?" Rhodey asks.
"Yeah, just like that."
Hope flutters in Maggie's chest, and she shares a look with Cassie. The Avengers can find the Stones and bring their parents back!
"If we do this, how do we know it's gonna end any differently than it did before?" Bruce asks.
"Because before, you didn't have me," Carol says.
"Hey, new girl, everyone here is about that superhero life," Rhodey says, crossing his arms over his chest. "And if you don't mind my asking, where the hell have you been all this time?"
"There are a lot of other planets in the universe," Carol says. She looks over the whole room. "And unfortunately, they didn't have you guys."
Everyone silently considers Carol's words. Cassie stands up.
"This might be the only way to bring back my parents," she says. "And Maggie's parents. And everyone else who's gone." She glances at Hope, who nods her encouragement. "I think…you owe it to all of them to try." She pauses, then adds, "Please."
Maggie's aware of the risk here, but her concerns are overshadowed by the very real possibility that tracking Thanos and the Stones down could lead to her parents' return, plus everyone else who's gone. She stands up next to Cassie.
"I know my parents would track Thanos down in a heartbeat if they were here," she says slowly, blinking away the tears that naturally come at any mention of Natasha and Steve. "They wouldn't be able to rest if they knew where he and the Stones were."
She meets Clint's eyes and he gives her a small smile, his expression one of pride. The other Avengers' expressions seem to brighten at her words.
"I think it's settled, then," Clint says. "Let's go get this son of a bitch."
a/n: let's all pretend like we don't know what happens next in this movie oop