(Check chapter number. Hey guys, it's been a while...my cat died yesterday. 8/20/22 at around 11 pm. Right after I posted the latest chapter. Lol I hope you never have to go through loosing your best friend but anyway....i got another one. He's cute and I love him a lot but y'know, doesn't ever replace Sylvie. Whatever enough about my tragedies, let's get on with it. Check out my new insta avs_zaha✌)
Four weeks had passed and no one was feeling any better about half the Avengers being gone. Loki had completely shut himself off from everyone. Yelena was a full out alcoholic at this point. Bucky and Sam were actually getting along while the latter was trying to help Bucky with his reaccuring PTSD attacks that were getting worse and worse. Kate was still holding out hope that her mom was somewhere on Earth and that when the Avengers were back, they'd get her mom. Because they were the Avengers. They'd be back. She knew it.
Turns out Y/n and Kate were friends for a reason.
Laura had tried to stay optimistic about everything. It proved hard when her kids continued to ask her when Daddy was coming back or if he was okay or not.
"He's Hawkeye. He never misses--he'll be back. Just in time to tuck you in like every other time."
But every night Clint wasn't home. Nate always left his covers untucked just in case the absent archer snuck into the compound when they least expected it to tuck him in.
Pepper seemed to have realized that something wasn't going to change and the unknown was going to be their best friend. She continued to work things out at SI, especially when people started to worry about the absence of Tony Stark. Headlines soon piled up on the news, Missing Tony Stark.
With the absence of everyone they held dear, it proved hard for MJ to stay optimistic through it all. Harley was sure she never got any sleep. He felt bad about it. The teen stayed up awake at night as well, eyes open completely, the unknown chocking the life out of him. MJ started reading up until four, finishing whole books in the night. Maybe Harley stayed up so he could here her talk about them when she was done.
Bags started to collect under his eyes and the dust gathered over the missing Avengers belongings in the same token. Harley suspected that Yelena started living in Nat's room because when the door was shut tight across from Harley and MJ's, the former could here the drunk woman weeping.
Nothing was the same and Bucky and Sam's absent arguing was the worst for eveyone. If Harley hadn't known better, he would've thought he lost his tounge. Sam had a permanent frown in his face.
Kate was the optimist when Peter came around with a sobbing May. She always assured them that they'd be back. They would be. They had to be.
They were the Avengers.
It seemed that the weight of those words was starting to make the Avengers sink.
Peter knew something was wrong. He could feel it. All the time. No relaxation for him. Gwen was starting to research the multiverse, scrambling for a way to bring them back. To bring everyone back.
So far, she couldn't come up with much.
Shuri hadn't either but she did come by to try and cheer the teens up with things.
"I was going to make you guys suits. Well, I did. I did make you suits. In case you found a way," Shuri started, pulling up screens while MJ, Harley, Peter and Kate were all in the lab. "But Peter, she already made you one."
The spider teen's attention was caught yet his eyes seemed dull, "Y/n?"
Shuri nodded, pursing her lips sympathetically. "Nanotech. Very fine. I'm sure she would want you to have it now."
The princess tapped a few buttons on her wrist device and a compartment in the wall in front of them popped out a display of a red suit with bright blue garments. It was made of Vibranium thread, Peter noticed as he took a step forward. And the web shooters had probably a thousand different varieties.
"She put so much faith in something that hurt her so much," he mumbled.
Kate shrugged, "we all do that for a bit of hope."
"Any hope is better than none at all," MJ quoted Y/n while reading her book. "What a loser...I miss her already."
Harley tapped a screw driver on the bench next to him, "what now? What do we do? I'm tired of sitting around and doing nothing."
"Yeah, growing a baby is nothing," MJ chimed in with a slight annoyance.
"I don't mean you," Harley tried to cover up, batting a hand toward her. "I mean, the Faceless are still out there--right?"
Shuri shook her head sadly, looking at Harley. "There is no definite way for us to know. How can you defeat something with never ending variants of itself?"
Kate shrugged, deep in thought staring at the ground, "become all knowing and wipe them out one by one."
Peter rolled his eyes, "now you're thinking like a villain. No--you use the infinity stones. Right? That's what they're there for?"
"They weren't meant to ever be in human reach," Shuri countered. "And the amount of radiation would kill a normal person."
"I'm not a normal person," Peter put out there in a childish grumble.
Harley rolled his eyes, "we don't have them all anyway. MJ, any solutions?"
MJ sighed, placing down her book, "sometimes being the villain but with morals is the only way. Look at Strange--what makes him different than any villain? Morals have aesthetic principles, alright. He uses the stone for the greater good but a villain vouches that they do the same thing. What makes their motives different if it's not that one is bad and one is good?"
"Wow, she went full Socrates on us," Kate deadpanned.
"You know who that is?" Harley questioned, his eyes squinting at her.
"Everyone knows who Socrates is."
"So you're saying that neither is in the hand of us?" Shuri asked MJ meaningfully.
MJ shrugged, "I'm not saying I'm not saying that. We use the stones for good but we don't have them anyway so it doesn't matter."
"Let's say we did have them," Kate started her hypothetical, "what would be the plan?"
