The Silent Five

Year One.

Thor walked towards the cliff overlooking the green valley below Thanos's cabin on Titan Two and stopped at the edge, dropping Stormbreaker at his feet. He stood silent, staring pensively into the expanse. Rocket approached Thor and stood at his side. "Don't beat yourself up over that. We all wanted to do it and he had it comin'," said Rocket, seeing tears well up in Thor's eyes. "I...I was born...created...to help people. I never wanted any of this," Rocket said. "All I've ever done...even the bad things...was because I thought I was doin' 'em for the right reasons. In the end it doesn't matter how ya got there. All that matters is whether ya got there at all." "I missed," said Thor through quiet sobs. He then picked up Stormbreaker, looking at it in disgust as he began to channel electricity through himself. "I let my father convince me I was worthy. I convinced MYSELF I was worthy," he said. "All this time I thought my brother was the deceiver...it was me." Thor then used Stormbreaker to summon the Bifrost and shot off of the planet. At this, Steve and the other Avengers ran out of the cabin to see what happened. "Where's he going?" Steve said. "I don't know, he just took off," said Rocket. "I'll find him," said Carol. She then exploded into flight and flew off the planet. "What do we do now?" asked Natasha. Steve turned to Thanos's cabin and said, "burn it." As the Benatar lifted slowly off of Titan Two, Thanos and his cabin burning to ash, Steve turned to look at the Infinity Gauntlet, locked in a storage compartment at the back of the ship. "All we can do is our best," he said to himself.

"Hey, there he is," said Tony, sitting up in his bed and clapping his hands as Steve approached the recovery room. "And here I was expecting someone in a FedEx disguise to show up and serve me divorce papers." Steve chuckled at this and said, "Looks like you're feeling better." "Yeah, turns out the Xorrians make this non-comedogenic, cruelty-free, gluten-free vegan face scrub that does WONDERS for the laugh lines." Steve laughed a second time and shook his head. A serious look then came over his face. "Why so glum?" Tony asked. "We found him," Steve said. At this, the color drained from Tony's face. He looked down at his lap, eyes darting around the bed. "Is he dead?" Tony asked. "Yes," said Steve. Tony began nervously nodding his head, looking up at Steve with an awkward smile on his face. He looked out into the waiting room and saw all of the surviving Avengers, with the exception of Thor and Captain Marvel, watching the interaction between him and Steve. "Where's Point Break?" Tony said, still looking out at everyone in the waiting room. "We don't know yet but Carol's looking for him," Steve said. "Makes sense. If anyone's earned a sabbatical it's the...the LORD of Thunder," replied Tony. "Thanos destroyed the stones, Tony. He used the gauntlet to destroy the stones," said Steve. At this, Tony leaned back against the headboard of his bed, visibly deflated. "So that's it. What's done is done," Tony said mournfully. He turned his head to look at the picture on his bedside table: Peter and Tony, giving each other bunny ears as they held up, upside down, the fake certificate of completion for the fake internship Tony extended to Peter in order to cover up Peter's participation in the incident at the Flughafen Leipzig-Halle. "Maybe not," said Steve. He then looked out at Bruce, who was standing behind a push cart, and motioned for him to bring it over. "The stones are gone, but we brought the gauntlet back in case there was any way-" As Steve said this, Tony's eyes widened in horror. He looked out at the waiting room and saw Bruce bringing the cart over. The gauntlet was on the cart, covered by a small tarp. Tony began screaming. "No! NO! Get it out of here! Get it out of here! GET IT OUT!" Bruce stopped pushing the cart towards the room and took his hands off of it. "Ok, ok Tony, relax," said Steve. "No!" Tony screamed. He grabbed the collar of Steve's shirt and said, "You destroy it! Melt it down, drop a nuke on it, I don't care, it doesn't matter just get rid of it! I can't believe you'd bring that thing here, what the hell is the matter with you?" "We thought you should look at it in case there was any way-" "Didn't you just tell me he destroyed the stones? There ISN'T...ANY...WAY!" Tony interrupted. He was in visibly stunned disbelief. "First you disappear, then you bring this...CURSE...into our house?" Steve, trying to get a word in edgewise, replied, "We thought-" "Yeah, you THOUGHT!" Tony interrupted. He then pointed at Steve, Clint, and Natasha. "You, you and you, you all THOUGHT. Cause that's always been the group dynamic, right?" Tony said, laughing. "You guys are the thinkers, and I'm in charge of throwing shields and using convoluted MMA moves to Tase people," Tony said. He began shaking his head. "Too many people "'THINKING."' Tony then got out of his bed and started collecting his things. "Tony, please, please just hear us out," Steve said. Tony interrupted Steve again, this time putting a finger in Steve's chest. "Ten years. I gave ten years of my life to the Avengers, Rogers, and all I've got to show for it is loss and death and regret. I REGRET meeting you, "'Cap"'. I REGRET the Avengers." Tony, now crying, then went out into the waiting room, pointed at Clint and Natasha, and said, "DON'T contact me." They both kept their heads down as he walked out of the room. As he walked out of the front doors of Avengers Headquarters, with Steve following closely behind, he turned to Steve and said, "A long time ago I said everything special about you came out of a bottle. I was wrong. Everything special about you was already in there. What came out of the bottle is what killed us. YOU killed us."