ENDGAME

After Carol brings Tony and Nebula to Earth, Tony is furious Steve lost Elara. He reminds Steve how scared she was of Thanos. Steve tells Tony they were wrong about her relationship with Thanos, that Tony didn't see the way she spoke to him or the way he looked at her. Nebula admits that Thanos' plan had always ended with Elara, leaving her to raise his children in a better universe.

Steve tells Carol before they get to the planet there's a woman with Thanos, one they'd very much like to bring home.

On the planet Thanos is gathering food for breakfast, brings it inside to Elara who's starting a fire. He sits behind her while she stirs the pot over the flame, reaching a hand to her hair with a gentle smile. She wore an old dress that showed her swollen stomach. He'd sat on the steps out front yesterday watching her inspect the ground around their home for where she'd bury the eggs. He hoped their children would bring back her smile.

He hears something and looks up, raises his gloved hand to catch the blast that was aimed at Elara. The force of it throws them both back and she falls over his chest. He uses the time he had to fight back to pick Elara up and push her away before Carol launches herself at him.

Elara presses herself to the wall watching Bruce and Rhodey crash into the home to restrain him, then Thor burst in cutting the hand that wore the gauntlet off. His cries of pain had her turning away, not wanting to see what they did to him. She sat quietly as the others came to understand the stones had been destroyed, Nebula found her near the front of building against the wall and knelt beside her. After Thor cuts his head off, Steve turns looking for Elara and finds her standing with her head on Nebula's shoulder turned away from their father. His eyes fall to her swollen stomach in sad understanding.

...

Even though Tony had made it clear he wanted nothing to do with Steve, he still brought Elara to Tony not knowing who else could help because Nebula couldn't bring herself to look at her. Tony almost kicks them both out but Elara stares blankly at the wall as though her mind wasn't all there yet – there's a little more blue to her eyes than normal. Pepper takes her upstairs to have a bath and get changed. Steve tries to appeal to Tony, that Tony was the one who'd made Elara their responsibility. "And you took that responsibility over," Tony reminds him. "Then you let him have her, so this is on you too."
"Our soil doesn't have enough nutrients for the eggs," Steve tries to tell him, knowing he could help – "the offspring of a murdering tyrant," Tony reminds him. Steve counters back, "you gonna look her in the eye and tell her you're letting her children die?"

Elara comes down in Tony's clothes asking if they were going back now. Steve tells her that's not why they came here, and she quickly replies "of course it is." Tony adds, "actually you were just leaving." Elara looks between the two of them, one looking pained and the other seething, and her eyes dampen as she shakes her head. "No," she tells them, "no, you're taking me back. It was a good planet, I'll bury the eggs and stay for a few months and you can come get us." She looked at them with wide eyes as her hands shook, her voice rising to a shrill hysterical tone. "This did not happen for it to mean nothing."
"Okay," Tony said raising his voice over hers, "I will fix it. Okay? I'll-I'll make an incubator with whatever you need, just stop crying," he told her. She stood gasping like she couldn't catch her breath, the blue was gone from her eyes – the last effects of the mind stone were gone and Elara was now left what had happened. "We're okay," he told her, and held her eye until she nodded. He then turned to Steve, "you're leaving, because we," he pointed between himself and Elara, "are okay." He then turned to Elara and added, "and we're not crying."
"Because we're okay," she whispered, feeling like she did when he first found her – like everything would be fine because he knew what to do.
"Because we're okay," he repeated seeing she was calming down. "Now come on, tell me what you need." Steve watched them go down to the lab so Tony could draft up a model of what she needed.

A few days later Tony stumbled into his bathroom at her calling for him and he stared down at where Elara sat in the tub having laid three large eggs. "Why did you do this in my bathtub?"
"Because yours is bigger than mine," she answered sounding matter of fact.
"Because it's my bathtub," he exclaimed grabbing a towel. He put the soft wet eggs in the towel and stood looking down at her. "Clean yourself up, and," he motioned to the blood-tinged puddle in the tub between her legs, "just clean everything."

Elara spent most of her days in his lab watching her eggs. Her people didn't get to watch them harden as the babies grew, they buried them to incubate and would dig them out when they heard the baby cry. Tony found in a few months only one was showing signs of viability in the monitor. From how quiet and serious Elara was he thought she might know.

