Chapter 3: Zero, Zip, Nada

DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fanfiction that uses characters, themes, and universe that belong to Marvel Studios, the writers/directors of the MCU, and the brilliant mind of Stan Lee. I do not own nor claim any of the characters as my own creation, other than the original character R'dawē. The main character's name is spelled Circe, but pronounced like Saoirse ("sir-sha"). She is based on Jack Kirby's original character, but I have created an original backstory and characterization for her. This is NOT the MCU Circe. *This chapter contains dialogue from the film "Avengers: Endgame." Credit for those lines belongs to the writers/directors/actors of the film.* Thank you for your attention and enjoy!

The team converged around a holo-table, with images of the fallen Avengers projected above. Colonel Rhodes broke the comfortless silence, "It's been twenty-three days since Thanos came to Earth." There was that name again, the faceless, formless name that had haunted Circe and R'dawē throughout their research the past few weeks.

Agent Romanoff stepped forward, nodding in the direction of the UN staffers, "World governments are in pieces. The parts that are still working are trying to take a census." Holographic pictures flashed up above the table. So many good people, so many important ones, were gone. "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." It was silent for a moment, as they took in the information that they had all suspected. It still felt surreal to hear it spoken aloud. Circe saw a photo of Nick Fury, the former S.H.I.E.L.D. Director, illuminate.

"Where is he now? Where?" Mr. Stark chimed in. He looked so much worse than Circe remembered. The battle against Thanos and the time stuck in space had really weakened him. It tore at her heart to see a hero, someone she looked up to, in such a state.

Captain Rogers sighed, "We don't know. He just opened a portal and walked through." The resignation in his tone was similarly disturbing.

Circe shifted where she stood, brushing shoulders with R'dawē. It was disconcerting; the hopelessness was nearly palpable. Where was the ruthless determination? When were they going to lay out a strategy to find this Thanos and bring him to justice? This was not at all what she had expected to find.

Mr. Stark gestured to where Thor sat, "What's wrong with him?"

"He thinks he failed," a voice said, from somewhere near the floor. Who was it? Circe hadn't seen anyone else enter the room since the meeting started. She craned her neck to see and…hold on…was that a… no, it couldn't possibly be. "Which of course he did." Oh shit, it was. "But you know there's a lot of that going around, ain't there?" Circe elbowed R'dawē in the ribs, her eyes never leaving the racoon that had spoken. That. Had. Spoken.

"Honestly, until this exact second, I thought you were a Build-a-Bear," Mr. Stark quipped, looking over his glasses at the fuzzy creature.

The racoon shrugged and murmured half to itself, "Maybe I am." Okay, this was a bit bewildering. In her conversations with Thor, Circe had discovered that there was a vast variety of life out in the universe. But this was unexpected. Back home, she had to chase racoons out of her garbage cans several times a week. But this one sounded, well, fairly intelligent, and had a vague southern accent, which made it all the more bizarre.

"We've been hunting Thanos for three weeks now," Captain Rogers said, intentionally drawing the conversation back to the topic at hand. "Deep space scans and satellites, and we got nothing."

Circe felt compelled to speak, though it was hard to draw her curiosity away from the racoon; she and R'dawē had been tirelessly working along similar ends for weeks. "We've been monitoring for outer-orbital communications, analyzing the energy signature of Thanos's arrival and disappearance. But…nothing yet."

Captain Rogers turned back to Mr. Stark, "Tony, you fought him."

Mr. Stark started in his chair, "Who told you that? I didn't fight him. No, he wiped my face with a planet, while the Bleeker Street Magician gave away the stone. That's what happened. There was no fight."

Circe cringed, her eyes downcast, as she heard the two heroes begin to argue. This was her fault. She knew it. Everyone knew it. If only she had fought harder to make the Sokovia Accords more balanced, fairer. Iron Man and Captain America had been allies, the foundation of the team.

She could have done something, anything to stop the Avengers from falling apart. Instead, the document that she had helped to produce had polarized Earth's mightiest heroes and drawn them into battle in Germany two years before. She had been there too, observing from the sidelines, hidden with R'dawē. It had been immensely painful to watch. This was no less troubling. Mr. Stark was standing, ranting about how he had seen this coming and Circe felt a sense of overwhelming shame wash over her.

"I got nothing for you, Cap! I got no coordinates, no clues, no strategies, no options. Zero. Zip. Nada." his voice was a menacing whisper. "No trust. Liar."

Mr. Stark tore the arc reactor off his chest suddenly and Circe jumped at the unexpected movement. He placed the device in Captain Rogers' hand, scowling and starting to sway on his feet.

"Here, take this. You find him, and you put that on. You hide," he accused bitterly. His knees were starting to give out.

Circe lunged forward instinctively as she saw Mr. Stark fall to the ground. He was still upright, though his eyes seemed distant. This can't be happening.

"I'm fine…" Mr. Stark managed to say before collapsing entirely. Circe was the first one down, ensuring his head didn't hit the floor. Here was Iron Man, unconscious, sprawled on the floor looking like half the man he used to be. Thanos really had won. What were they going to do?

