Rogue: Annihilation (An Avengers Sequel)

6. I'm Done Being A Hero

By the time Banner, Wong and I got back to Strange's place, both of the aliens and the rest of our small team had gone. Whether they were in space, or anywhere else in the universe, we had no way of knowing.

"I was willing to take your word on all of this," I told Banner, taking a seat on the broken staircase. "I was gonna protect the Stone no matter what, because you said we had to." I took a deep breath. "But Stark and his teenage protégé are chasing after a wizard and an alien in space to protect a magical stone that we know nothing about. And the only other Stone we know about is the one that powers Vision, who's probably somewhere with Wanda not knowing what's about to hit them." I looked him in the eye. "Before I get too far into this, I need to know exactly how scared to be. So, tell me everything that happened to Thor and Loki."

Banner sat beside me, running a weary hand over his face before he spoke. He looked like he'd aged ten years since I'd last seen him.

"Things were good," he said wistfully. "We saved the Asgardians, we were on our way back to Earth... and then Thanos came." Involuntarily, he shuddered. "He already had the Power Stone... he slaughtered half the Asgardians without even trying. Everyone that was left abandoned the ship, but we weren't that lucky."

I squinted in confusion, working the events out in my head. "That doesn't make any sense. If he wanted the Stones, why did he attack you guys? What could you have possibly had that he..." I trailed off, answering my own question. Back when the Avengers had beaten Loki, Fury had let Thor take his delinquent brother back to Asgard... and he let them keep what Loki was looking for. "The tesseract."

"The Space Stone," Wong added.

Banner nodded. "We thought it was gone when Asgard got destroyed, but Loki had it. It was like Thanos was drawn to it, like he's... tracking them." It was easy to see the pain and fear in his eyes as he recalled the story. "Loki tried to stab him, to get the upper hand, but Thanos... he killed him." He swallowed. "Heimdall opened the Bifrost and sent me here... I don't know what happened to Thor, but Thanos destroyed our ship."

I shook my head in disbelief. For Thanos to make Thor, practically the strongest Avenger, completely helpless told me exactly how powerful he was.

"But... what does Thanos want with the Stones?" I asked, my voice quiet. "Because if it's to rule the world, we've dealt with that 100 times over. Loki, Ultron, Kilgrave, in one way or another, they wanted to use their powers to control humanity. But none of them even tried to find all six Stones. So why Thanos?"

"Thanos believes that if he kills half of all life in the universe, he'll restore balance," Banner informed me. "In his mind, he thinks that he'd be making the world a better place."

"And the Stones will help him do that?" I asked, looking from Banner to Wong. "Can he really destroy half the world?"

Wong nodded solemnly. "If Thanos retrieves all six Stones, he will have the ability to bend time, space, energy, and the laws of physics and reality," he told me. "If we allow him to succeed... there will be no stopping him."

I nodded determinedly, taking my phone out, scrolling down to Jessica's number, and almost pressing the button.

"What is it?" Banner asked, noticing my hesitancy.

I sighed. "We split up for a reason, you know? It wasn't about petty arguments or fist fights. We broke Steve out of a government facility, Ross has a cell at the Raft ready for each of us. Leaving, running, was the only way to make sure that we were all safe, and free." I looked down at the number. "How can I drag them into this? I can't just call them up and say 'Hey guys, I know it's been six months of secrecy, but now I need you to risk everything to fight a guy who will definitely kill us all if he gets his hands on us. Oh, and there's still the possibility that Ross finds us and throws us in the Raft for all eternity... y'know, if Thanos doesn't get us first.'" I raked a nervous hand through my hair. "How can I ask them to do that?"