NOTE: There will probably be grammar mistakes that I will fix later.

"Holy crap," James Rhodes gasped as Mikey and Raph followed Rocket into the living area of the facility.

"Guys, this is Michelangelo," Rocket introduced his reptilian friend to the remaining Avengers who survived the Snap. "The Ninja Turtle and fellow Guardian I told you about. Oh, yeah, and his brother, Ralph."

"It's 'Raph'," Raph growled behind him.

Mikey became starry-eyed as he stood before the world's greatest heroes: Captain America, Black Widow, Thor, and War Machine. Meeting them in person was a dream come true. There was a woman with long blonde hair that was also present in the room, but he didn't recognize her. He smiled shyly and waved at them. "Hi, Avengers. Big fan."

"Wow." Rhodes stared at the two mutant Turtles in amazement. "Just...wow. How much radiation did you guys consume?"

"We appreciate you coming," Steve Rogers stepped forward and shook Mikey's hand then Raph's. He didn't seem to be intimidated by the mutants at all and flashed them a friendly grin. "We need all the help we can get. I hear that you're quite the warriors."

Mikey blushed a little and nodded. "Y-Yes, sir."

Thor was puzzled by the strange creatures that were neither human nor animal. "Are you two devils? Or spawns of the Midgard Serpent?"

"What? No, we're just mutants," Raph told him.

"But not the X-Men kind," Mikey added. "See, we used to be normal turtles until one day this alien ooze called mutagen changed us into this. Our Sensei was human before he mutated into a rat and we lived in the sewers-"

"Mikey," Raph cut him off, "the Avengers don't want to hear our whole backstory. They're not interested."

"No, I'm interested," Bruce Banner stepped into the room and was intrigued by what he saw. "Very much interested." He walked up to them and took Raph's wrist, studying the scaly skin on his arm. "Incredible. So you say that you're the product of alien experimentation?"

Raph pulled his arm away. "Hey, watch it, nerd!" he said angrily. "I'm not some frog that you can study, so keep your hands to yourself!"

Bruce smiled apologetically. "Sorry." Then he offered his hand for Raph to shake. "I'm Bruce Banner. But most people know me as the, uh, Hulk."

Raph's eyes nearly popped right out of his sockets. "The Hulk? You're the Hulk?"

Bruce nodded. "Yep."

Raph instantly regretted insulting the scientist and chuckled nervously as he took a couple of steps back. "Heh, I, uh, I was kidding about calling you a 'nerd'. Really."

The human looked a little embarrassed and rubbed the back of his neck. "Actually, uh, right now, I can't change into the Hulk, no matter how angry I get."

"Really?" Mikey asked. "Why not?"

"Not really sure, but it's an inconvenience."

"So you're just a nerd now?" Raph snorted, no longer afraid of the wimpy scientist. "Well, that's sucks."

A bit hurt by that remark, Bruce came up with a sadistic idea and suddenly yelled, "HULK SMASH!"

It worked and the Turtle screamed in fear as he stumbled backwards into an office chair, which rolled right into the table. When Bruce, Rhodes, and Mikey started to laugh, Raph realized that he had been tricked and grumbled, "Very funny."

Mikey then noticed that they were missing a crucial member, the one who started the Avengers. "Hey, where's Iron Man?"

The whole room grew quiet and there was tension in the air.

"Tony is asleep in another room," Natasha Romanoff said. "After he fought Thanos, he drifted in deep space for twenty-three days. He's being treated for his injuries and for malnutrition."

At the mention of the Titan's name, Raph's anger returned and his blood boiled. "Oh, yeah," he growled. "I almost forgot about Thanos."

"We spent three weeks in space looking for him," Mikey told the others. "Hope you guys had more luck than we did."

Rhodes shook his head. "No, we don't know where he is."

"I'll go find him," the blonde woman finally spoke up.

Raph looked at her with a raised eye ridge. "And you are...?"

"Carol Danvers," she said with a nod. "Captain Marvel."

"'Captain Marvel'? Never heard of you. Anyway, if we couldn't find Thanos, what makes you think you could?"

"I know people who might know where he is."

"Yeah?" Raph snorted and pointed to the ceiling. "Well, we have friends in high places, too, and they couldn't find squat. Plus a lot of people were too scared to talk."

Suddenly another female voice spoke up, "Don't bother."

Everyone turned to see Gamora's sister Nebula standing in the doorway.

"I can tell you where Thanos is," she told them.

"Nebula," Mikey gasped, surprised to see the cyborg with the Avengers.

Raph looked at his brother confused. "Who?"

