stark, peter parker

xi. it's just like the tower of terror, right?

"bruce gave him a sedative." rhodey told kodie and carol in regards to tony. "he's gonna probably be out for the rest of the day." dakota zoned out, only focused on her father and on the way he'd been acting.

carol walked away, apparently on her way to kill thanos. "hey, you know, we usually work as a team here," natasha told carol, "and between you and i, morale's a little fragile."

"we realize up there is more your territory," steve told her, "but this is our fight too."

dakota joined the conversation, standing by rhodey with her arms crossed. "do you even know where he is?" dakota asked, having been told that no one knew where he was.

"i know people who might." carol countered.

"don't bother." nebula said from behind carol. "i can tell you where thanos is." dakota raised a brow. "thanos spent a long time trying to perfect me. and when he worked, he talked about his great plan. even disassembled, he wanted me 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," rhodey piped, "thanos has a retirement plan." this time, dakota chuckled at the joke, watching as rhodey smiled at the normalcy of it.

dakota looked over to nebula. "so where's the garden?"

the group gathered around a table to examine the hologram before them. "when thanos snapped his fingers," rocket said, "earth became ground zero for a power surge of ridiculously cosmic proportions. no one's ever seen anything like it.. until two days ago." a planet's hologram appeared. "on this planet."

"thanos is there." nebula confirmed.

natasha turned to look at nebula. "he used the stones again."

bruce looked dumbfounded. "we'd be going in short-handed, you know."

"he's still got the stones," rhodey agreed, "so..."

"so let's get him." carol said. "use them to bring everyone back."

"just like that?" rhodey asked.

dakota chuckled, watching as the rest of the group looked over at her in confusion. "yeah, last time we tried to take the stones from him didn't go so well. we had the one weird girl," kodie moved her hands for emphasis, not remembering mantis' name, "she brainwashed him or something, and even then we had obstacles."

natasha gave kodie an earnest look. "even if there's a small chance that we can undo this.. we owe it to everyone who's not in this room to try." dakota nodded, looking down at her rings on her fingers, fidgeting with the peter had gotten her for her birthday.

"if we do this," bruce said, "how do we know it's gonna end any differently than it did before?"

carol turned. "because before, you didn't have me."

dakota looked up. "and this is relevant because.. why?"

"hey, new girl," rhodey said, standing by dakota, "everyone here is all about that superhero life. and if you don't mind my asking, where the hell have you been all this time?"

kodie crossed her arms over her chest. "where were you, like, when we actually needed your help? you're a little late to the party now."

"there are a lot of other planets in the universe." carol said. "and unfortunately, they didn't have you guys."

dakota furrowed her brow. "what about the guardians of the galaxy?" she gestured to rocket. "isn't their job literally to guard the galaxy?"

carol raised a brow. "fair enough."