What If... || Avengers: Endgame

Prologue || The Blip

Thor pushed his ax called Stormbreaker further into Thanos' body. He groaned and weakly looked up. "You should've... You..." Suddenly, his voice sounded stronger. "You should've gone for the head." He then smirked and snapped his fingers, using the Infinity Stones to wipe out half the universe.

"No!" Thor screamed. Too late. "What'd you do?" He boiled in anger. "What'd you do?!"

The answer was quickly given when they heard a faint: "Guys?" somewhere further in the forest. Thor looked past Thanos to see Rhodey, aka War Machine, crumble into dust as his leftovers landed onto the ground. Thanos used the moment to escape, which made Thor stumble.

Steve looked down at his hand. It was also fading. Bucky frowned when he noticed. "Steve?" He helped Sasha to her feet. They sprinted towards him, but they were too late. Steve saluted to them before the dust that used to be his body floated down.

His friend fell down on their knees. Sasha shook her head. "Oh, Cap, not you..." she whispered. Bucky put his vibranium arm around her. She wrapped her arms around his body, her head buried in his chest, not being able to look at the crumpled corpse of her pseudo-brother.

He ran his flesh fingers through the pile of dust that used to be his army buddy. He squeezed his eyes shut. "This is the end of the line, " he whispered.

Bruce crawled to his feet. He saw Nat standing not too far away from him. "Nat, are you okay?" He approached her. She faintly nodded but looked down in shock and disgust when she felt her legs disappearing underneath her. She sighed, knowing she would go, and looked back up to Bruce.

His eyes widened. He firmly shook his head. "No..." He put his hand on her cheek. Nat sent him a faint smile as her glassy eyes broke apart and dramatically lowered near the ground. Bruce quickly followed as his body, inclusive the suit he wore, crumpled and landed, slightly being brushed by the wind.

"Up! This is no place to die, General, " T'Challa told Okoye after M'Baku and other Wakandan soldiers were torn apart into ashes. He took her hand, ready to help her up. She frowned confused when she dropped on her butt. It seemed that her hand was gone. After two split seconds, Okoye vanished.

Groot's big eyes widened even more when he saw his best friend turning to dust right before his eyes. "I am Groot?" he quietly spoke. His words meant: "Dad?".

Rocket sadly smiled. "Take care 'a yourself, kid. I do lo--" was all he managed to say before his small body dropped, now turned into the devilish dust.

Thor frowned sadly and in anger. His look softened when he spotted Lucy's feet fading to dust. She laid a few meters ahead. He jumped forward and kneeled beside her. She smiled. "I'll greet him for ya, " she whispered. She looked up at the sky.

Thor screamed as she disappeared. A few seconds later, his hands started to fall apart. He looked up at Groot, who wiped his wooden cheek. Thor frowned again. "It'll be fine, little tree, " were his last words before the worthy God crumpled apart.

Sam crawled over to Wanda, who was mourning over Vision while looking up to the places her friends stood before. He hugged her as she broke. "It'll be alright, girl, " he assured her when he rubbed her back, his eyes dropping on inactivated Vision.

On Titan, the remaining Guardians and Avengers collected themselves - Mantis propped up Star-Lord, Spider-Man helped Tony to his feet, Drax and Nebula managed to limp over on their own. Mantis took a tighter hold of Quill's arm. "Something's happening..." she mysteriously told the rest.

Drax suddenly screamed and pointed at Nebula's fading arm. She watched her body as it faded. "He did it..." She fell to ashes.

Quill's eyes widened in terror. "Oh my God, what the shit happened to her?"

Tony looked over at Peter, whose eyes widened. "Are you alright, kid?" he questioned.

"Are you?" Peter pointed at Stark's body, which was slowly turning to dust.

"Well, shit, " Tony muttered.

Peter quickly wrapped his arms around him. "I don't want you to go, Mr. Stark, please don't leave me..."

Tony hugged him back. "I'm sorry, " he whispered. "Please take care of baby Morgan." He grabbed Peter's shoulders. "And tell Pepper I love her." He sent Peter, who choked on tears, a swift smile before he fell apart.

Peter fell to his knees, crying. Mantis hugged him from behind. As her antennas began to glow, she joined his sadness. Drax stormed forward to Dr. Strange. "You! You did this!" he blamed while firmly pointing at him. Quill held him back.

Dr. Strange sighed sadly as he looked up to the group in front of him. "There was no other way..." He shook his head. "Someday, you'll understand..." Then, he left the scene, using one of his magical portals.

Peter's glassy eyes fell upon Tony's half-destroyed helmet. He carefully took it and pressed it against his chest. "Bye, dad..."

Shuri slowly opened her eyes. She looked around to see she was still in the lab. She crawled to her feet. The table where Vision was supposed to lay on was empty. "Where..." Her gaze fell upon the window. She looked outside only to see a destroyed battlefield and only half the army she used to know.

Bucky looked around at his friends, still sitting down. "What the hell is going on?"

Groot's brows furrowed in anger as his hot tears leaked onto the ground. "I am Groot." He knew exactly what was going on...