"Nebula is Gamora's sister," Mikey explained. "The first time we met, she tried to kill me and the other Guardians, but she's on our side now." He walked over to Nebula and raised his hand for a high-five. "'Sup, Neb? How you been, girl?"

Nebula briefly looked at him with cold eyes before she walked right past him and continued to talk to the Avengers. "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'."

Mikey tilted his head. "The 'Garden'?"

"That's cute," Rhodes said. "Thanos has a retirement plan."

"So where is he?" Steve asked.

Rocket climbed onto the table and activated a device that projected a hologram of Earth. "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." Another planet appeared in the hologram. "On this planet."

Mikey walked up to the table, staring at the hologram. "So Thanos is there."

"He used the Stones again," Natasha concluded.

"Hey, hey, hey, we'd be going in short-handed, you know," Bruce warned.

Rhodes was a bit nervous, too. "Look, he's still got the Stones, so-"

"So let's get him," Carol said unfazed. "Use them to bring everyone back."

"Just like that?"

Steve nodded in agreement. "Yeah, just like that."

"Even if there's a small chance that we can undo this," Natasha said. "I mean, we owe it to everyone who's not in this room to try."

Bruce was still reluctant. "If we do this, how do we know it's gonna end any differently than it did before?"

"Because before, you didn't have me," Carol stated.

Raph looked at her appalled. "What?!" he said incredulously. "Oh, okay, Miss High and Mighty, if you're so important to the team, then where were you?!"

Carol stared at him hard. "There are a lot of other planets in the universe. And unfortunately, they didn't have you guys."

Everyone else in the room was affected by her words. Except Raph, who just glared at her.

"And this planet needed you," he pointed out.

"Alright," Steve stepped in between them, "let's just calm down. We'll settle this some other time. Right now...let's go get this son of a bitch."

The whole team was now aboard the spaceship the Benatar and as it was leaving Earth, Rocket, who was the pilot, turned to the others. "Okay, who here hasn't been to space?"

Steve, Natasha, and Rhodes raised their hands.

"Why?" Rhodes asked.

"You better not throw up on my ship," Rocket grumbled.

Nebula began the countdown for the jump point. "Approaching jump in three...two...one!"

"Ooh, boy." Mikey held his breath and squeezed the arms of his seat as the ship flew through a jump point and let out a big sigh of relief once it was over and they arrived at their destination.

"That wasn't so bad," Raph said with a shrug. "Kinda fun actually."

Mikey chuckled weakly. His brother didn't know of the 700 jump that he did four years ago. "Yeah, fun."

With her powers, Carol was able to breathe in space and she flew out of the ship. "I'll head down for recon," she told the crew before she darted into the planet.

Raph scoffed as he watched her leave. "Captain Barbie thinks she's so tough, but Mona's tougher."

"Oh, yeah?" Mikey teased. "Why don't you say that to her face, then?"

"I'm not that stupid, Mikey." He paused before he asked Rocket, "She can't hear us, right?"

Rocket shrugged with a grin. "I dunno. Maybe?"

"That's not funny!" Raph snapped.

"Can you believe it, Raph?" Mikey whispered excitedly to his brother. "We're saving the world with the Avengers! If only Leo and Donnie were here. They'd be geeking out, too!"

Raph didn't share Mikey's enthusiasm and looked at the planet with a troubled expression. "But what if we never save the world? You heard what Bishop said: Thanos is always one step ahead of everybody. He might have one more trick up his sleeve, and if that's the case, we're screwed."

Although he had his own doubts, Mikey tried to stay optimistic and gave his brother's shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "It'll be okay, bro. With all of us working together, we can do anything."

Carol suddenly reappeared before the ship. "No satellites. No ships. No armies. No ground defenses of any kind. It's just him."

"Really?" Mikey asked. This could be easier than they thought.

Nebula remained impassive. "And that's enough."

...

As soon as they landed the ship in a field of strange crops, the Avengers wasted no time in charging toward the small farm where Thanos apparently lived. The Hamato brothers were the last to arrive at the Titan's small shed and were surprised by what they saw.

The person that the whole universe feared so much wore simple peasant clothing unfit for a mighty warlord and his entire left face was badly burnt. He was even missing his left arm, and judging from the blood that was dripping off Thor's axe, it was a fresh wound. Carol had him in a chokehold while Rhodes, who was in his War Machine suit, held onto his right arm, leaving him completely helpless and at their mercy.

