Blue || Bucky Barnes

39. Who Hasn't Been To Space?

Steve stands in his bathroom, rinsing his razor. He grabs the hand towel and wipes off the excess shaving cream on his cheeks. But then his attention is caught by the small side mirror, quivering unusually. He reaches out to steady it but it doesn't do much. Steve looks up as the motion gets more powerful.
Everyone else in the compound feels it to. Leia, Steve, Nat, Bruce and Rhodey all run outside across the grass in the dark evening. Their eyes are glued to the sky as Carol brings the Benatar down to a safe land. They stop just behind Pepper who looks up at the sky with teary eyes. The steps lower from the spaceship and Nebula walks out helping Tony's weak body.
Steve sprints to them and grabs Tony's other side. Leia covers her mouth when she sees the state of him.

"I couldn't stop him." Tony says as Steve helps him walk.
"Neither could I." Steve says.
"I- I- I lost the kid." Tony's voice breaks.
"Tony, we lost." Steve adds.

He looks at Steve with teary eyes, struggling to ask about Pepper. "Is uh... Is uh-"
"Oh my god!" Pepper's voice interrupts and Tony looks at her thankfully, his face clouded with relief. She hugs him tight. "Oh my god."
Tony kisses her cheek when she lets go. "It's okay." He mumbles.

The pair help the frail man inside with everyone else following closely. Rocket however goes and sits beside Nebula on the steps of the Benatar. He pats her mechanical hand gently, and comfortingly. She turns her hand over and Rocket places his in it, dropping his head in sorrow knowing that she's all he has left.

-

"It's been twenty three days since Thanos came to Earth." Rhodey says as they're all sitting in the living room area. Leia looks up at the wrong time and sees Bucky's picture displayed in the hologram. She drops her head and squeezes her eyes closed controlling herself. She takes a couple deep breaths before opening her eyes once more.

"World governments are in pieces. And 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." Nat says.
A frail Tony hooked up to an IV drip looks down from the pictures as Peter's comes up, rubbing the bridge of his nose.
"Thanos wiped out fifty percent of all living creatures." Nat continues as Carol spots Fury's picture on the screens, before looking down saddened.

Thor sits beyond the glass wall and Loki stands in the doorway just watching what's happening before him.

"Where is he now? Where?" Tony asks.
"We don't know. He just opened a portal and walked through." Steve says leaning up against the table, arms crossed.
"What's wrong with him?" Tony points at Thor.
"He's pissed. He thinks he failed. Which of course he did, but there's a lot of that going around, ain't there." Rocket tells him.
"Honestly, until this exact second, I thought you were a Build-A-Bear." Tony says.
"Maybe I am." Rocket counters.
"We've been hunting Thanos for three weeks now. Deep Space scans, and satellites, and we got nothing. Tony, you fought him-" Steve starts.
"Who told you that? I didn't fight him, no, he wiped my face with a planet, while the Bleecker Steet Magician gave away the store. That's what happened. There was no fight." Tony interrupts.
"Okay." Steve says. 
"He's unbeatable."
"Did he give you any clues? Any coordinates? Anything." Steve asks.
Tony raises his hand to his temple and does a strange gesture. "I saw this coming a few years back. I had a vision, I didn't want to believe it, thought I was dreaming." Tony says.
Steve stands to his feet warily. "Tony, I'm gonna need you to focus."
Tony interrupts Steve raising his voice slightly. "And I needed you. As in past tense, that trumps what you need. It's too late buddy. Sorry."

"You know what I need?" Tony pushes over the crockery in front of him standing up. "I need a shave. And I believe I remember telling all youse-"
"Tony, Tony, Tony." Rhodey tries to stop him from pulling the drip out his arm.
"-Alive and otherwise what we needed was a suit of armor around the world! Remember that? Whether it impacted our precious freedoms or not- that's what we needed!" Tony yells.
"Well that didn't work out, did it?" Steve comments.
"I said we'd lose, you said, we'll do that together too. And 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 A-vengers. Not the Pre-vengers." Tony keeps raising his voice at Steve.