"We'd let the strongest of us stop them using the stones."
"And what would be saying that that isn't wrong?" Harley questioned.
"Well the Faceless just want everyone to be equal right? That's their main goal--their just twisted and going about things wrong," Kate brought up wisely. "We could fix that on this Earth. Let's just stick to our own universe for now. Let the others figure their shit out. What about the President? Sharon? She could finish her plan. Didn't she say she wanted to fix the rape problem and women equality rights first?"
"I've been working with her lately, yes. She has a great plan but I'm afraid that fixing the world wouldn't be quick enough for people who want to destroy it to get what the want," Shuri said.
"Rome wasn't built in a day," Peter started with slight defeat.
"But it burned in one," MJ finished.
The world would sooner be gone than it was a better place. How sad was the that the world was so far gone.
"Why the hell did we just have this conversation?" Kate asked suddenly in the silence.
"It's good to know the villain's point of view," Harley put out their defensively.
"Yeah we're stupid."
"Mhmm."
Peter shook his head, "no. The first chance we get to bring eveyone back and stop the Faceless, we take it."
And they did.
Or, would.
*sigh* multiverse and time shit is hard to foreshadow.
After more pointless discussion, the group fo teens eventually retired to the living room in the common room, not taking and mostly just thinking.
Harley was stressed. MJ was stressed. Here, have some stress. Oh, thank you. Here, you have some too. Sharing is caring. Yeah...stress, stress, stress.
Eveyone was going to die. Nothing was known. What was the point? There was no point without Y/n or the rest.
That was just how it worked.
The day was practically, yet again, wasted doing hardly anything. Bucky had started stress cooking and Sam tried to help but in the end, milk ended up on the ground and oil was in the eyes. Yelena was drunk again--just sobering up because Laura had ordered her too. She begrudgingly listened, sitting at the kitchen table with her head in her hands, rings on her fingers burying into her forehead as torture.
"Life sucks," Yelena said.
"Yep."
"Ditto."
"Futzing oil."
"We should get a cow for all the milk we're wasting."
"I think we lost a couple billions from Tony in the lsts weeks," Pepper added. "Keep it up. Better than I could do," she smiled. That helped the group's optimism.
"I'm gonna have a drink," Yelena spoke decidedly, getting up from the table.
Laura shot her a sharp glance from the kitchen while helping Bucky clean up the spilled milk. "No--do I have to hog tie your hands together?"
Yelena turned and mocked the woman which Kate snickered to.
"Enough. Be respectful you two," Pepper scolded the two girls.
"I hate to be a bummer," Yelena started, "but about that billionaire's will..."
Several gasps broke out in the room.
"Yelena!" Laura scolded in shock.
Kate bumped her shoulder, "dude, too soon."
Yelena through up her hands, "what? I mean, we're all depressed--why not be sad in a yacht--or somewhere in Cuba! With drinks and things!"
"She's got a point," Kate added in a mumble.
"How insensitive can you get?" Sam rolled his eyes annoyedly. "It's only been four weeks."
"Four long weeks," Bucky murmered.
"Woulda been shorter if we were in Mexico crying into our cocktails."
"So you're saying we should go on a trip?" Lila asked skeptically from beside MJ who was reading a book to her.
Yelena let her head drop onto the table, "I don't know what I'm saying," she held in her blubbering.
Pepper started to rub her back sympathetically. It was a good thing that she didn't take Yelena's words harshly. The blonde really did mean well. She just was mourning. Or, well, they didn't know what they were doing but it included moping.
"When was the last time you saw your parents?" The CEO asked.
Yelena shrugged, "couple months. Why does it matter?"
Pepper sat down beside the young woman, "they might be able to help..."
Yelena held back a frown, "I'm fine. Why would I need help?"
Pepper heaved a heavy sigh, "look, Lena, I already tracked them down--"
"You what?" Yelena asked abruptly, pushing he chair out from under her roughly.
The elevator dinged. "Oh hey guys. I found these super cool Russian people outside and I thought I'd let them in," Scott Lang spoke loudly as he exited the elevator in front of two individuals.
"Mama?" Yelena asked, staring at the woman with braided black hair.
The young blonde was immediatly crushed in a hug by her parents which brought a light smile to every one else in the room.
No one was sure if Yelena had started crying but when the three separated, the blonde could ne seen wiping her eyes discreetly.
"Where is our Natasha?" Alexei asked gruffly, his accent thick.
Yelena looked to the floor, working her jaw. "She's--"
A bright light city through the center of the living room--bloody red like a stain of murder on the carpet. The current Avengers all stood up in shock, ready to fight if they had too.
To be fair they didn't look that menacing compared to the dark figure cast in robes of deep red, her hair swirling behind her glowing eyes.
A version of Wanda Maximoff was illuminated now in front of everyone exchanging glances.
"The Avengers need you."
~Author's Note~
God I'm sorry this is so short. And probably terrible. I feel guilty not updating so i scramble to get a chapter out and the quality I'm sure is shit. I'm just trying to finish this book before i start school and it's getting kinda stressful so I'm really sorry if the content is crap. I'm trying to do better lol