They moved to a cabin by the river in the following months, big enough for Elara to have the guest room. Pepper gave birth two months before Elara's children were to be born. Elara had held his daughter once before she broke down in tears, she hadn't left her room after that as she sat next to the incubator waiting for them. Tony calls Nebula back from where she and Rocket had been helping Captain Marvel in space, and the two go to Elara having come up with a way to tell her they were gone. But they find her sitting with the door to the incubator open smiling down at a baby with lilac colored skin and technicolor eyes. It was the first time Elara had smiled since coming back.
Nova was the only one to be born. Elara buried the other two beneath a tree by the river, and Nebula takes her hand holding her in a way she hadn't felt safe enough to before.

Nova's too young for Elara to be able to bring her, some of the planets needed more help and they couldn't leave Nova on the ship yet. So Nebula goes back to space with Rocket and Captain Marvel, but Nebula visits often and when she can't she calls.
Tony moves Elara and Nova into a small cabin on the edge of his property, close enough she felt like she had people but not close enough to feel like they lived together. And secluded enough no one could see Nova's telling coloring and know her father is who'd caused all this. Motherhood calmed the restlessness in Elara to a bearable degree, it was almost that Tony didn't mind having her so close. It also meant he got to see Nebula when she visited Elara and Nova, and it was known that he favored Nebula. Pepper and Elara spend a lot of time together those days, as first time mothers, their kids growing the next four years as best friends.

Steve and Natasha come by often and they become Uncle Steve and Aunt Tasha. As she gets older Rocket starts visiting with Nebula, and he pretends he doesn't like how Nova calls him a fluffy puppy and hugs him. Nebula had taken to bringing Nova back little trinkets each time she visited, Nova got used to her gruff voice that always sounded angry.
Nova, though only four was the height of a child twice her age, and they found she hadn't inherited her mother's ability to camouflage. But she was a sweet girl with her mother's gentle nature and bright watched as freedom, with Tony as a somewhat more positive influence, and as looking after Nova - began to soften Nebula's sharper edges. They grew closer again during these years each time Nebula visited, both different than when they first left each other. It took Elara most of those years to let go of Bucky enough to let Nebula closer.

...

While the others work on getting the stones from the past to bring back the people they'd lost, Elara and Nova stay with Pepper and Morgan in the guest room. If this worked it meant Elara and Nova would leave Earth with the rest of the Guardians, the girls wanted as much time as they could get before they'd be separated. Elara brings Nova to the river to visit the two children she'd lost to say goodbye, and they find Nebula leaning against the tree. Nova grins and runs up to her before Elara can place the look in Nebula's eyes, before Elara understands this isn't their Nebula. Hearing rustling in the trees Elara looks to see the Black Order surrounding them, and she turns back to where her daughter was trying to pull away from Nebula having picked up on her mother's fear. "He's waiting for you," Nebula tells her without the warmth Elara had grown used to.
Knowing she had no way of getting to her daughter without her other siblings getting her first, Elara walks the rest of the way to the bench Tony had put near the place she'd buried her children. She sits beside Thanos and they quietly look out over the peaceful water. "Is this how it was, in the end?" Thanos asks her in a soft voice. She looked at the side of his face wondering how he'd come here, having hoped to never see him again. Just once, she wanted the happiness she found to stay. "Yes," she answers waiting for him to look at her so she could read from his face what was happening. But he wouldn't, and she felt the world fall out from under her at realizing she would miss all of Nova's life.
"You were everything I hoped you'd be," he told her. His only regret is that she hadn't wanted to stay. She stares up at him seeing the crease in his brow as he refused to look at her, like he had the right to act like this was hurting him. "You'll make sure she knows, right? That she was loved?" He turned to her then, looking down at her wide pleading eyes knowing he planned to kill her this time. He might've expected anger as Gamora would've given him, or loathing loyalty as Nebula would have. Somehow this one always surprised him. He reached a hand to cup the back of her head, and at the memory of the gentle way Bucky used to hold her this way she flinched. "My sweet girl," he said softly as he stood, bringing her with him. "You will always have a place with me." Before she understood what that meant he slammed her head onto the bench knocking her out.

Elara wakes up alone and she stumbles to her feet searching the riverbank not seeing any sign of them or a ship. She runs to Tony's house finding only Pepper, and she tells Pepper he'd taken Nova. The two of them are gearing up when Strange calls all of them. Nova steps through the portal wearing her old white suit with her old sword once more clipped to her belt.

