Sokovian Bastard

52

It's been twenty-two days since the blip and everyone is now in the compound, including a woman named Carol Danvers, from space.

Lyla stands with Pietro's arm hugging her tight from behind with his head laid on her shoulder. She has her head back on his shoulder with their fingers interlocked over her abdomen.

"World governments are in pieces." Nat states. "The parts that are still working are trying to make a census and it looks like he did. He did exactly what he said he was gonna do."

A picture of Peter plays in front of Tony and he looks away, covering half of his face. Lyla catches it and sighs while pulling Pietros arms tighter around her.

"Thanos wiped out fifty percent of all living creatures."

"Where is he now?" Tony asks.

"We don't know." Steve sighs. "He just opened a portal and walked through. We've been hunting Thanos for three weeks now. Deep space scans and satellites, and we got nothing."

"I can tell you where Thanos is." Nebula steps forward.

"What?" Lyla furrows her brows.

"Thanos spent a long time trying to perfect me. And when he worked, 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?'. His answer was always the same: 'To the Garden'."

"That's cute." Rhodey teases. "Thanos has a retirement plan."

"So, where is he?" Steve asks.

"When Thanos snapped his fingers, Earth became ground zero for a power surge of ridiculously cosmic proportions." Rocket starts. "No one's ever seen anything like it... Until two days ago." He pulls up a hologram of a planet with a shockwave visibly traversing the surface. "On this planet."

"Thanos is there." Nebula concludes.

"He used the stones again." Nat realizes.

"Hey, hey, hey." Bruce chuckles. "We'd be going in short-handed, you know."

"Look, he's still got the stones, so..." Rhodey trails off.

"So let's get him." Carol shrugs. "Use them to bring everyone back."

"Just like that?"

"Yeah, just like that." Steve nods.

"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." Nat states.

"If we do this, how do we know it's gonna end any differently than it did before?" Bruce asks.

"Because before, you didn't have me." Carol states.

"Hey, new girl? Everyone in this room is about that superhero life." Rhodey jokes. "And if you don't mind my asking, where the hell have you been all this time?"

"There are a lot of other planets in the universe. And unfortunately, they didn't have you guys."

Thor, who has been eating a snack behind all this time, stands up and walks over to Carol. She looks at him and he holds his hand up, catching Stormbreaker as it flies over to him, missing her by inches. She doesn't even flinch but instead, just smirks at him. Lyla holds back a confused smile and shakes her head.

"I like this one." Thor nods.

"Let's go get this son of a bitch." Steve turns to the hologram.

Lyla and Pietro disappear off to his room and he slowly lets go of her so she can turn around. She lays her arms over his shoulders and he holds her hips.

"Do you want me to stay here or go with them? Up to you." She plays with his hair.

"Can you stay here?" He pushes her hair behind her ear.

"Of course." She nods. "I'm gonna tell them I'm staying then I'll be back."

"Okay."

Before she can leave, he quickly leans down to her lips for a rough few kisses while holding her chin, leaving her grinning a bit, making him chuckle. They separate a second later and she goes back to Nat.

"I'm not going."

"Why not?" She furrows her brows.

"Pietro wants me to stay." She grins sadly and Nat sighs. "My dad probably won't even let me go anyway."

"Probably not." She nods. "Yeah, stay here with Pietro. He's gonna need you with him for a while. Definitely not on a different planet."

"Yeah, no, definitely not." She shakes her head. "Have fun killing Thanos. I expect at least a picture of his head, okay?"

"Okay." She nods with a smirk.

Lyla smiles and lays her arm over her shoulders to pull her into a tight hug. When they let go after a few seconds, Tony comes up to her and forcefully takes Nats place, making Lyla chuckle.

"I'm sorry about Peter." She whispers.

"Yeah, me, too." He sighs.

She takes a deep breath before they let go and she goes back to Pietro, who is now in her room, laying on her couch. She walks over to him and straddles his waist before pushing her arms under his neck to hug him with her head next to his. He wraps his arms around her waist as his eyes start watering again. He takes a deep, shaky breath and she backs up a bit, resting on her elbows as a tear slips out.

"Is this what it was like when I was crying all the time." She wipes his tear away with her thumb and he breathes a heavy grin with a nod. "I'm sorry. This sucks. I don't like seeing you sad. Feel better, bitch."

"Oh, my God." He chuckles.

"Yeah, like that." She smiles as she sits up with her hands on his chest. "How do I make you do that all the time?"

"Just do what you usually do." He shrugs. "You always make me laugh. You even did when we hated each other."

"Oh, my God." She gasps. "It's been almost a year since we hated each other. Holy crap."

"Yeah, now, we have sex all the time."

She gasps again before bursting into laughter, making him laugh, too.

"That's so true, though!" She shakes her head with her hand over her mouth.

"I know!"