We head outside, along with Natasha, Bruce, James, and Pepper to see Carol, dropping down to the ground carrying Rocket's ship. The landing gear deploys as she places the ship down, she just nods at us as she walks away. The back of the ship opens and we see a blue robotic looking women walking off carrying a very weak Tony. Steve and I rush up to them, Tony grabbing onto Steve.
"I couldn't stop him" he says to us.
"Neither could we" Steve tells him.
Tony then looks at me, "I lost the kid" he says and I know in an instant he's talking about Peter.
"Tony we lost" Steve says.
"Is Umm" Tony starts to ask when Pepper comes running to him.
"Oh My God!" she pulls him in for an embrace.
"It's okay" he says to her.
I look back to see Rocket sitting on the ramp of his ship, a paw placed in the blue woman's hand, sorrow on both their faces.
We eventually all head back inside, helping Tony, who is weak and exhausted. James gets him hooked up to an IV, giving him fluid and blood. We have holograms displaying the ones we lost, and everything that is keeping track of the world.
"It's been 23 days since Thanos came to Earth. World governments are in pieces. The parts that are still working are trying to take a census. And it looks like he did.. Exactly what he said he was going to do. Thanos wiped out fifty percent of all living creatures" Natasha explains to Tony.
"Where is he now?Where?" Tony asks looking at all of us.
"We uhh we really don't know" I tell him.
"He just opened a portal and walked through" Rocket tells him.
Tony then glances at Thor, who is seated far away from all of us, his face sullen, and hard.
"What's wrong with him?" he asks.
"He's pissed, Thinks he failed. Which of course he did, but there's a lot of that going around, aint there" Rocket tells him.
"Honestly, until this exact second, I thought you were a build-a-bear" Tony tells him.
"Maybe I am" Rocket says sarcastically.
"We've been hunting Thanos for three weeks now. Deep space scans, an satellites and we got nothing" Natasha says.
"Tony you fought him" Steve says looking at him.
"Who told you that? I didn't fight him. No he wiped my face with a planet, while the Bleeker Street Magician gave away the stone." He says speaking about Strange, "That's what happened, there was no fight" he tells us and I can sense he's getting upset.
"Did he give you any clues, any coordinates, anything to let us know where he was going to go?" I ask him.
"Pfft!!" Tony says, "I saw this coming a few years back, I had a vision. I didn't believe it. Thought I was dreaming." Tony says clearly getting distracted from the question.
"Tony, I'm gonna need you to focus" Steve says to him.
"And I need you! As in past tense! That trumps what you need. It's too late buddy. Sorry, you know what I need" Tony then tries to push himself up from the table, cause things to clatter on the table, and we all wince at his actions, "I need to shave, And I believe I remember telling you, Cap" he starts to go toward Steve, when James and I step in-between the men, Rhodey grabbing onto Tony. I get myself prepared for in case I have to bring up my force field to protect the men, once again.
"Tony, Tony, Tony, stop!" James tells him.
"Don't do this Tony" I say to him.
"Otherwise what we needed was a suit of armour around the world! Remember that? Whether it impacted our precious freedom or not – that's what we needed!" Tony says angrily.
"Well, that didn't work out, did it" Steve says back to him, and I give Steve a look, saying he's not helping.
"I said 'we'll lose'. You said 'We'll do that together too' and guess what Cap? We lost. You weren't there. But that's what we do, right. Our best work after the fact. We're the Avengers, WE ARE THE AVENGERS!" he says mad, "Not the Prevengers, right"
"Tony I think that's enough, you've made your point, now sit back down" I say to him.
"Listen to her Tony, just sit down" James says to him.
'Nah, nah, nah" Tony says pushing James hand away, "Here's my point"
"Sit down" James tells him, trying to diffuse the situation.
"She's great by the way" he says pointing to Carol, "We need you. You're new blood."
"Tony, stop" I say to him.