"I'm going to talk to the racoon." Circe whispered to R'dawē as they watched Mr. Stark get settled in what appeared to be a makeshift, high-tech hospital bed. He was still so agitated, and the tension in the room was palpable. She had to get her mind off it and start looking for answers. Worrying about the past wasn't going to bring anybody back.

"You first," R'dawē responded quietly, eyeing the animal uncertainly. "He doesn't seem very friendly. Also, did he speak earlier? I thought I had gone crazy, but you heard it too, right?."

"I heard it. But you're still crazy," Circe smirked, "And he seems like the chatty type; come on." She put a hand on R'dawē's shoulder and steered him in the direction of raccoon, who had been leaning against the wall like his life depended on it. He had been despondent throughout Cap and Mr. Stark's argument, but she had a feeling he might be useful to figuring out their next steps.

He looked up when she approached. "What do you want?" the short, fuzzy, heavily armed creature asked irritably.

"I'm Circe," she said confidently, by way of introduction, still not sure after all these years how to begin a conversation with a…well, with an alien.

The racoon looked perplexed and mildly disgusted, "Okay?…I'm Rocket."

"Rocket, it's…it's nice to meet you," she replied pleasantly, trying her best to maintain the appearance of calm collectedness. Though the mood was somber in the Compound, Circe couldn't help but feel energized at the prospect of conversing with a being who had traversed the galaxies. She had always been intrigued by what lay beyond Earth, past the solar system, and encounters like these slaked her thirst for knowledge, however temporarily.

"You're staring."

Damn, he noticed. "Oh. Sorry. It's, ah…it's been a long day, I didn't been to be rude."

Rocket snorted and crossed his arms over his chest, "Who's your boyfriend?"

"R'dawē. He's my colleague and friend," Circe corrected.

"Uh huh," Rocket was already turning his attention towards R'dawē, or more specifically, the portable computer that was in his hand. "Did you say you've been monitoring space for the energy signatures like what Thanos created on Earth?"

R'dawē nodded, holding out his tablet to the racoon a bit reluctantly, "Yes, we have an algorithm that searches for similarities, but the range on it only goes so far."

Rocket took the tablet and began swiping from screen to screen, surveying the data. R'dawē looked to Circe, eyes wide and uncertain. She could tell from his face that he was astonished, and no small bit unnerved, by the creature's human-like abilities.

"Huh. Well I guess you two aren't as big of idiots as you look." Rocket resolved as he analyzed the maps and star-charts that the pair had assembled over the past few weeks. "Come with me, I got a device that could extend your search. We just gotta install the algorithm and bingo, might actually find the purple creep."

Rocket led them into an adjoining room, one that had a larger table to work with and what looked to be a lot of advanced weaponry and technology that Circe had never even seen before. As R'dawē sat down to collaborate with Rocket, she perused the gadgets carefully, looking them over with a critical eye. If Agent Romanoff was right, and Thanos had really wiped out half of all living creatures in the entire universe, perhaps the tragedy could be leveraged to create unity between worlds, between systems, expand Earth's partnerships beyond just a few special individuals like Thor. But even as she considered it, she knew it was impractical. Societies on Earth barely got along as it was, and in the midst of this chaos, things had only gotten worse. It seemed that amity between inhabitants of different worlds was far-fetched, at best.

Beside her, something moved with impressive stealth and composure to push a particularly complex device out of her reach. Circe looked up and met the eyes of a figure her height, decidedly alien, and with dark, haunted eyes.

"That's a grenade," said the husky voice succinctly.

Circe blinked, withdrawing her hand. "Right, sorry. I'm Circe."

The alien woman nodded once, making a muffled sound of acknowledgement. "Nebula," she murmured in response.

The two stood beside each other in companionable silence. Despite the endless questions Circe wanted to ask, she could sense that now was not the time. This Nebula was clearly feeling the anguish of loss too. Her eyes were trained on Mr. Stark, who was now laying in the cot with Pepper Potts and Colonel Rhodes by his side, as the other Avengers were engaged in discussion with the new addition to the team, the blonde woman whom Circe had never seen before.

Both Circe and Nebula were quiet, standing on the fringes of the action. As Rocket and R'dawē sat working over the tablet, Circe realized that the four of them were rather outcasts, newcomers, but not yet included into the fold that was the Avengers. She expected no less, personally. But for Nebula and Rocket, what must they be thinking? Where had they come from? Why?

"Circe!" R'dawē came up behind her quickly and she turned around to see a hopeful expression on his face. "We might have found something, come look!"

"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 explained, gesturing to R'dawē to pull up a hologram on the table projector. "On this planet."

Circe's eyes widened. It was green and beautiful. And it was harboring evil. The team had reconvened around the holo-table and were listening intently to what Rocket and R'dawē had discovered.

Nebula spoke solemnly, "Thanos is there."

"He used the stones again," Agent Romanoff stated with both conviction and a hint of undisguised fear in her voice.

R'dawē nodded, crossing his arms across his chest, "That's what this is showing, but we don't know why and we don't know what it did."

"Hey, hey, hey. We'd be going in short-handed, you know," Dr. Banner cautioned, worry clouding his face, as Agent Romanoff continued to assess the planet projected on the table.

