THE GAUNTLET SIZZLED on the scorched hand of Thanos. Thor looked at it, then laid his eyes back at the Titan.
"What did you do?" Thor asked, and got angrier, "What'd you do?"
Thanos looked around as if he was in a daze, then quickly summoned a portal using the Space Stone and transported himself out of Wakanda, leaving Stormbreaker on the floor.
Thor looked around, not understanding what just happened. Steve walked up to the Asgardian holding his side.
"Where did he go?" Steve asked, looking around as well, "Thor? Where'd he go?"
Thor was still speechless. The two then heard Bucky's voice nearby.
"Steve?"
He looked over at his longtime friend, and noticed his arm was fading away in a flurry of ashes. Bucky gave one final look at Steve, then dropped to the floor. His body fully turned into dust and scattered on the dirt.
Steve kneeled down near Bucky's rifle and ran his hands along the dust. He was in shock.
Nearby, Specter got up and examined the area. He still felt some pain from the shockwave he and Thanos caused, and held his shoulder. He saw Wanda in the ground, and ran over to her.
"Wanda? Wanda..." He breathed out as he helped her up. She groaned, still feeling the ache from Thanos's backhand moments ago.
"Y/N..." She spoke as she looked at him. Wanda looked around, and remembered Vision, "Vis..."
Y/N turned his head and saw the synthezoid's body at the same time the witch did. They walked over and knelt down beside it.
"My God..." Y/N muttered, seeing the gray corpse and hole in Vision's head.
Wanda silently cried, and Y/N caressed her back to give some sort of comfort, "Wanda..."
Y/N suddenly heard Okoye yell in Xhosa, her voice breaking and emotional. He wondered what was happening...
Then, dust started to form near him. He looked over, and saw Wanda's shoulder beginning to disintegrate. She felt weird, and turned to Specter.
"Y/N?"
He didn't know how to react upon seeing her arm start to disappear. His eyes widened.
"Wanda?"
Her body kept disintegrating, until her lower body and torso fully turned to ash.
"No..." Y/N breathed out.
Her head dissipated last, and the ashes flew away with the wind. He tried grab at them in desperation, not understanding what was happening.
"Wanda!"
Y/N sat there in shock.
"Sam! Sam, where you at?" He heard Rhodey call out nearby.
It wasn't long until he and the rest of the remaining team stumbled upon Specter near Vision's body. Steve walked up to him, and Natasha ran close behind and was in awe at the sight.
"Y/N?" Steve asked.
"Wanda's gone." He simply let out.
Steve and Thor understood what he meant since they had just seen Bucky disappear too. The rest of them still didn't know what was happening, though.
"What is this?" Rhodey asked. "What the hell is happening?"
Everybody stood silent as Steve sat near Y/N and Vision's body. He shook his head, trying not to believe the fact that they lost.
"Oh, God." He muttered.
Specter immediately got up and flew out of the woods, emitting a small sonic boom that startled the team.
Y/N hovered above Wakanda, seeing many of the soldiers and warriors dissipating into dust. Their worst fears came true, people were vanishing. People were dying.
Thanos had won.
• • •
WHAT REMAINED OF THE AVENGERS tried all they can in tracking down Thanos. It had been almost a month, and there were still no leads.
Y/N hadn't left the facility since they came back from Wakanda. He was going to stay and help find the Titan even if that meant passing out from exhaustion in the very conference room during the meetings.
It was late at night, and Y/N wore his civilian clothes as he looked out the lounge room window. He reached down to his pocket, and pulled out a small picture from his wallet.
It was a photo of him and Wanda during their first date in Central Park over two years ago, the one after their carriage ride. He has many photos containing the two of them, but this one was special to him.
It was from the day they truly realized their love for each other.
The last few weeks were hell for Y/N. Wanda was just ripped away from him, she vanished and he had no way to react or say goodbye. He was saddened, and angry. If he had the chance to kill Thanos himself, he would.
Whilst in his thoughts, Natasha walked into the room. She had just came from the shooting range and noticed Y/N looking out the window with a photo in hand.
"Hey." Natasha called out as she walked up.
The young man got startled, but eased himself upon the realization that it was his fellow friend.
"Hey, Nat. Any leads?"
"It's 1 AM. We've already exhausted ourselves yesterday." She crossed her arms and looked out the window too. "But we'll continue later today."
Y/N shook his head at his own dumb question. Of course they wouldn't have any leads as of now. "Yeah."
She looked down at the photo in his hand, immediately knowing what it contained. She remembered that day and how she helped Wanda prepare for her first date with Y/N.
"It could take twenty more days...it can take twenty more weeks...months...it doesn't matter. We'll find a way to bring them back." She said with sincerity.
"I hope." He looked back down at the photo, "Because I don't know what I'd do without her."
Suddenly, the room began to shake. Out of instinct, Y/N transformed into his Specter form and prepared himself. They looked out the window, and saw Carol Danvers carrying the Benatar ship. He sighed, Captain Marvel returned like she said.
Y/N reverted back to his civilian form and walked out with Natasha onto the lawn. They were joined by Steve, Rhodey, Banner, and Pepper. Danvers landed the spaceship, and the airstair opened.
Nebula walked down the steps with Tony Stark, who looked pale and skinnier than before. He's been in space for a while now.
