Scottie instantly jogged after the woman, interested in how she seemed to believe she could kill Thanos. From what Scottie had already seen of the superpower-ed woman, it wouldn't necessarily surprise her if Captain Marvel had a better idea than anything they had thought of.
"Hey, you know, we usually work as a team here, and between you and I, morale's a little fragile," Natasha told Carol, causing the blonde to stop and turn to look at them all. The Russian had a soft smile on her face as she tried to make the mysterious woman share her plan with them all.
"We realize up there is more your territory, but this is our fight too," Steve added, his voice almost begging her to let them help end this fight. They had lost a lot more than she had - or that they knew of anyway. They needed to end this and somehow bring everyone back.
"You even know where he is?" Scottie asked, making everyone jump slightly as the girl spoke for the first time in a while. She wasn't sure how she felt about speaking when she couldn't hear her own voice but rather only feel the vibrations of it. It wasn't something she enjoyed but if she wanted to regain any sense of normality she needed to do it.
"I know people who might."
"Don't bother. I can tell you where Thanos is."
Everyone turned around to see the blue mechanical woman that Scottie had learned was called Nebula. She was watching them intently with black eyes that seemed void of any other emotion than complete anger. Scottie wasn't sure who or what she had lost by the hands of Thanos, but it was obvious there was a score to settle there too.
"Why haven't you said anything sooner?" Scottie huffed, following behind everyone else as they gathered back in the living room around the holographic table. She leaned on the doorframe next to Steve, and while the man said nothing he was perfectly aware that it was because that spot meant she could have all of them in her vision. The girl was not quite used to life with only her eyes to help her.
"Thanos spent a long time trying to perfect me. And 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," Rhodey snarked, only being able to picture the purple man in a sun hat and gloves as he shredded through weeds in someone's back yard. He was truly having enough of all of this.
"So where is he?"
"When Thanos snapped his fingers, Earth became ground zero for a power surge of ridiculously cosmic proportions," Rocket told them, standing on the dinner table as he pulled up a hologram of the Earth. He looked around the room at them all, ignoring Scottie's disproved look at the fact he was a rodent and standing where she usually ate. "No one's ever seen anything like it... Until two days ago, on this planet."
They all studied the diagram as the racoon pulled up another planet, much smaller and emptier than their one. Nebula nodded, looking at the planet with a strange sense of satisfaction at the fate the man was going to face.
"Thanos is there."
"He used the stones again," Natasha pointed out, her eyebrows furrowed as Scottie also looked on confused. There was no reason for the man to be using the stones again at all now that his plan had worked - unless he was planning something else.
"Hey, hey, hey. We'd be going in short-handed, you know," Bruce finally spoke up from the entrance of the room, having overheard their conversation and deciding to give Pepper a moment alone with Tony.
"Look, he's still got the stones, so..."
Carol interrupted the men, not wanting to hear their pessimism about this plan. She needed to bring everyone back, she owed that to not just the universe but to Nick Fury. The man was the reason she was here, and she had no intention of failing him.
"So let's get him... Use them to bring everyone back."
Rhodey looked around at the heroes in ridicule. "Just like that?"
"Yeah, just like that," Scottie and Steve spoke at the same time, the duo sharing a knowing look with Carol as they thought over the sacrifice they were about to make for the second time.
"Even if there's a small chance that we can undo this... I mean we owe it to everyone who's not in this room to try," Natasha informed Rhodey and Bruce, knowing that they still were not completely sold on the idea of just turning up and trying to fight Thanos after what had happened last time.
"If we do this, how do we know it's gonna end any differently than it did before?" Bruce pointed out, not sure if he was ready to lose another half of his friends and family before his very eyes.
"Because before, you didn't have me," Carol told them all, not an ounce of modesty in her voice as she looked at the team who simply stared back at her in disbelief that that was her secret weapon. Scottie blinked slightly, her jaw dropping as Carol's words came up on the lenses in front of her eyes.
"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?"
"There are a lot of other planets in the universe. And unfortunately, they didn't have you guys."
They all paused their conversation as Thor suddenly stood up, pushing the chair he had been sitting on across the floor. Scottie was sure from the way the rest of the team winced slightly that it had made a scratching noise but she couldn't know for sure, you know, since she was defeated by Thanos. He moved close to Carol, standing less than a metre away from the woman as he outstretched his arm to just next to the woman.
Scottie jumped slightly as Stormbreaker flew past her, almost hitting Carol as it handed firmly in Thor's outstretched hand. Carol didn't even flinch, only her hair moving as the axe flex past it. Her lips titled in a small smile, causing Thor to grin back at the woman.
"I like this one."
Steve looked around at them as he shut off the hologram, making sure to look everyone single person in the room in the eyes. "Let's go get this son of a bitch."
"Scottie, what are you doing?" Natasha asked as the girl started to follow Steve out of the room. The blonde looked up, noticing that everyone was looking at her in confusion. She reached up to adjust the glasses on her nose before looking around at the team.
Natasha and Carol were mirroring each other with their arms crossed over their chests as they looked at the girl rather unimpressed from across the room.
"I'm going to get ready?"
"You're not coming with us," Carol told her, not trying to be mean but knowing that the girl was only going to slow them down since she was in no form to fight. "You're injured, and in no fit state to fight."