At one point Thanos looked straight into Mikey's eyes and a shiver went down the Turtle's spine. The darkness and evil that he saw in the nightmare Thanos' eyes was there. He forced himself to glance away and helped Rocket to turn over the Infinity Gauntlet that was lying on the ground.

But to their horror, the Stones were missing.

Rocket looked up at Mikey dismayed. "Oh, no," he whispered.

"What?" Raph rushed to his brother's side. "What is it?"

"The Stones are gone," Miket softly said. Why did he think that it was going to easy?

Steve approached Thanos with an enraged expression. "Where are they?"

Carol choked the Titan even tighter. "Answer the question," she hissed.

Thanos grimaced and coughed. "The universe required correction," he said in a raspy voice. "After that, the Stones served no purpose beyond temptation."

Bruce marched up to Thanos in his Iron Hulk suit. "YOU MURDERED TRILLIONS!" he bellowed as he shoved the Titan to the floor.

"You should be grateful," Thanos argued weakly, which earned him a punch in the face from Bruce.

Natasha trembled with rage. "Where are the Stones?" she demanded.

"Gone," Thanos replied. "Reduced to atoms."

"You used them two days ago!" Bruce yelled.

"I used the Stones to destroy the Stones." He gestured to his scarred face. "It nearly killed me."

Mikey felt his heart drop to his stomach.

"You're lying," Raph growled as he reached for his sai. "If you want to live, tell us where they are. Now!"

But Thanos wasn't fazed. "Go ahead. Kill me. I've fulfilled my purpose. The work is done. It always will be." He sneered at them all. "I am...inevitable."

I am inevitable.

Thanos spoke those same exact words in Mikey's dream. It couldn't be a coincidence. What if it was Thanos' destiny to destroy half the universe with the Infinity Stones? And there was nothing they could do to change that?

Rhodes shook his head in denial. "We have to tear this place apart. He has to be lying!"

"My father is many things," Nebula stepped forward. "A liar is not one of them."

Thanos looked up at his adopted daughter and smiled. "Ah. Thank you, daughter. Perhaps I treated you too harshly."

This made Mikey finally snap and he grabbed Thanos by the collar of his shirt. "'Perhaps'?!" he shouted in the Titan's face. "You tortured her! You ruined her life! Don't pretend that you love her or Gamora 'cause you don't! You don't love anything!"

Thanos seemed surprised by Mikey's words, then he chuckled weakly, which confused the young mutant. He looked directly at Nebula. "You didn't tell him."

"What?" Mikey turned to Nebula. "What's he talking about?"

Nebula was silent and there was sadness in her dark eyes, which made Mikey even more worried.

"Nebula, tell me," he urged. "What is he talking about?"

The cyborg finally spoke in a soft, pained voice as she lowered her gaze to the floor. "He killed Gamora for the Soul Stone."

Upon hearing those words, Mikey felt his whole world crumble and fall apart. He released Thanos' shirt in shock and stumbled back a few steps, staring blankly ahead as the horrible truth slowly sank in. "Gamora's...dead?" he choked.

There was remorse in Thanos' eyes as he spoke his final words. "It had to be done. You couldn't possibly understand-"

With one swipe of his axe, Thor cut Thanos' head clean off his shoulders. Mikey didn't even flinch or blink when the blood splattered all over his face and plastron. Everyone else stared at the thunder god in shock.

"What did you do?" Rocket said softly.

Thor was breathing heavily. "I went for the head," he said in a trembling voice before he started to walk toward the front door.

Raph snapped out of his shock and turned to the other Avengers. "Wait. Wait. We can just find another way to fix this, right?"

No one answered him. The atmosphere felt somber and gloomy.

Regardless, the Turtle pressed on. "I mean, you're the Avengers, the world's greatest heroes. You can do anything-"

"Kid," Rhodes put his hand on Raph's shoulder and looked at him with sad eyes, "we're not as invincible and omnipotent as you think. We can only do so much, and there's nothing we can do about this. It's over."

Raph couldn't believe what he was hearing and shook his head as he started to plead. "No, you...you can't give up. You can't. What about all those people? What about my brothers?"

All Rhodes could do was give him a sympathetic squeeze. "I'm sorry," he said with genuine remorse and then he walked out the door.

The mutant desperatedly looked around at everyone else. Steve, Natasha, Carol, and Bruce all looked utterly defeated. Mikey just stood where he was, still as a statue and not responding even after Rocket gently took his hand. Nebula knelt on the floor next to Thanos' head and closed his lifeless eyes.

It was then that he finally understood that his brothers were gone forever and that Thanos had won.

He fell to his knees a broken Turtle and wept.