Y/N and Steve walked up to Tony and assisted him down the steps. He began to ramble, "I couldn't stop him."
"Neither could we." Steve replied.
Tony stopped and faced Steve, "I lost the kid."
They immediately know that he's referring to Peter Parker, the Spider-Man. Y/N noticed before that he hasn't heard about the hero in the last few weeks.
"Tony, we lost." Y/N responded.
Pepper ran up to Tony, still in awe and grateful that he was alive.
"Oh my God." She sobbed, and hugged him. Tony embraced her, "It's okay."
• • •
BACK INSIDE THE FACILITY, the team stood around the table. A hologram displayed the many portraits and records of the people lost in the decimation.
"It's been 23 days since Thanos came to Earth." Rhodey stated.
Wanda's file popped up and Y/N looked at her picture. He ran his hands along his face and looked down.
"World governments are in pieces. The parts that are still working are trying to take a census and it looks like he did..." Natasha began, "...he did exactly what he said he was gonna do. Thanos wiped out fifty percent of all living creatures."
They all continued talking. Tony explained how they fought on the planet Titan and that Doctor Strange gave away the Time Stone.
"I saw this coming a few years back. I had a vision. I didn't want to believe it." Tony glanced at Y/N, "I was going to tell Y/N about it that moment in Sokovia, but I thought I was dreaming."
Y/N thought back at that time, how he saw Tony holding the Scepter while in a daze back at the HYDRA base years ago.
"Tony, I'm going to need you to focus." Steve said.
"And I needed you." Tony shot back. "As in past tense. That trumps what you need. It's too late, buddy."
Tony got up, ripping the I.V from his arm. He began to yell and explained how he wanted a suit of armor around the world. He referred to how he originally saw his Ultron plan as a deterrent to what happened recently.
"I said we'd lose. You said we'll do that together, too." Tony told Steve. "But guess what, Cap? We lost. And you weren't there."
Rhodey tried to calm Tony down, but the man continued to ramble, "But that's what we do, right? Our best work after the fact? We're the Avengers, not the Pre-vengers."
"Okay. You made your point. Just sit down, okay?" Rhodey told him.
"I got nothing for you, Cap. I got no coordinates, no clues, no strategies, no options. Zero. Zip. Nada. No trust, liar." Tony said in Steve's face.
He removed his own arc-reactor containing his nanobot-suit, and handed it to Steve. The Captain was confused.
"Here, take this. You find him, you put that on, you hide." Tony's legs got weak and he fell to the floor.
"Tony!" Y/N exclaimed as he tried to help him up.
"I'm fine...let me..." Tony muttered, but ultimately passed out and laid on the floor.
• • •
REFLECTING THE WORDS OF CAPTAIN AMERICA, the team was on their way to get the son of a bitch, Thanos.
With the the help of information from Nebula, they knew that the Titan would be in The Garden, a planet where Thanos would retire after his plan was complete.
Taking the Benetar, they traveled through space and made it to the planet, where Danvers informed them that Thanos was alone.
"And that's enough." Nebula said.
Thanos was in his hut making himself dinner with the seeds and vegetables he gathered from his garden. He held the pot with his one good arm, the other having been scorched and mangled from his use of the gauntlet. He sat down after placing the pot on a fire, and breathed out.
He heard a distant noise, and looked out the slivers of twine that made up his roof. Suddenly, an orange beam shot down into the hut, and Thanos tried to deflect it with his hand. Specter flew down and punched Thanos, rolling over and facing him. Captain Marvel flew into the hut as well, getting behind the Titan and getting him in a chokehold.
Banner, in the Hulkbuster armor, came out of the ground and grabbed one of his arms, then War Machine came in and got a hold of his other arm. Thor crashed through the wall and swung Stormbreaker down at his gauntleted arm, severing it and getting a scream out of Thanos.
Captain America and Black Widow walked into the hut as Thanos was being held down. Rocket followed and went up to the gauntlet, and was shocked upon seeing that the stones were gone.
"Oh, no..."
Y/N looked at it as well, then shot a glare at Thanos, "Where are they?"
"Answer the question." Danvers told Thanos as he groaned.
"The universe required correction. After that, the stones served no purpose beyond temptation."
"You murdered trillions!" Banner exclaimed and pushed Thanos down.
"You should be grateful." He replied, before Banner punched him across the face.
"Where are the stones?" Natasha asked again.
"Gone. Reduced to atoms."
"You used them two days ago!" Y/N yelled.
"I used the stones to destroy the stones." Thanos said. "It nearly killed me. But the work is done. It always will be. I am inevitable."
Rhodey didn't want to believe him, "We have to tear this place apart. He has to be lying!"
"My father is many things." Nebula began, "A liar is not one of them."
Thanos looked up at Nebula, "Ah. Thank you, daughter. Perhaps I treated you too harshly."
With a bellow, Thor swung his axe and chopped off Thanos's head. His body went limp, and the team looked on in awe.
"What....what did you do?" Rocket asked.
Thor took a breath before answering, "I went for the head."
Specter lowered his head, rubbing his face in the process. Everybody else either dropped their own heads too or paced around in despair.
There was nothing else to do.
Thor walked away, holding his bloodied axe. Although he couldn't bring back his friends, he avenged them and his fellow Asgardian people by killing the warlord.
Question is...was he really gratified?