Colonel Rhodes shook his head absently, "Look, he's still got the stones, so…"

"So let's get him," the new woman, Carol Danvers, proposed abruptly. 'Use them to bring everyone back."

Circe admired her confidence and assertiveness. It was the right idea. They had no time to waste. Okay, admittedly, it did sound a little implausible, but what was needed now was action.

Colonel Rhodes objected, "Just like that?"

"Yeah, just like that," Captain Rogers said, giving a knowing look to Captain Danvers. The woman nodded imperceptibly, her expression a mix of determination and sorrow.

Circe glanced at R'dawē. He had been watching her from across the room during the whole discussion. Clearly, he knew that she was planning something. He could practically see the gears spinning in her mind.

"I'm going too," she announced. Immediately, everyone's heads turned to face her.

"Going? You can't be serious." Captain Rogers replied. "We're dealing with a dangerous unknown and on his territory. This isn't…"

"I'm aware of that," Circe interrupted. "You need me."

She could tell he was getting frustrated, "With all due respect, Ms. Mismyre, we can do this without your help."

"Steve, maybe we should…" Agent Romanoff began, before Captain Rogers stepped forward, ignoring the comment and directing his words to Circe.

"This isn't up for debate. You're not going," he pressed, moving closer so that he was essentially looming over Circe. She refused to be intimidated. This was not the first time a man had looked down on her, but it would certainly be his last. "You're an intellectual. You theorize. I've read your reports and they're good, but that's not what we need here. Thanos isn't going to negotiate. This is a battle and you'll only get in the way." He paused, placing his hands on his hips authoritatively, "Moreover, I don't trust you. You're an inexperienced bureaucrat whose biggest accomplishment was the Accords that tore this team apart. That's on you."

"You don't trust me?" she laughed harshly, pulling herself up to her full height, which was nothing compared to Captain America. A small part of her broke hearing him echo her earlier misgivings.

"I don't. No one in this room should. You doubled talked all of us about the Accords. The UN tried to restrict us from doing what was right, and if we had been able to function independently, we might have been able to defeat Thanos. " Captain Rogers pointed back to the spot where Mr. Stark had fallen. "What you saw earlier, that was on the UN."

She had had enough. "I'm not asking you to trust the UN, Captain Rogers. I am asking you to trust me. There's a difference. And one day, when we actually have time for this, I'll gladly explain to you my position on the Accords."

He huffed in disbelief, moving to turn away, dismissing her in the process. But she wasn't done.

"No, I AM going!" she said forcefully, taking a few steps towards his retreating figure. R'dawē subtly shook his head from across the room, trying to dissuade her from pressing the matter further, but she ignored it. "You think that you're the only one who lost friends, family to this monster? I lost my parents, Captain. I waited for days for their call. They always call. After the bombing in Vienna…" She saw him flinch. Good. "After every thunderstorm or highway accident reported on the news, they always call. But they haven't. They're gone. We all lost people. And I'll be damned if I'm told to sit here and do nothing, when the entire world, the whole universe apparently, is waiting and suffering and you, you, sir, sure as hell aren't going to stand in my way." Tears threatened to spill over, but she somehow maintained composure enough to keep them at bay. Crying would do no good here. She tried to push the pain of losing her family back into the dark little box in her heart that it had been relegated to in the aftermath of Thanos's snap.

"I may be a bureaucrat, I may not save the world every few years, but this affects me too," her voice cracked at the end. "I'll do whatever you ask. We need to bring them back. Whatever it takes."

It was silent. Thor had stopped eating at his table a short distance away, emotionlessly observing the heated discussion play out. Nebula, too, watched with a detached calm. It was disconcerting to look around and not see any visible support for her words.

"Whatever it takes." Captain Danvers stepped forward, repeating Circe's words and giving her an affirming nod. "She's right." Circe let out a breath that she had been holding in.

"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." Agent Romanoff declared.

Attention now turned back to Captain Rogers. He sighed and shook his head. It was silent for what felt like ages but couldn't have been more than a few seconds. "Don't make me regret this."

Circe felt her heart lift. He was agreeing? Agreeing that she could join the Avengers and go to space? She felt a hand grip her shoulder briefly and turned to see Captain Danvers giving her an encouraging smile, "You are ready for this."

Circe nodded haltingly, taking a few steps away to diffuse the remaining tension in the room. As the team reconvened around the holo-table, R'dawē approached Circe quietly. His eyes were troubled, and she could sense waves of nervous energy coming from him. As they drew together, he put a hand on her arm, which she covered with her own. She knew that his fear stemmed from the deep friendship that they shared, the compassion he had for her, and his uncertainty about the situation as a whole. It was nice, knowing that he cared so much. In the absence of her family, R'dawē was all she had left.

"Are you sure about this?" he repeated his question, this time with new meaning behind the words. She was going to space to try to defeat the menace who had turned her world upside down.

She wasn't sure about anything. But she knew that this was the right thing to do.

A/N: Reviews make me very happy! If you have a moment, I'd be grateful for your feedback! It's a long chapter (sorry!), and I've worked really hard on integrating scenes from the film while adding new original content! Thank you!