Frostbite

A New Hope

The room was still dark as I shot up in the bed. My skin was sticky with sweat, my chest heaving from breathing so heavily. I didn't want to wake Steve, so I threw the covers off to slip out of bed. Images from the nightmare still played in front of my eyes, making it hard to differentiate what was real and not.

The wind rustled the trees outside, the shadows dancing across the floor tauntingly. I tensed at the movement, still trying to calm myself. There was a quiet noise behind me, and I whirled at the sound. A blast of power went wide as I realized it was just Steve and tried to avoid hurting him. It hit the bookcase across the room, some of them flying off the shelves before it quickly froze over.

"I'm so sorry," I cried, sliding to the floor. I dropped my face into my hands in shame. His feet hit the floor with a soft thud. He circled around and kneeled in front of me. My hands were pried away from my face gently, and I met his eyes.

"It's alright. You're okay. You should have woken me up; I told you to if you had any more nightmares."

"I know, but then you'd never get any rest either," I half-heartedly joked. He sighed and pulled me back into the bed with him. His arms pulled me against his chest, and I curled up there, taking comfort in his embrace.

"You've been cooped up in this room for far too long. It's been almost two weeks. You're gonna come help Natasha and me tomorrow. No arguments," he told me, pressing a kiss onto my temple.

"You got it, Captain."

———————————————————————

Bruce was still messing with the pager around noon that same day. I hadn't been much help to him, but I kept my word and stayed in the lab. The images of everyone gone were too much, so I had avoided that room where they were all displayed as more accurate counts kept flooding in. Natasha and Steve were still trying to track Thanos through anything they could think of, but so far nothing had worked.

The beeping suddenly stopped and the screen on the pager went black. I jumped from my position and rushed over to where it was still hooked up to keep its battery going. None of the wires had moved, so it was the pager itself.

"What the hell," Bruce muttered, approaching to look for himself.

"What do you think it means? Should we try to get it back on?"

"I'm not sure-"

"What's going on?" Rhodey asked, announcing his arrival. We both jumped slightly, but he didn't seem to notice.

"Uh- the thing stopped working," I told him, waving at the device in front of us. He muttered something inaudible and went to find the others. Moments later he returned with both Steve and Nat. Bruce went back over to his computer to try and figure out what was going on.

"What have we got?" Natasha asked, stopping in front of the pager.

"Whatever the signal is sending, it finally creeped off," Bruce answered, with a shake of his head.

"I thought we bypassed the battery," Steve said, glancing between the two.

"We did. It's still plugged in, it just... it just stopped," Rhodey explained.

"Reboot and send the signal again."

"We don't even know what this is," I sighed, "What if that just backfires in our faces?"

"Fury did. Just do it, please. You tell me the second you get a signal. I want to know who's on the other end of that thing," Nat instructed, turning to leave once more. She stopped as she came face to face with a woman who had managed to sneak up on all of us. She was wearing a red, blue, and gold suit, her blonde hair the same shade as Natasha's but longer.

Her face was hard and emotionless as she asked, "Where's Fury?"

"Who the hell are you?" I demanded, freezing flames erupting from both of my hands. I slowly approached, unsure what to expect. Her body began glowing faintly, her eyes locking onto mine.

"Carol Danvers. I won't ask again; where is Fury?"

"He's gone. One of the one's who were snapped away," Bruce informed her, his face wary. The room was tense as we stood face to face. If she had wanted to do any damage, she would have by this point. I let the power fade away, and she did the same.

"Maybe someone should explain what's going on," she suggested, eyes darting between everyone in the room.

We gave her the rundown of everything leading up to the snap and what we'd been trying to do since. She took a few moments to process everything before she told us how she knew Fury. Apparently, they had meant a few decades ago and before she had left to return to space, she gave Fury the pager to call for her help if the situation was dire enough. Thanos had been.

"Wait- so you can fly? Through space?" I blurted, my head snapping up as a thought crossed my mind.

"Yes."

"Could you find my brother? Is it possible? We know they were on Titan before the snap."

She hesitated, before responding, "I could try and track him, but I can't promise anything. Space is vast, and so many things could factor into it, especially if they aren't on the planet anymore."

"I understand. Please, could you try? It's a lot to ask of someone I just met, but I'm out of options."

"I'll do my best," she offered, a sad smile turning the corners of her mouth, "I'll be back once I've found something. Keep trying to find Thanos."

She disappeared through the compound and some of the weight that had been crushing me lifted. I couldn't look Pepper in the face if I knew I hadn't done everything I could to bring him home. Especially once she had revealed her pregnancy to me. I hadn't told anyone else. She wanted the chance to tell Tony herself.

"She's right. That's a lot of ground to cover for one person," Rhodey remarked.

I turned to him, a kernel of hope blossoming, "Yeah, but she's Tony's best shot."