INERTIA ↠ AVENGERS FANFIC

TWENTY FIVE- SEARCH

Natasha Romanoff was usually pretty good at comforting people, but with Zara she had no idea where to start. The Kree woman sat on a soft leather chair in the Avengers compound. Leg shaking, eyes staring into the abyss. She knew only what she had seen; Carol there one second and a pile of dust there the next. 

"Thanos did exactly what he said he was going to do. He wiped out fifty percent of all living creatures."

Fifty percent? Of everyone? That certainly wasn't possible. All the world, all the creatures, to kill half of them would be to kill trillions. Probably more. 

And that was something no being could ever do on their own. Not, of course, without the use of the infinity stones. But to wield all six would need a being of immense strength and unstoppable will. 

"Thanos?" Zara's voice cracked as she spoke. She tried to swallow her emotions, but a void of  anger and guilt crept its way back up. Maybe if she had stayed on Earth...

"He a friend of yours?" 

Zara knew Natasha was kidding, but deep down she knew that no matter what she did, how much she proved herself, no one on the team would ever trust her completely.  She couldn't blame them; Zara thought back to the time she was on the run from SHIELD and almost killed Natasha. And hell, she skipped town right after Ultron was dealt with. And when they needed her most, to fight Thanos, she wasn't there. 

Natasha feigned a smile. "Sorry."

"How'd he do it?"

"He collected these anomalies, called infinity stones. Each of them controls-"

"I know what they are. Powerful on their own, unstoppable when combined."

Zara looked around the room. In it were Natasha, Steve, Rhodey, Bruce, and Thor sulking in a corner. She hadn't even noticed that half the team wasn't there. 

"So Wanda, Sam, and Tony are gone."

Natasha stifled a tear at the thought of her friends death. "Wanda and Sam, yes. Vision and Fury  too. Tony's AWOL. All we know is that he went up into space and never came back."

"Why weren't you... didn't you fight him together?"

Natasha and Steve shared a sorry glance. Zara had a lot of catching up to do. Steve stepped forward, contemplating how to explain this is the best way possible. "Zara, the Avengers had a falling out. A big one. Tony wanted the Avengers to be under government control. Some of us agreed... some of us didn't. We had a giant fight. Said things we shouldn't have and didn't say things we should. It ended with half of us being fugitives and going on the run. Tony and I weren't on speaking terms. And even if we were we'd be arrested for helping."

Zara stood up and crossed her arms. "You guys broke up? Like- like a boy band?"

"That's what I said!" Bruce remarked. "Like The Beatles."

"Where the hell were you?"

"Oh, well I hulked out for a couple years on this weird alien planet. It was run by this dude, really old and disturbingly sexual. Then we fought Thor's crazy sister and blew up Asgard. It was fun, right?" Bruce looked back to Thor who kept his dark and stoic expression. "Of course by fun... I mean insanely tragic."

Zara shifted her attention back to Steve. "So what you're saying is Tony could still be alive."

Steve shrugged. "It's possible, but considering the odds I doubt it. Plus, he could be anywhere in space, and it's been over two weeks."

"Tony's armour has a certain IP and source code, right? I could cast a couple webs, put out a deep-space search... see if I can track him though space."

"That's brilliant," said Bruce. "I thought about tracking the suit but I don't even know where to start with outer space. I'll set you up."

--

"Is this it? Did you find him?"

"Not exactly. Believe it or not, it's not as simple as having him click his heels together three times, " Zara said, typing on the large hologram keyboard in front of her. "Wait, who are you?"

Zara locked eyes with the middle aged blonde woman who had just ran in the room.  

"I'm Pepper. Tony's fiancee."

"Right. What I can tell you, Pepper, is that I've secured a connection to Tony's AI's operational matrix. Friday, I think? It shows that the matrix has tried to send a signal to Earth fifty-four times in the last three weeks."

Pepper sighed in relief. "So it means he's alive."

"It means his AI is operating. The signals could either be him or an automation performed by Friday. I can decode and translate the signals, but-"

"Do it," Pepper said. 

Zara shook her head, continuing to focus on the screen in front of her. "It'll take too long. It would probably be faster for me to isolate a signal, trace it back to wherever it came from, and go get him myself."

"How long will that take?"

"If you keep asking questions? A day, maybe two, just to isolate the signal. Ideally, I could have him back by tomorrow morning. If he's still alive, of course."

Zara could feel Pepper deflate at the thought of a dead Tony. "Sorry."

"I'll leave you alone," Pepper said. "Just... find him."

--

A/N- Thank you SO MUCH for 10 THOUSAND reads! Oh my goodness! I started this as something to update when I was bored and now it has over 10k reads, that's insane!

total word count so far- 30,400