𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘 𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐎𝐍𝐄━︎━︎ B. Barnes ✓︎

𝐓𝐰𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐲-𝐒𝐢𝐱

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX:
JUST LIKE THAT

SHE HAD A DAILY SCHEDULE. Wake up. Train. Take a shower. Train. Eat with Natasha. And then go to sleep. It had yet to set in. In fact, she was avoiding what had happened all together. The thought of losing made her sick. Or at least, that's what she had convinced herself. They had lost, half of the universe was gone. That should've been the reason why she avoided the subject. But in all honesty, it wasn't. She refused to think that the one man she had finally started to give her heart to was gone.

Her fist slammed against the punching bag, and just when she was about to send another punch, the entire building started to shake. She stopped, turning her head before meeting the eyes of Steve as he had walked by, stopping in front of the training room and waiting for Fallon to join him. Everyone that was in the Avengers compound―︎that only being Natasha, Steve, Rhodey, Fallon, Thor, Rocket, Bruce, and Pepper―︎walked outside just in time to watch as Carol Danvers lowered a ship onto the ground.

They stood there, watching as the ship opened and Tony and Nebula came out of it. Tony looked so weak, so fragile. Steve was the one to quickly run forward, catching the man before he could fall on the ground, losing his balance. Tony grabbed onto Steve, using him as a support system and looking the man he had fought a few years ago.

     "I couldn't stop him." Tony told the man, sounding almost frustrated.

     "Neither could I." Steve shook his head.

     "I lost the kid." When Tony said this, Fallon closed her eyes. She and Peter Parker had been on opposite sides, but he was still a kid. He shouldn't have been one of the millions to dust away.

     "Tony, we lost."

     "Is um. . ." Tony swallowed, so scared to ask whether or not his fiancé had made it through. The thought of Pepper not being there made his heart break.

     But as soon as Pepper saw the man, she was quick to run up to him. "Oh my god!" Pepper threw her arms around Tony, closing her eyes as she let the relief over take her.  They moved inside, hooking Tony up to an IV as he sat in a wheelchair, not having the strength to stand.

     "It has been 23 days since Thanos came to earth." Rhodey was the first to speak. They watched as the faces popped up of the ones that had been dusted away. Fallon immediately look down to the ground when she saw Bucky's face with Wanda and Sam's face appearing not long after.

     "World governments are in pieces." Natasha stated with a sigh, shaking her head. "The parts that are still working are trying to take a census. And it looks like he did. . . he did exactly what he said he was gonna do. Thanos wiped out fifty percent, of all living creatures."

     "Where is he now? Where?" Tony asked desperately, begging to know where the Titan was. Like Fallon, the man couldn't get over the fact that they had lost.