against time.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN || a great return

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN, a great return

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ

STEVE HELD THE blade in his hand and sighed, making eye contact with himself in the mirror as he looked over his freshly shaven face. He and Natasha had lost her, they had lost Ivanna who had changed their lives for the better. In ways Steve hadn't even noticed until she disappeared before his eyes. Confusion crossed his face as the mirror in front of him began shaking. Steve glanced around, then grabbed his shirt and put it on to run outside of the compound.

Steve, Natasha, Bruce, and Rhodey ran outside, seeing a ship being carried by a woman with blonde hair and a red and blue suit. She brought the ship to the ground, where it opened and Tony himself came out: supported by a purple and blue woman. Steve rushed forward, grabbing onto Tony and letting Tony do the same in return.

"Couldn't stop him," Tony stammered, clearly wounded from an injury Steve couldn't fully see

Steve shook his head, "Neither could I."

"I lost the kid," Tony said next.

"Tony," Steve started, "we lost."

Tony looked around the group, "Is, uh...?"

Pepper was the next person to set foot outside the compound, her eyes instantly landing on her fiancé who stood with Steve, "Oh, my God! Oh, my God!"

Steve let Tony go so he could embrace Pepper, who was beginning to cry as Tony hugged her.

"It's okay," Tony consoled Pepper.

Steve watched on silently, his eyes drifting from the reuniting couple to the ship behind them, and back. He barely had a clue as to what was going on, but he was certain it would be explained soon enough.

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The group was surrounded in the living room area of the Avengers Compound, Rocker and Nebula with one another while Tony sat at a table receiving blood for healing. Steve was watching the holographic reports closely. The faces and the names flashed across of the people that they had lost.

"It's been 23 days since Thanos came to Earth," Rhodey explained, his arms crossed as people like Nick Fury and Maria Hill flashed across the screens in front of the group.

"World governments are in pieces," Natasha further explained, "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."

Steve narrowed his eyes on one picture, in particular, the blue eyes and blonde hair ever familiar. Steve could feel the frown forming on his face, as well as the pit in his stomach of realization. He hadn't saved Ivanna or Bucky from their fates of the snap, he couldn't. And now here he stood without them.

"Where is he now?" Tony questioned, "Where?"

"We don't know," Steve spoke up for a response, "He just opened a portal and walked through."

Steve glanced over to Thor, who was seated on a bench with his hands tightly folded together and his eye glued to the ground beneath his feet. Thor hadn't been the same since they left Wakanda, but then again: nobody had.

"What's wrong with him?" Tony asked from his wheelchair while gesturing toward Thor.

"Oh, he's pissed," Rocket answered for Thor, "He thinks he failed. Which of course he did, but you know there's a lot of that's going around, ain't there?"