Bree Phoenix || An Avengers Fanfiction ✔

Chapter 17

Third-person

Tony had been stuck up in space for weeks after his defeat. Thanos won. And he and the avengers, lost. The people he fought with, gone. Peter, gone. Half the population was gone, reduced to atoms. And Tony felt hopeless.

Thankfully, he was saved by Captain Marvel, bringing his ship back down to earth, he survives but is left with guilt and numbness. He couldn't have stopped the Titan, nobody could. Tony was reunited with Pepper and the rest of the remaining avengers.

The next morning, everyone had gathered in the meeting room, looking over the people that blipped. At this point, it had been 21 days since Thanos came to earth and the avengers had no clue where he was.

"World governments are in pieces," Natasha said. "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,"

Tony lowered his head after seeing a picture of Peter flash before him.

"Thanos wiped out 50% of all living creatures." Natasha finished.

"Where is he now? Where?" Tony spoke up, looking over at Steve.

Steve sat on the edge of a table with his arms crossed, his eye contact not connecting with Tony's. "We don't know." His voice at a low tone. "He just opened a portal and walked through."

Tony sighed, glancing over to Thor. "What's wrong with him?" He asked, pointing to him.

Thor was hunched over, fiddling with his fingers as his eyes lingered, his mind was elsewhere. He glanced up at Tony as the talking raccoon spoke. "Oh, 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 said.

"Honestly, until this exact second, I thought you were a Build-A-Bear," Tony started to Rocket.

"Maybe I am." Rocket said.

"We've been hunting Thanos for three weeks now. Deep space scans and satellites and we got nothing." Steve affirmed. "Tony, you fought him,"

"Who told you that?" Tony interrupted. "I didn't fight him. No, he wiped my face with a planet while the Bleecker Street magician gave away the store. That's what happened."

"Okay-"

"There was no fight, 'cause he's not beatable."

"Did he give you any clues, any coordinates, anything?" Steve asked.

Tony starts to joke. "Uh..." he sputters. Everyone sighed, mentally. "I saw this coming a few years back. I had a vision. I didn't want to believe it. Thought I was dreaming. Then I thought maybe it was a sign from Bree, maybe she's now talking to me through my dreams, maybe she-"

Steve spoke up, standing up off the table. "Tony, I'm gonna need you to focus."

"And I needed you," Tony said. "As in, past tense. That trumps what you need. It's too late, buddy. Sorry." Tony felt himself getting uncomfortable and restless.

He sniffs, "You know what I need?" He pushed away some bowls that sat on the table in front of him. He stood up, "I need a shave. And I believe I remember telling all youse alive and otherwise, that what we needed was a suit of armor around the world. Remember that?"

He faced Steve, stepping closer to him. "Whether it impacted our precious freedoms or not. That's what we needed."

"Well, that didn't work out, did it?"

"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, not the pre-vengers. Right?" He nears Steve. "Bunch of tired old mules, I got nothing for you, Cap. I got no coordinates, no clues, no strategies, no options. Zero. Zip. Nada. No trust, liar," Tony breathes heavily before ripping out his arc reactor, he clenches it in his hands as everyone froze in shock.

He placed it in Steve's hand. "Here, take this. You find him, you put that on, you hide." Tony loses his balance, falling to the ground.

"Tony," Steve reaches out his hand for him. "I'm fine," His breathing got heavier. "Let me..." and with that, he collapses.

Carol, Natasha, and Steve all waited outside the room, as Bruce treated Tony. Rhodes came out, "Bruce gave him a sedative. He's gonna probably be out for the rest of the day." He explained.

"You guys take care of him and I'll bring him a Xorrian elixir when I come back," Carol said, beginning to leave the room but is stopped by Steve. "Where are you going?"

Without looking back, walking off with confidence, she states. "To kill Thanos."

Natasha looked at Steve before going after her.

"Hey," Carol turned to her. "You know, we usually work as a team here, and, uh, between you and I, morales's a little fragile."

Steve joined in, standing behind Natasha. "We realize up there is more to your territory, but this is our fight, too."

"You even know where he is?" Rhodes asked.

"I know people who might." She said.

Nebula interrupted, "Don't bother." Carol looked behind her. "I can tell you where Thanos is."

*****

The team went to the conference room, discussing their plan.

"Thanos spent a long time trying to perfect me," Nebula said. "When 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? And his answer was always the same," she walked over to the table, leaning forward as she hovered. "To the garden,"

"That's cute," Rhodes spoke. "Thanos has a retirement plan,"

Steve walked over to the table. "Where is he?"

Rocket opened and displayed the hologram of the earth and space. "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," he enhanced, traveling off the map and into space. "On this planet," the raccoon confirmed.

Nebula nodded. "Thanos is there,"

Natasha leaned in closer. "He used the stones again,"

"Hey," Banner spoke up, dragging the 'y'. "We'd be going in short-handed, you know,"

"Look, he still got the stones so-"

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

"Just like that?" Banner said, sounding unsure.

"Yeah," Steve said. "Just like that,"

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