" Bunch of tired old mills" Tony says looking at all of us "I got nothing for you Cap, Green! No coordinates, no clues, no plan no options. Zip. Zero. Nada. No trust. Liar" he seethes that last word at Steve, and I can tell those words affect Steve, and both men share a look. Suddenly Tony yanks his arc reactor out, shoving past me and thrusting it into Steve's hand, "Here take this. You find him, and put that on. You hide." Tony says as he falls to the ground, I manage to protect him, before he can get hurt. Steve and I then rush to him, as everyone gathers to make sure he's okay.
"Tony!" James says as he comes over to help.
"I'm fine. I" before he can finish he passes out.
Steve helps James get Tony to a bed, he manages to hook him up to an IV, and we all gather back in the main conference area. "Bruce gave him a sedative. He's going to be out for the rest of the day."James informs us.
"You guys take care of him, and I'll bring an Xorrian Elixir when I get back" Carol says as she starts to leave.
"Where are you going?" I ask her.
"To kill Thanos" she tells us.
"Hey, you know we usually work as a team around here, and between you and I, we're also a little fragile" Natasha says getting her to stop.
"We realize out there is more of your territory, but this is our fight too" Steve tells her.
"Do you even know where he is?" James asks her.
"I know people who might" she says to us.
The blue women, who I now knew as Nebula speaks up, "Don't bother. I can tell you where Thanos is. Thanos spent a long time trying to perfect me. Then when he worked, he talked about his great plan. Even disassembled, I wanted to please him. I'd ask 'where would we go once his plan was complete?' His answer was always the same: To The Garden"
"That's cute, Thanos has a retirement plan" James says sarcastically.
"So, where is he then?" Steve asks.
"When Thanos snapped his fingers. Earth became ground zero for a power surge of ridiculously cosmic poroptions. No one's ever seen anything like it..Until two days ago" Rocket says as he then brings up a hologram of a planet, there is an inditcation of a shockwave that has formed on the surface of the planet, "On this planet" Rocket adds.
"Thanos is there" Nebula informs us.
"He must have used the stones again" I say to everyone.
"Hey, hey, we'd be going in short-handed, you know" Bruce warns us.
"Look, he's still got the stones, so.." James says.
"So let's go get him...We'll use them to bring everyone back" Carol suggests to us all.
"Just like that?" James asks.
"Yeah, just like that" Steve says and I see him give Carol a knowing look.
"Even if there is a small chance that we can undo this...I mean we owe it to everyone who's not in this room to try." Natasha says.
"If we do this, how do we know it's gonna end any differently than it did before?" Bruce asks us worry in his voice.
"Because before, you didn't have me" Carol tells him.
"Hey, new girl, everyone here is about that superhero life. And if you don't mind my asking, where the hell have you been all this time?" James asks her.
"There alot of other planets in the universe. And unfourtantly, they didn't have you guys" she smiles back at him.
Just then we watch as Thor, who was sitting in the corner, stand up and walk over to Carol. He stands infront of her and puts his hand out, catching Stormbreaker (his ax) as it flies to him, missing Carols by mere inches. She doesnt' flinch one bit as she smiles up at Thor. "I like this one" Thor says to us all.
"Let's go get this son of a bitch" Steve then says to us all.
"Language" I smirk at him.
"You know what Austin" he jokes back to me as we all then depart, suiting up to travel into space.
Steve and I head back to our room, to get back into our uniforms. I can tell we are both scared and worried that this plan might not work, but we knew we have to at least try.
"So any idea if this plan is going to work?" Steve asks me as we get into the room and start to change.
"No, Steve I don't, in all honesty ever since the snap, and you being back in the bed beside me I haven't had any visions" I tell him as I change into my uniform. "And for once I am glad I haven't, you know how much it hurt to see the outcome of that fight in Wakanda. I was destroyed by knowing we might lose everyone, I had hoped so badly that it wasn't going to be true" I tell him as I finish zipping up my suit and I pull on my boots.
"They did come in handy though, at least prepared us for what was to come" he says as he finished with his uniform.
"I guess, but they made us get sepearted, and I don't ever want those stupid things to come back" I say as we leave the room.