Steve rested one hand on her shoulder as he looked sympathetically at the girl.
"Sit this one out, Casey. It's our turn to finish this, you've done enough."
______
"I do."
"I do."
"You may now kiss the bride, Mr Stark."
Scottie cheered out alongside Happy and Rhodey as they all stood on the beach front, the light wind blowing their hair slightly as they watched the happy couple in front of them. Pepper squealed slightly as Tony surprised her by dipping the woman, a grin on his face as they shared their first kiss as a married couple.
She was happy for them. Ever since Thanos had been killed by Thor a year ago, and the stones had been destroyed, she wasn't sure how she was supposed to have any sort of normality ever again. Tony hadn't wanted to speak to her for the first few weeks of his return as he was too ashamed that he had laid his hands on her that day that he had arrived back from space. It took Scottie turning up at his apartment to fully make himself realise that they didn't have the time or resources to stay mad at each other for the rest of their lives.
It hadn't taken Tony long to find a use for his nano tech that wasn't crafting iron man suits. Within three days of them making up Tony had created with the help of Bruce a nanotech implant for each of her ears. She had assumed it would be just like having a hearing aid and while it took some getting used to, Scottie was amazed to know it was almost as if he had brought her hearing back. She had learnt some sign language from Natasha who already knew the language - something she hadn't even know until then. Turns out Clint had been wearing hidden hearing aids the whole time they had known him.
For the past year, the girl had spent her time between living at the headquarters that was essentially just Natasha's home now, and between helping Tony to build the log cabin just upstate that he had started a few months after the events of the failed mission to reverse what Thanos had done. It had been almost therapy for the girl, since she had taken the loss of Wanda exceptionally hard when the last thing that connected them had vanished.
When Thanos had destroyed the stones, Scottie's powers had gone with them. The girl hadn't really known until weeks after the teams return when she had gone to try and practice with Natasha. The then blonde had suggested some target practice to keep her exercised, but it had ended up in another cry fest as she realised that she was nothing more than just a girl. She had begged for that for most of her life and now that she had finally gotten her wish, Scottie wanted nothing more than to have it back.
Her eyes turned back to the happy couple as they parted, everyone letting out soft laughs as Rhodey pointed out that a pod of dolphins were diving out of the sea water just metres away from them. Scottie smiled gently, but she couldn't stop the few tears that managed to escape her eyes. As Rhodey moved to congratulate the two, Happy looked down at the girl as he watched how she stared out at the ocean, silent tears rolling down her face.
"It'll get easier," he told her, a sympathetic smile on his face as he realised why this wedding maybe wasn't where she needed to be.
"I never imagined life without her, Happy. I didn't think I'd ever need to even consider that possibility."
The older man sighed, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and pulling the struggling girl into his chest. Pepper and Tony paused for a moment, noticing the exchange. Happy nodded but they all understood that they just needed to let Scottie cry it out again.
They had all lost friends. But none of them had ever felt the pain of losing a soulmate like the way Scottie was.
______
"Otter!!!"
Scottie laughed loudly as she crouched down, her arms easily wrapping around the toddler as she cane hobbling towards her. The girl cooed in her arms as Scottie placed two hands on the sides of her face, faking a gap as she looked at her little sister.
"Morgan Stark! Have you grown another two inches since last week?" Scottie teased, knowing the girl was there exact same height she had been only five days prior.
"Momma says I'm a big girl now Otter!!!"
Scottie laughed as she stood up, letting go of Morgan and ruffling her hair in the process. She looked up as the door swung open again, a visibly amused Pepper exiting the front of the house with a playful grin on her face.
"Scottie Casey-Stark, what time do you call this?"
"I believe you said seven pm? And if I might," Scottie joked, pretending to check her watch. "It's not even 6:57pm yet."
Pepper laughed while rolling her eyes, moving to scoop up Morgan from where the girl had perched on the group after losing interest in their conversation.
"Get in here before he sees the cake, you know how Tony hates us making a big deal on his birthday."
_____
Four years after the death of Thanos, the dreams started. When the first dream had happened, Scottie was shaken but put it down to nightmares. Once it had happened for the 7th time that month, she knew that her mind was trying to tell herself something.
All the dreams started the same:
Scottie opened her eyes to a purple sky. Her hands were bruised and bloodied, and the knees of her black combat trousers had been shredded to pieces. Her blonde hair was stained with blood, and her eyes were blurred as she tried to focus on where she was.
She would scream for help, dragging herself along the ground as she tried to make her legs work. Once she finally got to her feet, she would enter a dark cave that she always seemed to end up outside of.
The dreams were always different from the point of her entering the cave. The first time, she had found nothing but a river of blood inside. The dream had caused her to wake up and rush to the bathroom, throwing up her dinner from the night before as she tried to comprehend what she had just seen.
The second time, she had seen her friends dead bodies.
The third, it was her own.
By the fourth time, Scottie had begun to recognise another recurring theme in the dreams. If she stayed asleep for long enough she would end up at the top of a mountain, over looking a steep cliff edge. No matter what the rest of the dream had involved, her dream would always finish before she was able to overlook the mountain top.
She wouldn't learn the true meaning of her dreams until it was too late.