Elara finds Bucky as he comes out of Wakanda, he greets her with a smile and a warm, "hey beautiful." A smile splits wide on her face and relief floods her eyes, feeling like after five years the world was right again. "He has my daughter." Bucky's smile freezes as he stares at her pained eyes and he stands straighter telling her calmly, "okay."
Sam lands by them and his grin turns somber at Elara's serious expression. "We're getting her daughter back," Bucky tells him and turns to Elara as they get into position with the others. "Where is she?" Elara points to the large ship high above them on Thanos' side, where Elara's enhanced eyes can just barely make out her lilac colored daughter pressed against the window trying to find her mother's coloring.

Bucky and Sam get Elara as far as they can, fighting their way through the waves of Chitari that this time were ordered to kill Elara. They end up surrounded and Bucky yells for Sam to get Elara out of there. Sam swoops low grabbing Elara's arm and flies her up flinging her as far as he can further into Thanos' army, then goes back to help Bucky. When they'd killed all of the ones that surrounded them, Sam asks, "so you two," and trails off. Bucky stares at him blankly as he changes out the clip for his gun, "we can't have kids." Sam nods and scans the area around them for where he was needed. But before he leaves Bucky he slyly says, "so you two were together like that." Bucky walks away taking aim at a coming Chitari, "I'm not talking about this anymore."

Elara keeps fighting through, finding Nebula and Gamora. "He has Nova," Elara tells Nebula as she keeps going. Nebula turns to Gamora explaining it's her daughter, but she slips in a sudden rush of worry for the girl and says our daughter. "So he really did only want her for that," Gamora comments feeling a growing rage at what her little sister had been used for.
The sisters fight hard and lethal through Thanos' army and get to where the ship is, and are now left with how to get up to it. Carol flies through the ship damaging its weapons and rendering it useless. As it bursts into flames Carol flies through it again grabbing Nova and bringing her down to where her mother waited.
Nova runs to her mom and Elara falls to her knees gathering her daughter against her, thanking Carol before she goes to get the gauntlet from Peter. Elara stands seeing the mass of Chitari between them and her team, and she positions Nova on her back tying her knees together to keep Nova secure. "Keep your eyes closed, Stardust," Elara tells her. Nebula comes up beside them reaching a hand to Nova's small head, giving her as gentle a look as she was capable before turning to Elara. "I'll get her to the other side and come back for you," Elara tells her.
"Stay with her, I'll come to you." They share a heavy look, behind them Gamora sees the open fondness between them and bites back a smile. Nebula turns back to Nova who hugged Elara's shoulders tucking her face into the inside of her elbow. "Hold onto mom, little star." She lets Nova go and stands back readying herself to fight, and tells Elara, "don't come back for me. You stay safe." It takes Elara a moment to nod in agreement.

Pepper lands in front of them as Carol grabs the gauntlet, the other women positioning themselves around Elara. "We'll clear a path for you," Pepper tells her and the others agree. On Carol's signal they leap into battle.

Elara runs through the path they clear for her, knocking Chitari and blocking blasts. She dodges a few lunging attacks, drives her sword through several of Thanos' soldiers. Nebula watched Elara dart through the carnage, saw the way the Chitari would see her and lunge after Nova. As one of them launched itself at Nebula, she grit her teeth shoving it over shoulder and charged forward with it thrashing against her as she threw herself into the ape that was preparing to lunge at Elara.

As the women block Thanos from Carol as she flies the gauntlet to the van's quantum tunnel, he catches a glimpse of his daughter's lilac skin. When Thanos throws his sword to blow up the machine he yells, "down, Elara."
Elara drops down feeling a weight drop over her back shielding Nova as the wave of quantem energy from the explosion threw them back. An arm circled around Elara's waist as a metal hand dug into the dirt slowing their momentum. Bucky helps them up, glancing around them to make sure no Chitari were readying to attack. "You both okay?" he asks looking from Elara's relieved eyes to the girl clinging to her. At Elara's nod he gives a small smile and swings his gun around to his front. "Let's get you two out of the fight," he tells them. They use the time the others needed to get back to their feet to run the rest of the way across the battlefield, Bucky moving to her other side to shoot a Chitari as it lunged at them.

