Part Four: Endgame
AURORA ODINSDOTTIR
"I'm going to go talk to Steve." I said to Thor, who nodded, pulling away from our embrace, and sat down on the chair.
He was hurt.
Then again, everyone was.
I walked into the bathroom where I last saw my boyfriend, and he was holding a blade, shaving his beard.
"Hey." I said softly, walking in and closing the door behind me, wrapping my arms around his waist from behind.
I heard him suck in a breath, and I kissed his shoulder blade lightly.
"Back to no beard?" I asked, and he chuckled, making me smile.
"I think it looks good." I whispered, kissing the back of his neck.
"Thankyou."
"Are you doing alright?" I asked, and I felt the rise and fall of his shoulders as he shrugged.
"No, are you?" Steve asked, looking in the mirror and locking eyes with me, before they widened in shock.
"Baby, you're not wearing a dress." He said, turning around and leaning back on the counter, wrapping his arms around my waist.
"No, I'm not, not anymore." I smiled softly, and Steve kissed my forehead.
"Asgard is destroyed, most of our people are dead, and I'm not an heir to the throne anymore. I don't need to be a staple piece anymore, so there's no need for dresses." I explained, making him nod in understanding.
"Well, for what it's worth," He started, pulling me in for a hug and softly kissing my lips.
"I think you look beautiful."
"Thankyou." I whispered, kissing him again, and he smiled into my lips.
Once we pulled away, Steve opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by the mirror shaking.
"What is that?" I asked, and Natasha opened the bathroom door, looking at us.
"Come on."
We ran out to the yard with Natasha, Bruce, Pepper and Rhodey, noticing a space ship land.
Peter Quill's ship.
I hope they're all okay.
Instead of seeing the Guardians of the Galaxy, I saw a girl carrying the ship, landing and looking over at me.
She must have saved them.
The landing gear deployed as she placed the ship on the ground, and the entry hatch opened.
My heart began beating faster, but only two people walked out.
A girl I'd never seen before, and Tony.
She was holding him up as they walked, and Tony looked terrible, making all of us run towards them.
Steve ran up to Tony, helping him stand, and Tony looked back at the girl, turning to face us.
"Couldn't stop him."
"Neither could I." Steve said, and Tony looked at Steve, his expression completely, utterly, broken.
"I lost the kid."
The kid?
"Tony, we lost."
"Is, uh-" Tony struggled to ask about Pepper, who ran up to us, taking Tony into a tight embrace as they cried.
I watched Rocket walk over to the girl, and they held hands as they looked at the ground in silence.
The rest of the Guardians must not have survived the snap.
We took a moment of silence to gather our thoughts, before we walked back to the Avengers compound.
I took a seat at the table, looking over to my brother who wasn't engaging at all, but I knew he needed time to mourn.
"It's been twenty three days since Thanos came to Earth." Rhodey said, and Natasha nodded, gesturing towards the hologram, which was displaying the names and faces of those we'd lost.
"World governments are in pieces. The parts that are still working are trying to take a census." She explained, and I sighed crossing my arms over my chest.
"Then it looks like he did exactly what he said he was gonna do. Thanos wiped out fifty percent of all living creatures." I said, making Tony look over at me.
"Where is he now? Where?" He asked, a sense of desperation in his time, and Steve shrugged.
"We don't know. He just opened a portal and walked through."
"What's wrong with him?" Tony asked, looking at my brother, but before I could answer, Rocket spoke up.
"Oh, he's pissed. He thinks he failed." He did, directing the attention over to him, and Tony looked surprised.
"Which of course he did, but you know there's a lot of that's going around, ain't there?"
"Honestly, until this exact second, I thought you were a Build-A-Bear." Tony said, making Rocket shrug.
"Maybe I am."
"We've been hunting Thanos for three weeks now." I told Tony, and Steve squeezed my should, walking over to him.
"Deep Space scans, and satellites, and we got nothing Tony, you fought him."
"Who told you that?" Tony asked, looking at Steve, surprised.
"I didn't fight him. No, he wiped my face with a planet while the Bleecker Street Magician gave away the stone. That's what happened. There was no fight."
"Okay." I sighed, and Tony shrugged.
"He's unbeatable."
"Did he give you any clues, any coordinates, anything?" Steve asked, and Tony looking annoyed, making my heart twist.
"I saw this coming a few years back. I had a vision. I didn't wanna believe it. I thought I was dreaming." He said, and I remembered what I'd heard he saw through his first interaction with Wanda.
