Avengers: Endgame [4]

1

Avengers Compound, 2018

The purple energy had coursed through her, so powerful that the only thing she'd felt was pain. She'd dropped what she was holding and collapsed onto the ground.

The Avengers had rushed to her side, asking what was wrong.

"I don't know," Astra had managed through the pain.

"Is it the Stone?" Rocket had asked.

Most likely. "Thanos must have done something with it again." Like everyone else, she knew nothing about what Thanos could possibly be doing that was affecting her mysterious link to the Power Stone.

Now she sat on a bench, tossing a small teddy bear up and down as she zoned in and out of reality. Her head was still throbbing from the sudden energy surge, her broken left arm was in a cast and still hurt like hell, and she still felt drained. Both physically and mentally. She was exhausted, after overusing her powers the last time she'd faced her father. She wondered if she even still had them at this point.

Three weeks ago, Astra's adoptive father, Thanos, had finally achieved what he'd wanted for years: gathering all six Infinity Stones to wipe out half the universe to ensure that life was perfectly balanced. He had killed Astra's sister Gamora to obtain the Soul Stone and decimated multiple planets and slaughtered millions more to get the other Stones.

Among the victims were half the Avengers who were in Wakanda - as they called it, where Thanos had first snapped his fingers. Astra and Rocket, one of her fellow Guardians of the Galaxy, were lucky to survive, having watched Groot disintegrate into ashes.

Now Astra feared for the other Guardians - Mantis, Drax, and Peter Quill, her half-brother. She was also worried about Nebula, her other sister who had betrayed Thanos and whose whereabouts were currently unknown.

I should have done better to stop him. My powers match those of an Infinity Stone. I should have at least done something.

Her thoughts were also depressed and swathed in guilt.

Astra was suddenly snapped out of her thoughts as she heard a rumbling in the distance. She stood up, and, along with the Avengers, she slowly walked out to see what was going on.

It was the middle of the night, and Astra saw a large shape being pushed towards the Avengers Compound by a small figure swathed in light. As it got closer, Astra could see that the huge ship was the Benatar, the Guardians' spaceship. Her heart began to race and her breath quickened.

The ship landed and the figure pushing it revealed itself to be a woman with blonde hair, as the light disappeared from her body.

Steve Rogers aka Captain America, the leader of the Avengers, ran up to the two figures as they exited the Benatar. One of them was another man around his age, and the other was-

"Nebula!" Astra gasped, running up to hug her. "You're okay!"

"Sister," said Nebula, hugging back.

As the Avengers had their reunion with their friend, Tony Stark aka Iron Man, Rocket approached them and he, Nebula, and Astra sat down in silence. Rocket held Nebula's hand and Astra wrapped an arm around her sister's waist, pulling her closer, mourning each other's losses.

Astra didn't need to ask anything about what happened. All their friends were gone. Their family was gone.

They were the only ones left.

***

"It's been twenty-three days since Thanos came to Earth," said James Rhodes, or Rhodey, as everyone called him.