Chapter 3: Taking Stock

******A Few Hours Later*****

After Buffy had spent all her grief in Faith and then Giles' arms, she took a hot bath, her mind trying to come up with ideas. There had to be a way to fix this.

When she was dressed and joined everyone else, she found a desolate group. Andrew was drowning his sorrows in baking, trying to focus on the cooking for Thor. However, he couldn't even find any real joy at knowing that one of his heroes were joining them for dinner. Thor was currently leaning against a wall while Faith paced, ranting without ceasing. Everyone was too traumatized to even attempt to calm her down. Buffy didn't bother either—she had earned the right to her feelings.

"So what's the plan?" Buffy said.

Giles put his glasses back on, feeling wretched. Buffy always looked to him for answers, but he was still trying to wipe his mind around the magnitude of the loss.

"From what we can ascertain, about half of the entire world's population is gone—disappeared, turned to ash," Giles said. "There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason—no pattern that I can conceive of."

"Because there was none," Thor said, speaking for the first time in hours. "Thanos' hubris is so great that he believes he alone can keep resources from being used from over population—a problem his home planet of Titan once had before he decimated it. Today, he wiped out people on a completely random pattern—no matter of race, station or species."

"This is happening on other planets?" Giles asked, horrified at the idea.

"Are you not understanding? The man has all the powers of all the infinity stones—the power to stop time, the power over life and death—the power over all creation everywhere," Thor said.

"How can one man yield such power?" Giles asked.

"He is not a man—he is a Titan," Thor said. "They are equal to an Asgard except he is larger than the average Titan—stronger. He killed many of my brethren, including my oldest friend Heimdall before he come to Midgard."

"We can't just let him get away with this!" Faith said angrily. "We have to get his stones and use them to bring everyone back—feed them to him afterward."

"Yes, that's a good idea," Buffy said. She looked expectantly at Thor. "Can you take Faith and I to your super friends? I know you don't know us—but we're vampire slayers. We were called at fifteen and empowered to fight vampires and demons. We do it in secret, not in the open like you and your friends. However, we have saved this planet from destruction countless times except the news doesn't share our feats or applaud our accomplishments."

"I did not realize that Midgard still had vampires—the Old Ones were contained," he said. "My father made sure they were trapped in the Deeper Well."

"That's true," Giles said. "Illyria did manage to escape, but she took over a human vessel, whose soul is still there. She fights on our side against the demons on this planet."

"Well, she fights with Angel," Faith corrected.

"To know that even one escaped is disturbing," Thor said, frowning. "My realm in Asgard has been destroyed by my half-sister. We are going to make our home on Earth as I love the people of Earth. I will send my Valkyrie to aid you." Then it hit him, and he grimaced. "Well, I will have to see how many survived Thanos' culling."

"Culling? That's a good word for this," Giles said.

Buffy looked at the remaining girls. "These other women are also slayers. There used to be only one at a time—decided by a bunch of men long ago. But when I was drowned by a vampire at sixteen, the line split into Faith's line. Then in our final battle in Sunnydale, the First Evil opened up the hellmouth there and tried to destroy our planet. He had wiped out so many of the potentials, but there was a few hundred left he hadn't killed. About twenty of them were with me in Sunnydale when Willow used the magic imbued in my scythe to call all potential slayers."

"Your friend must have been very powerful indeed to do such a thing," Thor said, impressed.

A wave of sorrow hit Buffy as she thought of Willow being dead. "She was. The fact that Thanos was able to kill her is incomprehensible to me," Buffy said. She looked at Andrew. "Andrew, start calling all slayer houses. Find out if this culling extended to the demon population. Then tell all houses to make there way here. We need to know who survived and to regroup."

"What about dinner?" Andrew asked. "It's almost ready."

"After dinner is fine," Buffy said. Then she looked at Giles and said, "The police are going to need help."

Giles nodded. "Yes, people will be devastated, and then they'll be angry," he said.

"We might consider having some of the slayers that are old enough to join, give them a legitimate reason to stop crime," Buffy said.

Giles frowned. "That's not a good precedent, Buffy. Slayers aren't meant to kill humans. Officers do that in the line of duty on occasion," he reminded her.

"I know, Giles, but if half the world's population is gone, we have no way to assess if that means the criminals and demon population is stronger or what," Buffy said. "We might want to consider helping the police or military in an official capacity."

"I'll consider it," Giles said.

"Let's go," Faith said, impatient. "I can't handle doing nothing—not a minute longer."

Buffy nodded and looked at Thor, who agreed. "I am at your leave," he said.

"Rain check on dinner, Andrew," Buffy said.

Andrew nodded. It wasn't like anyone had much of an appetite anyway.

Buffy hugged Giles tightly and a few others, who felt terrified at the thought of her absence.

They all watched as Thor led them outside. Faith held on to his left side while Buffy fit snuggly under the arm that held his axe. Her own scythe was strapped to her back.

Then they were gone, and Giles felt a stab of loss. What if he never saw them again? He closed his eyes, so he could push away his fear. Then he faced his young charges.

