Battle Scars (A Bucky Barnes Fanfic)

Forty-Two

I look at Dad on a bed, with Pepper at his side. He was put here after he collapsed.

"Bruce gave him a sedative." Rhodes tells us all, "He's gonna probably be out for the rest of the day."

"You guys take care of him." Carol says, "And I'll bring him a Xorrian Elixir when I come back."

Carol walks away. I raise an eyebrow.

"Where are you going?" Natasha asks her.

"To kill Thanos," Carol replies.

Steve, Natasha, and I share a look before walking after her.

"Hey, you know, we usually work as a team here, and between you and I, morale's a little fragile," Natasha says.

"We realize up there is more your territory, but this is our fight too," Steve adds.

"He's right," I say.

"You even know where he is?" Rhodes asks her.

"I know people who might," Carol replies.

Standing behind Carol. "Don't bother. I can tell you where Thanos is." Nebula says, "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," Rhodes says sarcastically.

"Yeah that's not creepy and cryptic at all," I say just as sarcastically.

"So where is he?" Steve asks.

"When Thanos snapped his fingers, Earth became ground zero for a power surge of ridiculously cosmic proportions." Rocket tells us, "No one's ever seen anything like it... Until two days ago." A hologram of a planet pops up, with a shock-wave visibly traversing the surface. "On this planet."

"Thanos is there." Nebula says.

"He used the stones again." Natasha points out.

"Hey, hey, hey." Bruce says, "We'd be going in short-handed, you know."

"Look, he's still got the stones, so..." Rhodes says.

"So let's get him..." Carol says, "Use them to bring everyone back."

"Just like that?" Rhodes questions.

"Yeah, just like that," Steve says.

Steve and Carol share a knowing look.

"Even if there's a small chance that we can undo this..." Nat says, "I mean we owe it to everyone who's not in this room to try."

"If we do this, how do we know it's gonna end any differently than it did before?" Bruce asks.

"Because before, you didn't have me," Carol informs us.

"Hey, new girl, everyone here is about that superhero life." Rhodes snaps, "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." Carol tells him, "And unfortunately, they didn't have you guys."