"Tony, I'm gonna need you to focus." Steve tried to reason with him, but that made Tony angrier, as the two locked eyes.
I'd heard about the Civil War while I was gone, and I knew the two hadn't fixed their friendship yet.
"And I needed you, as in past tense. That trumps what you need. It's too late buddy, sorry." He said, and stood up, pushing things off the table as they clattered to the floor.
"You know what I need? I need to shave, and I believe I remember telling all you-" Tony started rambling again, and Rhodey quickly walked between him and Steve.
"Tony, Tony!-"
"Alive and otherwise, what we needed was a suit of armour around the world!" Tony yelled, looking at Steve, who gave him a broken look.
"Remember that? Whether it impacted our precious freedoms or not, that's what we needed!"
"Well, that didn't work out, did it?" Steve said, and I shook my head slightly, giving my boyfriend a warning look.
"I said, 'we'd lose'. You said, 'We'll do that together too'." Tony said, walking over to Steve, sighing.
"Well guess what, Cap? We lost, and you weren't there, but that's what we do, right? Our best work after the fact? We're the Avengers, we're the Avengers. Not the Prevengers." He began rambling again, and I stood up, walking over to him.
"Okay, Tony, it's okay." I said, placing my hand on his shoulder, and he looked at me, hoping I'd agree with him.
"Right?"
"You made your point." I said, and Rhodey nodded in agreement.
"Just sit down."
"Okay." Tony sighed, and I smiled slightly.
"Okay?"
"Nah, nah. Here's my point. You know what?" Tony started again, and Rhodey tried to stop him.
"Tony, you're sick."
"She's great, by the way." Tony said, gesturing the the new girl, and I sighed.
"Sit down, Tony."
"We need you. You're new blood. Bunch of tired old mules!" Tony spat, walking right up to Steve, looking ready to kill him.
"I got nothing for you, Cap! I got no coordinates, no clues, no strategies, no options. Zero. Zip. Nada. No trust. Liar."
I looked at Steve's hurt expression, while the two just stared at eachother in silence.
There was nothing to say anymore.
We all watched in silence as Tony ripped his Arc Reactor from his chest, shoving it into Steve's hand.
"Here, take this. You find him, and you put that on, and you hide." He said, falling to the ground, and Steve looked surprised.
"Tony!"
"I'm fine. I-" He started, but fell unconscious before he could finish.
Bruce gave him a sedative, placing him in a bed while Pepper stayed by his side, and after Carol took a moment to introduce herself, she looked at me.
"You guys take care of him, and I'll bring him a Xorrian Elixir when I come back." She said, turning around to walk away, but I spoke up.
"Where are you going?"
"To kill Thanos." Carol responded, and I watched Nat walk up to her, stopping her from moving.
"Hey, you know, we usually work as a team here, and between you and I, morale's a little fragile."
"We realize up there is more your territory, but this is our fight too." Steve said, and Rhodey crossed his arms over his chest.
"You even know where he is?"
"I know people who might." Carol said, but Nebula walked in, interrupting us.
"Don't bother. I can tell you where Thanos is." She said, and we fell silent, waiting for her to talk.
"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'." She said, and Rhodey scoffed.
"That's cute, Thanos has a retirement plan."
"So where is he?" I asked, and Rocket jumped up on the table, pointing to a small hologram.
"When Thanos snapped his fingers, Earth became ground zero for a power surge of ridiculously cosmic proportions. No one's ever seen anything like it, until two days ago. On this planet."
"Thanos is there." Nebula said, and I gasped.
"He used the stones again."
"We'd be going in short-handed, you know." Bruce said, and I crossed my arms over my chest.
"Look, he's still got the stones, so-" Rhodey started, but Carol cut him off.
"So let's get him, use them to bring everyone back."
"Just like that?" I asked, and my boyfriend nodded.
"Yeah, just like that."
"Even if there's a small chance that we can undo this, we owe it to everyone who's not in this room to try." Natasha said, but Bruce looked unconvinced.
"If we do this, how do we know it's gonna end any differently than it did before?"
"Before, you didn't have me." Carol said, and I shared a surprised look with Steve.
"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?" Rhodey asked, making Carol put her hands on her hips.
"There are a lot of other planets in the universe, and unfortunately they didn't have you guys."
Thor stood up, walking over to Carol, holding his hand up to summon Stormbreaker, catching it as she maintained eye contact.
Wow.
"I like this one." Thor said, looking over at me and smiling, so I nodded.
"Alright, we can do this."
"Let's go get this son of a bitch."