We land in Wakanda a few hours later, and T'Challa and some other Wakandans meet us outside the jet.
"It seems like I'm always thanking you for something." Steve says to T'Challa as he shakes his hand.
"How big of an assault are we expecting?" T'Challa asks.
"I think you can expect quite a big assault." Banner says as he runs off to Steve and T'Challa.
I follow at the back of the group, watching Steve talk with the King of Wakanda, before James walks round the corner. Once he's greeted Steve, he walks over to me.
"Hi." He says awkwardly.
"Hey." I smile.
"You're not mad at me?"
"No," I shake my head, "I'm not."
"Good." Bucky smiles.
I go into the lab with some of the group and T'Challa's younger sister Shuri. Vision is set on the table and Shuri begins to work on getting the stone out of Vision's head.
"Can you do it?" Wanda asks Shuri.
"Yes," Shuri nods, "but it will take a lot of time."
"How long?" Steve questions.
"As long as I can get."
Just as I was about to point something out, a crash comes from the protective dome of the country.
"Something's entered the atmosphere." Okoye notifies us as her alert goes off on her device.
"We'll hold them off." T'Challa says and the group – minus Wanda and Vision – head outside again.
T'Challa gathers the armies of Wakanda and we all jump into their hover boats to head out into the field. All of us had changed into our suits beforehand to prepare for the battle. Sam and Rhodey are flying above us in their suits, while Bruce is using one of Tony's suit models.
When we get to the field, we gather into a formation as T'Challa, Steve and Nat go to the edge of the barrier.
"This brings back memories." I chuckle to Bucky.
"Yeah." He half smiles.
"Are you ok?" I ask.
"Sure." Bucky laughs, taking his gun off his back and holding it in front of him.
"Did they surrender?" He asks Steve when he returns.
"Not exactly." Steve sighs.
We watch as multiple ships land outside the dome, letting creatures free from it and run towards the barrier. T'Challa leads the Wakandans in their war cry as the opposition attempt to break through the barrier.
"What the hell?" Bucky and I question in unison.
Sam and Rhodey fly off from the rest of us and towards the beast looking things, shooting at them and trying to hold them back.
"If they circle the perimeter, there's nothing between them and Vision." Bruce says.
"We have to keep them in front of us." I say.
"How are we going to do that?" Okoye asks.
"We open the barrier." T'Challa says and continues the conversation with his sister who is up in the lab.
Once the barrier is opened, T'Challa signals for the fight to start and we all rush into battle against Thanos' weird dog creatures.
"Watch out!" I shout to Pietro as I skid on the grass next to him and get rid of the beast next to him, "you're welcome." I run off to help the others before he has a chance to respond. Soon after, the field becomes chaos. Our side are struggling against the outriders – what we've called the beasts – gaining casualty after casualty. Having the serum does help with stamina while fighting for a long time, but it doesn't always help, especially against creatures like this.
All of a sudden, a beam of lightning strikes from the sky, and, once it had cleared, Thor stands with a racoon and a wood looking creature.
"You guys are so screwed!" Bruce shouts through comms.
"Bring me Thanos!" Thor yells, running out to help us.
We gain control of the battle again and take down a lot more of the outriders. I look over to my left and see Bucky spinning in a circle, holding the racoon in one hand, and his gun in the other.
"Having fun?" I ask Bucky.
"Loads." He replies sarcastically.
"Somebody get to Vision!" Steve yells, watching the window of the lab break and Vision falling into the forest. A couple of the team run over while the rest of us continue in the field.
The rest of the team sprint into the forest as we get the alert that Thanos had arrived. We all go after him one after the other, but we all fail. I hit my head on the ground as I get shoved away from Thanos, watching the same thing happen to the others.
A blue flash of light comes from in front of us before Thor yells 'no' through the woods. I get up and stumble towards Thor and Steve.
"Where'd he go?" Steve asks, "where'd he go?"
"Steve? Laurie?" Bucky says shakily from behind us.
"Oh shit." Steve runs towards Bucky as Barnes disintegrates into ashes.
"English?" Pietro calls out in a panicked tone.
"No, Pietro," I run to him, "no."
"Help-" He falls against me before disappearing himself. I sit amongst his ashes, watching many others vanish, mourning my teammates and friends.
"Sam, where you at?!" I hear Rhodey yell, "what is this? What the hell is happening?"
Steve, Thor, Nat, Rhodey, Bruce, Okoye, Rocket – the racoon – and I all stand in confusion as the last of our team disappear.
Slowly, we head to the quinjet to head back to the compound, though Okoye stays in Wakanda. No one says a word until we're almost home. We're all too heartbroken and horrified by what happened to come up with anything to say.
~
When we get home, Steve and I go to his apartment in Brooklyn, while the others either stay at the compound or go to their homes. I dump my bag on the floor, and flop onto Steve's couch when we get in the door as he leaves the living room to have a shower. I stare up at the ceiling, running the events through my mind and trying to think of a way we could save them. But it was hopeless. I was too exhausted to think of a solution. I would call Tony, but he's still missing from earth, and no one knows if he disappeared as well.
"Hey," Steve says softly, walking into the room while drying his hair with a towel, "shower's free."
"Thanks." I half smile, and make my way off the couch.
"Do you want anything?" he asks, "food? A drink?"
"I'm ok, thanks," I reply, "I'm not in the mood to eat or drink anything anyway."
"Fair enough." Steve nods as I go into the bathroom and shower.
When I finish, I change into my usual clothes - I keep a some at Steve's for when I stay over - and dry my hair. Steve's on the couch with the TV on, which is only showing the recent reports of the day.
"You alright?" I ask him, sitting on a chair next to the couch.
"We've lost him again." He sighs, talking about Bucky.
"We're going to find a way to save them," I promise," I say, "even if it takes years."
"How would that even be possible?"
"I don't know yet," I sigh, "but we'll figure something out."
~
Later that night, Rhodey, Bruce, Steve, Natasha and I met back up at the compound. Nat, Steve and I are standing around a hologram of the globe and monitoring the death toll of the events. It reaches half the population of the world.
"This is a nightmare." Steve sighs.
"I've had better nightmares." Nat chuckles softly.
"What are we going to do?" He asks.
"Wait it out." I say.
"What?"
"There's nothing else we can do other than wait it out."
"What about Tony?" Nat asks.
"If we're still here then there's a chance he is too."
"Guys," Rhodey interrupts, "that thing just stopped doing whatever the hell it was doing."
The four of us move into the room next to us and join Bruce. We stand staring at the pager that got delivered to us earlier. Its screen had turned off and the only light in the machine was coming from the energy supply behind it.
"What have we got?" Natasha questions.
"Whatever the signal is sending," Banner sighs, "it finally creeped off."
"I thought we bypassed the battery." Steve states.
"We did and it's still plugged in," Rhodey informs, "it just stopped."
"Reboot it and send the signal again." I say.
"We don't even know what this is." Banner says.
"Fury did," Nat sighs, "the second you get the signal, let us know."
As she goes to turn around, a woman with blonde hair and red, gold and blue suit.
"Who are you?" Nat asks.
"Where's Fury?" The woman asks.
"We don't know," I say, "who are you?"
"Carol Danvers, a friend of Fury's."