Thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed, and favorited so far.
Ellie Bishop: Glad you enjoyed it. I can say that none of Clint's kids will be taking up his bow. It would not be possible for how much time is going to pass here. Haven't read many comics with Kate in them, but I don't care much for her one way or the other tbh.
Wakanda
Night
In the royal palace, T'Challa, Sam and Bucky sat in the royal council room. Under normal circumstances, the council would never have stood for having outsiders to sit in their seats. But these were not normal circumstances.
"Shuri and M'Baku have been conducting a tally of sorts," T'Challa said quietly, his face and demeanor quite similar to when Natasha had approached him after the bombing in Vienna. "It appears that half the population of Wakanda was lost. And I made contact with Everett Ross, it is happening everywhere."
"The son of a bitch did it," Bucky said, still seeming shaken by Steve's death. "What do we do now?"
"For tonight, we rest. First thing in the morning though…we head home. Thanos is still out there. As long as he is, we can still undo this. We can still bring everyone back," Sam said firmly.
In Shuri's near empty lab, Wanda stood over the table, blankly staring down at Vision's grey body. For hours, she cried over it, crying for him, Steve, Natasha, everyone. But now…now she was just numb.
Dimly, she felt someone walk up beside her before she heard them. Looking over to her side, she saw the tree like creature that had arrived with Thor. Groot, she thought it had introduced itself as.
"I am Groot," it said lowly.
Strangely, Wanda could understand what it was saying. Perhaps it was her telepathy or her ability to read emotions. Wanda was too numb to put too much thought into it right now.
"Yeah, I loved him," Wanda said, her voice gruff from crying.
"I am Groot."
"I'm sorry," Wanda said, feeling sympathy for him. "There's someone who's like a father to me to. I haven't seen him in two years…and I'm not even sure he's still alive."
"I am Groot," Groot said sadly.
"You're not alone…we can be alone together," Wanda said gently as she took his hand.
Bruce was meditating, trying to see if he could somehow contact the Hulk, since getting angry and danger wasn't doing anything for him. After several minutes of trying to contact his other half, Bruce gave up. Getting to his feet, he saw a glass of watch on a table. Suddenly overcome with rage, Bruce grabbed it and threw it into the wall with a snarl. The glass shattered, water running down the wall but Bruce paid it no mind.
This was his fault. If he hadn't spent so many years treating Hulk like the enemy, if he'd tried to find a way to use him rather than get rid of him…it could have changed things. Thor, Nat, Steve and everyone else would still be alive if it weren't for him.
San Francisco
Same time
In Hank and Janet's house, Scott sat at the table, numb as Hope sat next to him, looking at him worriedly. A few feet away, Hank and Janet were watching the news, all of them horrified by the news.
"Did we do this?"
Hank, Janet and Hope all turned to Scott, who had spoken his first words since he had managed to tell them about Cassie.
"Did we do this? By messing with the Quantum Realm?" Scott asked, looking at Janet for answers.
"No," Janet said without hesitation. "I don't know what's going on Scott. But I know it has nothing to do with anything we've done."
"What's happening here…I don't think I've ever heard anything like it," Hank admitted, at a loss for once.
"But I know someone who might," Scott said, getting to his feet as a thought occurred to him. "The attack in New York…it has to be connected to this, somehow. The Avengers might know what's happening. Looks like I'm headed to New York."
Los Angelus
Same time
Angel, Spike, Fred and Lorne all stood in Angel's office. Outside, the firm was in utter chaos as the remaining employees were scrambling to make sense of everyone.
"No one knows what's going on Angelcakes, but it's not just us, it's happening everywhere," Lorne said.
"Governments are in shambles and our contacts in other branches have been able to reach a conclusion: for no apparent reasons, fifty percent of all life, including demons and vampires, turned to dust. After coordinating with some of the heads of Wolfram and Hart from other branches, I managed to get a message from the Senior Partners. They don't know what's happening any more than we do," Fred said, her voice professional as she tried to focus on doing her job despite the loss they'd all suffered.
"Well someone has to know," Angel insisted, looking out the window.
He refused to accept the fact that Cordelia had given her last chance to set him back on track just so this could happen. There had to be a way to find out more, see if it could be reversed.
"About that," Spike said and three pairs of eyes turned to him. "I need a car."
"You're leaving? Just like that?" Fred said sounding torn between anger and disappointment.
"Not like that. When Andrew was here, he told me where the rest of the team was staying. Maybe Buffy might know what's going on. And since they're not on speaking terms with the lot of you, figured it might be better if I went to see them," Spike explained.
That wasn't Spike's only reasoning for wanting to go see Buffy. Angel knew it, and so did Fred and Lorne. But Angel couldn't begrudge him for it. Spike wanted to make sure the woman he loved was alright. A few years ago, he probably would have done the same thing.
"I'm not giving you a car," Angel said, quickly continuing before Spike could argue. "I'll charter you one of our jets."
"Really?" Spike asked in surprise.
"The faster we figure what happened, the sooner we can find a way to undo what this is. Go and find out what you can," Angel ordered and, for once, Spike didn't argue.
England
Same time
In what had once been Giles' office, Willow was searching through his books, looking to see if there was any kind of explanation for what was happening. With a frustrated look on her face, she closed the second book as Faith walked in.
"It's not just us. I looked on the news to see if I could find anything, this is happening around the world," Faith said.
"Well, I'm not any closer to finding out what happened. I know it has to be magic, but I don't know what kind or who did it," Willow said with a heavy sigh.
"Will…don't you think that can wait 'til tomorrow?" Faith said cautiously.