"Start making calls," he said to all of them. "We need information."

He said a silent prayer that Dawn was okay wherever she was.

*****New York******

Thor led his two new friends into the Avengers headquarters. Natasha and Steve stood, looking relieved to see Thor.

"Glad you're back," Steve said. He looked at the two women who had helped in the fight. "Ladies."

"It's Buffy and Faith," Buffy reminded him, pointing between them.

"Steve. That's Natasha," he said.

"Thor, have you heard from Clint? I can't get him to pick up," Natasha asked.

"No. I received a call from Lady Jane. Although she and I are no longer together, I was happy to hear her voice and know that she is well," he shared.

"That's good," Steve said.

"Well, I've lost my sister, my two best friends and half of my slayers," Buffy said. "I want to find this Thanos and get those stones from him. There has to be a way to reverse this."

"We're regrouping. We've lost all our big guns. The Scarlett Witch is gone along with Vision. Tony went after Thanos on his ship—he's out of our atmosphere. We don't know if he's alive or not," Steve said. "The Black Panther is gone. Dr. Strange and Spiderman were with Tony, so their status is unknown."

"If we let too much time pass, Thanos will have destroyed the stones," Buffy said.

Thor frowned. "Why would he give up such power?" he asked. "I cannot see that as a possibility."

"Well, I for one don't want to take that chance," Faith said. "We have got to find him."

"Willow was a witch with powerful magic," Buffy said. "I can contact her coven in Devon to see if anyone survived that has any kind of power. Magic is the best way to track someone."

"I'm going to go to Clint's," Natasha said. "If his family was taken, he won't be in a good place."

"Do you need me to come with you?" Steve asked.

"No, you need to stay here. That beacon of Fury's has been going off. Maybe he knew someone that could help," she said.

All of them were struggling with their own sense of loss and desperation. Doing anything—no matter how little—seemed the best course of action.

None of them would consider the possibility that they would fail.

*****Somewhere in our Galaxy*****

Dawn worked hard to hold on to her core self—the sister of Buffy. The power and knowledge that filled her as she lost her form and the Key took over was so vast. It was frightening and exhilarating. She was ancient, created long ago by—the truth of her real origins was elusive. When she thought of it, she almost felt like the memory was going to form. Then it was gone.

She floated out of Earth's atmosphere, feeling amazed at the beauty of the stars. Looking down on the Earth was a sight she would never forget. How see saw without eyes was not explainable. She was energy and more than energy. She was still Dawn but so much more. It was hard to describe. Buffy's head would explode if she tried to explain it to her. The mental version of herself smiled at that thought, but she had no mouth to form a smile.

Still, Dawn internally smiled thinking of her sister, who she knew was still on Earth. She hadn't hunted Buffy up when she left Giles. Nor could she see a vision of Buffy with her Key powers, but without the limits of her human flesh, she just knew. Buffy was okay. Her connection to Buffy was stronger than anything. Once, Buffy told her that she was apart of her. Dawn hadn't been sure that she meant it back when she'd said to her, but now she got it.

Dawn was made out of Buffy—her daughter in many ways. Her memories claimed Joyce as her mother, but the reality was the monks had fashioned her human form from Buffy, not Joyce. It didn't matter where she was in the universe, she would still know how to find Buffy.

However, it wasn't Buffy who needed her help—it was Xander and Willow and everyone else that was taken. Somehow, she saw the face of the enemy and knew his name.

Thanos—the Mad Titan. He was an ancient enemy of—Dawn didn't know. It was like a splinter in her mind. She knew so many things she hadn't know before her body dissolved, yet there was still blanks in her memories. A thought would form, and she would think she knew it all. Then it would stop—like hitting a brick wall.

When Thanos, the enemy of all life everywhere, left Earth, she felt him go. The devastation he had created was complete. He was done wielding his power like a scythe for Death. How did she know this? That was a mystery to Dawn, but she knew it had to do with the Key's origins—her creator or creators.

She had to search out a power in the universe—one that would be able to reverse or undo what Thanos had done. For a moment fear filled her as her mission seemed so impossible.

Dawn wasn't Buffy or Willow—she wasn't even Xander, the bravest guy she knew. She was just Dawn. Everyone knew that Dawn was the one to be rescued by the heroes. She never did the saving or hero stuff. What if she couldn't do anything? It wasn't like she had a mouth to talk to anyone.

Giles' image filled her mind, and she thought of his words and his faith. He believed in her. He was counting on her, so Dawn could not fail him.

Dawn had to find someone to save those she loved—someone strong enough to restore Earth.

Who would it be? She didn't know, but she moved through the vastness of space, toward Mars, determined not to let everyone down.

*****Chapter End*****

So I do have a clear person in mind that is in the Marvel world, but the character has never showed up in the Avengers movies. I don't plan on bringing in Captain Marvel as that would be exactly the same as the movie, nothing personal against the character.

Thanks for reading. Drop a review if so inclined.