Left. Left. Right. Left. Right. Once again you find yourself in the training room. You try to focus on nothing except for the steady rhythm your fist beat out on the punching bag. You had no idea how long you'd be in the compound's training room but the first rays of morning light had touched the windows hours ago. Your nightmares were worse than ever and you had taken to training relentlessly during the night to ward them off; you knew Steve was worried but you had repeatedly assured him you were fine and he had eventually blacked off.
Right, right, left right. With your last punch the chain snaps, sending the punching bag to the floor. The impact sends a ripple through the ground and you take a deep breath before reaching for the next one. The ground shudders beneath you, and you realize the shiver wasn't from the punching bag at all, the whole goddamn compound was shaking.
Steve, Nat, Bruce, and Rhodey are all standing outside. "We under attack?" You call as you approach and Steve shakes his head. You pointedly ignore the look Steve gives your bloodied knuckles and instead focus on the spacecraft being set down by Danvers. When it touches down the entry hatch opens and your mouth falls open as Tony emerges, some kind of blue robot supporting his weight. Steve darts forward to help him down and your feet carry you as well, grabbing his other arm and helping him down the slanted platform.
"Couldn't stop him," Tony says weakly.
"Neither could we," Steve responds.
"I lost the kid."
"Tony, we lost," Steve says simply.
"Is...uh…?" Tony struggles to find words for a moment, and then Pepper rushes out of the compound, tears in her eyes.
"Oh my god," She throws her arms around him, "Oh my god."
Uncomfortable, you look around, spotting the blue chick standing out of the way awkwardly. "Hey," You say quietly, and her head snaps up to look at you, "Thanks." You nod towards Tony and her fierce expression softens slightly and she nods back at you in return. "I'm (Y/n)."
"Nebula."
"Nat," Steve calls, "Get everyone here. We all need to talk."
"It's been 23 days since Thanos came to Earth," Rhodey starts, looking around the table.
"World governments are in pieces. The parts that are still working are trying to take a census," Nat continues, "And it looks like he did...He did exactly what he said he was gonna do. Thanos wiped out fifty percent of all living creatures."
"Where is he now? Where?" Tony demands. He's got a IV in, pumping blood into his system, but he looks weaker than ever. You're having trouble looking at him for more than a few seconds, terrified his eyes will meet yours.
"We don't know," Steve says, "He just opened a portal and walked through."
Tony's eyes shift over to where Thor sits away from the group, his shoulders slumped as he looks off into the distance. "What's wrong with him?" He asks.
"Oh, he's pissed," Rocket says from the seat next to you, "He thinks he failed. Which of course he did. But you know there's a lot of that going around, ain't there?"
"Honestly, until this exact second I thought you were a Build-A-Bear," Tony responds, and you snort.
"Maybe I am," Rocket responds with a shrug.
"We've been hunting Thanos for three weeks now. Deep space scans and satellites. And we got nothing. Tony, you fought him…"
"Who told you that?" Tony looks surprised, "I didn't fight him. No. He wiped my face with a planet while the Bleeker Street Magician gave away the store. That's what happened. There was no fight."
"Okay," Steve responds.
"He's unbeatable," Tony continues.
"Did he give you any clues? Coordinates? Anything?" Steve asks.
"I saw this coming a few years back!" Tony's getting angry now, "I had a vision. I didn't wanna believe it. Thought I was dreaming."
"Tony, I'm gonna need you to focus," Steve tries.
"And I needed you. As in past tense. That trumps what you need. It's too late buddy. Sorry. You know what I need?" Tony stands up, pushing everything off the table with a loud clatter, "I need to shave. And I believe I remember telling all you-"
Tony moves towards Steve, and Rhodey cuts him off. "Tony, Tony."
"-What we needed was a suit of armor around the world! Remember that?" He demands, "Whether it impacted our precious freedoms or not-that's what we needed!"
"Well that didn't work did it?"
"I said, 'we'd lose'. You said 'we'll do that together too'. And guess what Cap? We lost. And you weren't there. Any of you. But that's what we do right? Our best work after the fact? We're the Avengers. Not the Prevengers."
"Okay," Rhodey tries again.
"Right?"
"You made your point," Rhodey says, "Just sit down."
"Nah, nah, Here's my point," Tony says, "You know what?"
"Tony, you're sick," Rhodey says.
"She's great, by the way," Tony gestures towards Danvers who watches impassively.
"Sit down," Rhodey demands, "Sit."
"We need you," Tony says, ignoring Rhodey completely, "You're new blood. Bunch of tired old mules! I got nothing for you Cap! I got no coordinates, no clues, no strategies, no options. Zero. Zip. Nada. No trust. Liar."
Steve looks crushed as the two of them look at each other. "Tony," You try and his eyes dart to you.
"Don't you even fucking speak to me," Tony says coldly, "Ever."
You recoil as if slapped, falling back into your chair that you had half risen from. "Here, take this," Tony says, ripping the arc reactor from his chest and shoving it into Steve's hand, "You find him and you put that on. You hide." Tony sways for a moment and then falls to the ground.
Steve is by his side in a second, and you dig your nails into your kneecap to keep from moving. "Tony!" Steve tries.
"I'm fine… I…" His eyes flutter closed and you let out the breath you had been holding.
You look away from where Tony sleeps in bed, Pepper holding his limp hand in hers to Rhodey. "Bruce gave him a sedative. He's gonna probably be out for the rest of the day."
"You guys take care of him," Danvers says, "And I'll bring him a Xorrian Elixir when I come back."
"Where are you going?" Nat asks.
"To kill Thanos," Danvers responds.
"Oh, here we go," You scoff.
"Hey, you know, we usually work as a team here," Natasha says lightly, "and between you and I, morale's a little fragile."
"We realize up there is more your territory, but this is our fight too," Steve says.
"You even know where he is?" Rhodey asks.
"I know people who might."
"Okay, is she serious right now?" You snap, "You want to maybe give us a little more than that?"
"Don't bother," Nebula speaks up from behind Danvers, "I can tell you where Thanos is. Thanos spent a long time trying to perfect me. And when he worked he talked about his great plan. Even disassembled I wanted to please him. I'd ask 'where would we go once his plan was complete?' His answer was always the same: 'to the garden'".
"That's cute," Rhodey says, "Thanos has a retirement plan."
"So where is he?" Steve asks, confused.
"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," Rocket brings up a hologram of a planet with a shockwave visibly traversing the surface, "On this planet."
"Thanos is there," Nebula says simply.
"He used the stones again," Natasha says, her voice resigned.
"Hey, hey, hey," Bruce cuts in, "We'd be going in short-handed you know."
"Look, he's still got the stones, so…" Rhodey adds.
"So let's get them… Use them to bring everyone back," Danvers says.
"Just like that?" Rhodey asks.
"Yeah, just like that."
"Even if there's a small chance that we can undo this… I mean we owe it to everyone who's not in this room to try," Natasha says firmly.
"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," Danvers says.
"Hey, new girl. Everyone here is about that superhero life," Rhodey says, "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. And unfortunately they didn't have you guys."
Thor stands up and walks over to Danvers, facing her down. He holds his hand up and catches his axe as it passes by Danvers' head by inches. She doesn't flinch, and instead smiles.
"I like this one," Thor smiles.
"Guys, it doesn't matter if this chick is all that or not. What other choice do we have? We finally have a line on Thanos. This is what we've been waiting for. I don't really see what else there is to discuss," You tell them, "I'm going with Super Blonde over there. We need to end this. One way or another."
Steve looks at you for a moment before nodding, "Let's go get this son of a bitch."