"We have to find out what happened," Willow insisted, reaching for another of Giles' book.
Only for Faith to snatch it from her hand.
"I'm not saying we don't. But you need to take a breath, okay? When I didn't take a breath, I lost it and I think we both know where that led," Faith said and both were silent as they remembered the path Faith had gone down. "And there's someone who needs you right now more than you need to be researching."
"How is she?" Willow asked after a moment.
"About what you'd expect. Look, let me do the research, you go check on Dawn. I'll be research girl for the night," Faith promised.
"Okay…okay," Willow said, giving in before getting and walking out of the room.
Faith stared after her for a moment before sighing.
"How'd I do Angel?" Faith muttered to herself.
Faith then sat down at Giles' desk and opened the book, beginning to read.
Dawn was curled up in a ball, the deaths of Buffy, Giles and Xander still fresh in her mind. Then there was a knock as she saw Willow standing in the doorway.
She didn't say a word as Willow walked in and sat next to her, hugging her, and Dawn hugged her back as both broke down over their losses.
Quinjet, next day
Mid-morning
First thing in the morning, the remaining Avengers had boarded the Quinjet and taken off for Avengers Compound. It was the most likely place any surviving Avengers and Avenger allies would seek out, Sam had reasoned to the others.
Sam was in the pilot seat, Bucky sitting next to him in the co-pilot chair. It was silent between them, Sam focused on flying and Bucky lost in his own thoughts.
The others were equally quiet. T'Challa was solemn, thinking of the next confrontation with Thanos. He had left M'Baku and the remaining councilmembers in charge of running things in Wakanda while he went with the Avengers to find Thanos and reverse this.
Bruce sat not far away from T'Challa, angry and guilty over his failure to find a balance with Hulk and prevent this.
Wanda and Groot sat next to each other and it was clear to everyone they were holding on by a thread. Only the hope that they could bring everyone back was driving them forward.
"She's holding on by a thread," Bucky mentioned to Sam, glancing back at Wanda subtly.
"Aren't all of us?" Sam pointed out.
But Sam internally admitted that Bucky was right. Even if they succeeded, Vision was still gone forever. Knowing how much Wanda had loved him, Sam only hoped they could all help her through it.
England
Same time
Faith groggily made her way into the kitchen after a long night of reading. She'd read through a lot of Giles' books but hadn't found anything about what could have caused this. Maybe Willow would catch something she missed, Faith mused.
Walking in, she started to make coffee when she heard someone enter the room. Looking over, Faith saw it was Andrew.
"Want any coffee?" Faith asked as she turned back to work.
"Nope," Andrew said and Faith noted he already seemed like he'd had a few cups.
"Are you alright?" Faith asked after a moment.
"Yeah, just excited," Andrew said and Faith stared at him for a moment.
"Excited?"
"Yeah, don't you see? This is just like in Dragon Ball Z, when Kid Buu destroyed the earth. Goku and Vegeta fought Kid Buu while Dende and the Kais went to Namek to bring earth and humanity back from extinction. We get our chance to do the same thing," Andrew said excitedly. "You and I are Vegeta, the former villains who have redeemed themselves and are fighting for good. Willow is Goku, Dawn is Dende, now we just need to find our Namek."
Do not strangle the idiot, do not strangle the idiot, Faith chanted in her head.
"So, let me get this straight," Faith said in a voice full of carefully restrained anger. "Most of our friends are gone, the two we still have are hanging on by a thread. We have no leads on what happened or how to reverse it. And you're exited because you think you can live out some fantasy? Are you serious?"
Andrew paled as he heard the anger in her voice. Good, Faith thought vindictively. Good people like Buffy and Xander had died, how was it fair someone like him got to live?
Hearing the buzzer to the building, Faith grumbled as she began making her way away from Andrew and towards the front door. Honestly, she never knew why Buffy kept Andrew around. She knew from Willow and Dawn that they hadn't forgiven him for his actions. A part of her noted bitterly that Buffy held onto Faith's actions whenever she questioned Faith's loyalties, but Andrew, who had never faced up to what he did, got a free pass.
The girl Faith was four years ago would have confronted Buffy about it. But Faith wasn't that person anymore.
Reaching the front door, Faith looked through the peak hole, seeing a figure with what she thought was a cloak over their head. Frowning, Faith opened the door and saw it wasn't a cloak so much as it was a blanket. When the figure lifted the blanket off his face enough that Faith could see who it was, the former dark Slayer could only stare in shock.
"Hey Faith. Long time. Mind inviting me in?" Spike asked.
Well, this chapter was really hard to write for obvious reasons. I tried to keep everyone in character but apologize if anyone seems OOC.
The Willow/Dawn scene was taken from Aragorn II Elessar's story 'Avengers, Slayer, Devil and stones' except it was changed around, as it was Xander who comforted Dawn there instead of Willow. Thank you to him for letting me use it.
Honestly, the only reason Andrew was allowed to join the Scoobies is because the Buffy cast and crew liked working with Tom Lenk. If they were written in character, none of them would want anything to do with Andrew once his usefulness had ended. Andrew never actually redeems himself, he didn't go to the Scoobies to try and stop the First out of any moral reason, he was saving his own ass. I consider Andrew similar to Peter Pettigrew from Harry Potter, he sides with the people he thinks gives him the most power and the best chance of survival. First that was Warren and Jonathan, but once they couldn't help him it was the Scoobies. He never actually shows any remorse or regret for his actions (his confession to Buffy doesn't count, as he thought Buffy was going to kill him). And let's not forget how he was happy to see Warren when Willow was turned into him, which shows he never actually changed.