We join the others, boarding Rocket's ship, and get buckled into some seats. "Okay, who here hasn't been to space?" Rocket asks us as he turns the ship on, flying it up. Rhodey, Nat, Steve and myself all raise our hands.
"Why?"James asks him.
"You better not throw up on my ship" is all Rocket says as we depart Earth's atmosphere and head into space.
"Approaching jump in 3...2..1!" Nebula says form the co-pilot seat. Suddenly we are thrown into a wormhole, our bodies being pushed back into our seats. Steve and I hold each others hands, never wanting to let go, our other hands clinging to our seats for dear life. It doesn't take long till the ship slows down and we start to orbit above the planet that Rocket had shown us earlier. Once we are orbiting we all unbuckle, Carol departs the ship and flies to the front. "I'll head down for the ground recon" she informs us through comms. Steve, Nat and I stand at the front of the ship looking out, "This is gonna work, Steve" I say as I place a hand on his arm.
"I know it will" he says as I see him open the compass he always carried on him, inside was usually a picture of Peggy, and now he had one of me inside it too, "Cause I don't know what I'm going to do if it doesn't" he says to me.
"We will still have each other, that's all that matters, and you didn't need to put my picture in that. It was your reminder of Peggy, she deserves it more than me." I tell him.
"I know but now I have both of my best girls with me" he smiles up at me.
"She'll always be your best girl Steve, and I don't want to replace something that was once special to you" I say to him as he closes the compass and places it back into his pocket.
"You aren't replacing her Cassandra, you are just as special to me as Peggy was, and she would be happy that I found someone to make me happy, someone I can have a dance with" he says to me.
"Steve, don't you wish if you could go back in time that you would stay there and have that dance with Peggy. Don't you wish for that life?" I ask him.
"Not anymore" he says as he then kisses me.
"No satellites, no ships, no armies, no ground defese of any kind, It's just him" Carol comes back by the ship letting us know.
"That's enough" Nebula says as Rocket lands the ship and we depart.
We allow the others to go ahead for the attack, Carol going in first, followed by Bruce in the HilkBuster, and Thor flying ahead with his Stormbreaker. Natasha walks with Steve and I, as we walk into the home Thanos had created, we see Carol holding him down, while James and Bruce aim their repulsers at him. On the ground is the gauntlet cut off his arm, no doubt done by Thor. We all stare Thanos down, anger and murder on most of our minds. I watch as Rocket, turns the gauntlet over and I gasp at seeing the stones now gone.
"Oh no" Rocket says getting the others attention.
"Where are they?"Steve demands.
Carol tightens her grip on Thanos, and I create energy in my hands wanting to destroy Thanos. "Answer the damn question" I demand.
"The universe required correction. After that, the stones served no purpose, beyond tempatation" Thanos tells us.
"You murdered trillions" Bruce says angry.
"You should be grateful" Thanos says.
"Where are the stones?" Natasha asks him.
"Gone, Reduced to atoms" he tells us.
"You used them two days ago!" Bruce says to him.
"I used the stones to destroy the stones. It nearly....killed me. But the work is done. It always will be. I am inevitable." Thanos says to us.
"We have to tear this place apart, he-he has to be lying" James says to all of us.
"My father is many things. A liar is not one of them" Nebula says as she looks at Thanos.
"Ah, Thank you, daughter. Perhaps I treated you too harshly" Thanos looks at his daughter.
The next thing we realize Thor suddenly comes out of nowhere mad, and cuts off Thanos's head. We all look at him in shock of what he had just done, "What..what did you do?" Rocket says.
"I went for the head" Thor says before he walks out of the home leaving us all behind. We don't know what to do, our one last chance to bring everyone back, to make things right had been taken away. This loss is something we never really knew how to deal with. We always were able to take care of the bad guy, and we always knew how to protect the civilians of the world, and now we had to go back, completely and utterly defeated.
<<<Authors Note>>
This has to have been my longest chapter ever but it was needed. I couldn't separate these scenes I just couldn't. The next chapter or two are just gonna be some in between moments from this until the 5 years later. I wanted to add some moments for Cassandra and Steve. Just to show how they both try to move on from this.