Tragic Hope

03

Lush tropical fauna surrounded a shed on a farm. A scarecrow made of Thanos' armor was present and the burnt Infinity Gauntlet was on Thanos' arm. He was walking among his crops, harvesting fruit, and putting them in a sack. He walked over to the shed, with a dragging quality to his legs, like it pained him to walk, his living quarters, and tried to sit down. His whole left side was burnt black with blisters; He looked ridiculously.

Suddenly, Carol Danvers flew through the roof, knocking Thanos down, and grabbed his neck. Bruce in the Hulkbuster armor burst from the ground, and grabbed Thanos' Infinity Gauntlet arm. Thor flew in and sliced off the Infinity Gauntlet. Rhodey flew down with Rocket and aimed guns on Thanos' head.

Captain America walked in his new uniform, with Natasha right behind him. Rocket went over to the sliced off Infinity Gauntlet, and kicked it over, as everyone realized that there were no Stones in it.

"Oh no," Rocket said.

"Where are they?" Steve demanded.

"Answer the question!" Carol yelled.

"The universe required correction," Thanos told them. "After that, the Stones served no purpose, beyond temptation."

"You murdered trillions!" Bruce cried, pushing him to the ground wearing Hulkbuster armor.

"You should be grateful." He was punched by Hulkbuster.

"Where are the Stones?" Natasha asked.

"Gone. Reduced to atoms."

"You used them two days ago!" Bruce shot back.

"I used the Stones to destroy the Stones. It nearly killed me. But the work is done. It always will be." He sat himself a little straighter. "I am... inevitable."

"We have to tear this place apart, he-he-he has to be lying," Rhodey said.

"My father is many things. A liar is not one of them," Nebula told them.

"Ah, thank you, daughter." Nebula looked down, a little uncomfortable. "Perhaps I treated you too harshly."

Thor's face filled with rage as he raised to summon Stormbreaker, and before anyone could stop him, sliced Thanos' head off. Thanos' limp body fell to the floor. Nebula wiped off some of the blood spatter.

"What... What did you do?" Rocket asked.

Thor looked broken, realizing what he'd done. "I went for the head." He slowly walked out of the shed, no real purpose in his steps.

FIVE YEARS LATER

New York City was seemingly abandoned. There were a lot of boats gathered around a dock, all abandoned. A baseball stadium had no life present at all. The aftermath of the decimation was evident, and Earth had not coped well.

ABANDONED CAFE

There was a poster on the wall labeled "WHERE DO WE GO, NOW THAT THEY'RE GONE?". A therapy session was taking place with Steve Rogers and seven other people.

"So I, uh... Went on a date the other day," Joe Russo said. "It's the first time in five years, you know? I'm sitting there at dinner... I didn't even know what to talk about."

"What did you talk about?" Steve asked.

"Same old crap, you know? How things have changed, and... my job, his job... How much we miss the Mets. And then things get quiet... He cried as they were serving the salads."

"What about you?" Jim Starlin questioned.

"I cried... just before dessert. But I'm seeing him again tomorrow, so..."

"That's great," Steve told him. "You did the hardest part. You took the jump, you didn't know where you were gonna come down. And that's it. That's those little brave baby steps we gotta take. To try and become whole again, try and find purpose. I went in the ice in '45 right after I met the love of my life. Woke up 70 years later. You gotta move on. Gotta to move on. The world is in our hands. It's left to us guys, and we got to do something with it. Otherwise... Thanos should have killed all of us."

SAN FRANCISCO

At a self-storage facility, there was a sign saying "U-STORE IT, SELF STORAGE", with its interior filled with stored stuff and junk until it spotted Luis' van from "", behind a metallic fence with a label named "LANG". A rat crawled over the van's rear windshield and accidentally activated the controls for opening the Quantum Realm, haphazardly activating the Quantum Tunnel. The rear door busted open, flinging Scott outside the van.

Scott grunted as he pushed away a cushion from under of his body, and deactivated the helmet, but still grunting in pain, as he swept away sparks from an electrical failure out of his suit, then tried to stand and asked, "What the hell?"

He managed to stand, as another electrical failure sparked out of his gauntlets, and looked around in a confused look.

"Hope?" Scott called.

Inside a security office, a security guard was reading a book as he looked upon his security screen, seeing something going on in one of the storage facilities. In the cameras, it showed Lang in his casual clothing, shouting, waving a sign with the word "HELP" written on it.

Outside the facility, he pulled out a pushcart and looked back seeing the guard giving a stern look from far. He walked around until reaching his hometown, finding a post filled with MISSING posters, abandoned houses, a wrecked car, nothing but desolation. He saw a kid in a bike pass by.

Scott yelled, "Kid! Hey kid!" The kid stopped his bike as he stared back in a serious look. "What the hell happened here?"

The kid continued staring at him and was almost about to tear up, but immediately turned away from him and moved on. Scott gave the same confused look as he arrived in somewhat of a memorial called "THE VANISHED", with all the names of the people who became victims of the decimation. As Scott arrived on one of the engraved stones, he immediately dropped the handle in shock.

"No," Scott said. "Please. Please, please." He moved to check the other side of the engraved stone. "No, no, no. No." Scott excused aside a young couple as he keeps on checking another engraved stone if his daughter's name was on one. "Excuse me, sorry. No, Cassie, no."

Scott checked the rest of engraved stones if his daughter's name was in one and said in a mantra-like tone, "Please, please, please, please... No, Cassie." Scott looked at the engraved stone in shock, revealing his name in it. "What?"

Scott ran across the memorial, then to his hometown, only to ring a doorbell at his house, bang on the door, and tried opening the door, but found it locked. Then, he saw a feminine figure appear out of a hallway inside. The figure got closer, revealing a woman in a purple sweater, with her hand pushing towards the glass door's window, and her face filled with amazement, as she unlocked the door. It was Cassie, now an older teen.

Cassie, who hadn't seen him for five years, held up his face in an emotional sight and started to smile tearfully.

Scott returned her smile as he said, "Cassie?"

"Dad?" Cassie called and both of them emotionally hugged each other as father and daughter had reunited. Scott shoved her back, realizing that his daughter was now a teenager.

"You're so big!" Scott exclaimed as he and Cassie shared another hug.

During a sunset in San Francisco, there was a metal face with a sign saying in its headings, "RESTRICTED AREA, DO NOT ENTER" with the subtext, "AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY BEYOND THIS POINT, SECURITY ID OR ESCORT REQUIRED".