They get back to their side where they're more less safe, and Elara lets Nova down who stands with her arms wrapped around one of Elara's legs hiding behind her. Elara keeps a hand on Bucky's arm to assure herself he was there as she looks for Nebula. "There's my Super Nova." Nova turns with an excited gasp to where Rocket was climbing over debris. She finally lets go of Elara and hugs Rocket.
Elara and Bucky turn to Groot who comes over to her grinning. "The tree helped us fight," Bucky tells her, having tabled that oddity for later.
"I am Groot," it told Elara happily. "That's nice," Elara told him sounding unsure.
"He said it's nice to meet you," Rocket grumbled as Nova ran her hands over his fur as a way of self soothing. "Gamora talked about you."
Elara gives the sweet tree a small smile, and watches him give Nova a flower she happily took. Elara turned to Bucky, "do your," - "no, our trees don't talk," Bucky said answering the question he knew she'd been about to ask.
One of the Chitari ships was coming at them. Bucky didn't hesitate before he scooped Nova up and he and Elara ran for cover. As the ship came down on Rocket it turned to dust. Elara and Bucky turned watching dust fill the air as Thanos and his army were erased from existence, realizing they'd won. Bucky puts Nova down and Nova holds Elara's hand as they follow the others as they gather around where Tony lay.
Seeing Nebula Elara moved to her side, and they stand with Nova's arms around Elara's waist and Elara holding an arm around her shoulders. Nebula reaches a hand to the top of Nova's head. They hold their space in mournful silence as Tony passes.

Gamora leaves without saying goodbye to either of her sisters. Elara meets the guardians, who all knew her by name from the few times Gamora had mentioned her. She isn't what they're expecting, she's mild and kind on first impression where neither of her sisters had been. They stay for the funeral. Nova stands between Elara and Nebula, and Nebula places her hand over Elara's on Nova's shoulder.
They both say goodbye to Pepper, Elara with a tight hug, and Nebula with a quiet nod. "He was a good man," is all she could think to say for the other woman's loss. Pepper gave her a small fleeting smile knowing Tony had a soft spot for both of these women, Nebula especially.

Elara says her goodbyes after as the others disperse, and the guardians wait for their last member to be ready. She goes to Steve first, her first friend. "It's goodbye forever, isn't it?" she asks softly, seeing it in his eyes. "I think so," he agrees. He looks down at her with a gentle smile and warm eyes, seeing how much she'd grown since he first met her. "I'm so proud of you," he tells her making her smile. "Wherever you go, whoever it's with, promise me you'll stay happy."
She looked up at this brave, kind, man who'd shown her right from wrong. Now that she had a kid she was teaching that to, she saw the patience and love he'd given her all these years. "You first," she tells him and a smile tugs at the corner of his mouth.

She says goodbye to Sam the same time she introduces him to Nova. It wasn't what he'd expected, and he'd felt a rush of pain at seeing the kid's skin and knowing who her father was. But it suited Elara in a way that surprised him.

She leaves Bucky for last, the one goodbye she didn't want to give. She'd come to Earth because her father had ordered it, she followed Tony then Steve because she didn't know how to do things on her own. But Bucky, this broken man, he'd been her real first choice.
They stand several silent moments together just looking at each other, sharing space together. And as per usual, it was Elara to speak first. "I want so much for you in this life," she tells him, her voice barely above a whisper as her eyes filled with tears. "I just wish I could be apart of it."
He reached a hand to cup the back of her head feeling her lean into him. "I know," he assures her just as softly. She wraps her arms around his shoulders hugging him tight, and he gathers his arms around her back keeping her with him as long as he could. "Thank you for loving me," he whispers.
She pulled back cupping his face in her hands, her smile shivering before it fell. "You were easy to love," she tells him, watching that settle like pain in his eyes. She looks at him as long as she can trying to commit him to memory. "Just don't love anyone more than me," she tells him and they both give teary laughs. He pulls her hands from around his face and hold them to his chest, "never," he tells her.
They let each other go and stand back, sharing a last lingering look before she turns away. He watches her walk back to her daughter, the gentle hand she set on Nova's small shoulder as they both made their way to where the Guardians were waiting pretending like they hadn't been trying to eaves drop.

As they go to leave, Peter reaches a hand to Elara's shoulder understanding the pain of losing something that was still here. Nebula was side stepping Mantis who was trying to get a read on her, asking naively if she was jealous of Elara's boyfriend. Drax had Nova on his shoulders finding her smile reminded him of his daughter, and Nova was reaching for the flower Rocket held out to her from where he sat on Groot's shoulder next to her.

And like old times, when he'd been on the run and she'd somehow find him, Elara turned giving Bucky a sweet smile and a wave.

This ended up being longer than I thought. I know the name Nova exists already in Marvel, but I liked the star-themed nicknames too much to change it.
I've got one more chapter of some moments of Elara's life with the Guardians, with a little sprinkle of Bucky thrown in, and a final end for our dear Elara.