𝐆𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐧 𝐃𝐚𝐲𝐬✓ 𝐓𝐨𝐧𝐲 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐤 [𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝟑]

28: Just Like That.

"It's been 23 days since Thanos came to Earth." Rhodey starts as image after image of our family that got dusted flashed by.

"World governments are in pieces. 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." Nat says and I sighed, making dad's hold on my hand tighten.

"Where is he now? Where?" He asked.

"We don't know. He just opened a portal and walked through." Steve replied.

"What's wrong with him?" Dad asks again as he glance at Thor, who was sitting outside, deep in thought.

"Oh, he's pissed. He thinks he failed. Which of course he did, but you know there's a lot of that's going around, ain't there?" Rocket responds and dad turned to him.

"Honestly, until this exact second, I literally thought you were a Build-A-Bear." Dad retorts.

"Maybe I am." Rocket shrugs.

'We've been hunting Thanos for three weeks now. Deep Space scans, and satellites, and we got nothing. Tony, you fought him." Steve says and dad perks up at that.

"Who told you that? I didn't fight him. No, he wiped my face with a planet while the Bleecker Street Magician gave away the store. That's what happened. There was no fight." Dad retorts.

"Okay." Steve agreed.

"He's unbeatable." Dad continues.

"Did he give you any clues, any coordinates, anything?" Steve asked again.

"Pfft! I saw this coming a few years back. I had a vision. I didn't wanna believe it. Thought I was dreaming." Dad says as he lets go of my hand.

"Dad-"

"Tony, I'm gonna need you to focus." Steve sighs.

"And I needed you. As in past tense." Dad seethes. "That trumps what you need. It's too late buddy. Sorry. You know what I need?"
He takes as sniff of the bowl in front of him and pushed it away, making a very loud noise that has me wincing.
"I need to shave. And I believe I remember telling all youse -"

He stumbles towards Steve and I rushed to his side.

"Dad."

"Alive and otherwise what we needed was a suit of armor around the world! Remember that? Whether it impacted our precious freedoms or not- that's what we needed!" Dad continues as he shrugged mine and Rhodey's hand off him.

"Well, that didn't work out, did it?" Steve asked calmly, understanding where dad was coming from and I'm thankful for that.

"I said, 'we'd lose'. You said, 'We'll do that together too.' And guess what, Cap? We lost. And you weren't there. But that's what we do, right? Our best work after the fact? We're the Avengers, we're the A-vengers. Not the Pre-vengers."

"Okay. Dad, you've made your point."

"Just sit down." Rhodey agrees with me.

"Okay..." Dad says as he calms down a little to catch his breath before picking it up again. "Nah, nah. Here's my point. You know what?

"Dad, please-"

"She's great, by the way." He points at Carol. 'We need you. You're new blood. Bunch of tired old mules!"

He shrugs us off him as he walked right up to Steve.

"I got nothing for you, Cap! I got no coordinates, no clues, no strategies, no options. Zero. Zip. Nada. No trust. Liar." Dad spits and I noticed Steve's demeanor break a little. Maybe dad sees this, I don't know but he grabs his reactor and yanks it off his chest and shoves it into Steve's hand.

"Here, take this. You find him, and you put that on. You hide." Dad continues, breathing heavily, before falling to his knees.

"Dad!"

"Tony!"

"I'm fine. I..." With that, he passed out against me.

▪️▪️▪️

"I'm gonna update the team." Rhodey says to Pepper and I before leaving us in the quiet room.

"He's going to be fine." I muttered to Pepper. Even though it sounded like I was trying to convince myself.

"I know, honey. He's going to be fine." She responded with a soft smile, and tears filled my eyes.

"I'm sorry. For not talking to you these past few weeks." I sniffled. "I was just trying to get by everyday that I didn't think about people around me. I'm sorry."

She stands up from her seat and walked her way towards me, with tears in her eyes.
"It's okay. It's okay, honey. I understand."

"Does he know?" I spoke up after a few seconds and she chuckled softly.

"No. He guessed it, he told me he had a dream but even I didn't know then, it was after- after-, that's when I found out. He's going to be so happy." She says and I laughed too.

Our laughter was paused when Pietro knocked on the door.
"I'm sorry, but we found something."

"Oh, thanks, Sonic." I responded and he walked away.

I was suddenly conflicted, should I go with them or I should stay here with dad? Pepper must see the confusion I was feeling because she nods with a smile.
"I'll look after him. He's going to be fine."

"Thanks Pep." I said before leaving a kiss on dad's forehead and hugged her.

"Get that son of a bitch." She said with a smile and I nodded.

"I will, I promise."

🤰🤰🤰

"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." Nebula explained to us.

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

"So where is he?" Steve asked.

"When Thanos snapped his fingers, Earth became ground zero for a power surge of ridiculously cosmic proportions. No one's ever seen anything like it... Until two days ago-" Rocket explains as he pulls up an hologram of a planet. "-on this planet."

"Thanos is there." Nebula confirms.

"He used the stones again." Pietro notes.

"Hey, hey, hey. We'd be going in short-handed, you know." Bruce warns us and I shrugged.

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

"So let's get him... Use them to bring everyone back." Carol finished and I nodded in agreement.

"Just like that?" Rhodey asked.

"I don't see why not." Pietro responds.

"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 says.

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

"Because before, you didn't have me." Carol answers and I scowled.

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

"There are a lot of other planets in the universe. And unfortunately, they didn't have you guys." She responds and Pietro shrugs as if to say, she has a point.

Thor, who has been silently eating a snack behind us all this time, stands up and walks over to Carol. She looks behind at him. He holds his hand up, and catches Stormbreaker as it flies over to him, missing Carol by inches. But she doesn't even flinch, instead she smiles at the him.

"I like this one." Thor spoke up with a smirk on his face.

"Let's go get this son of a bitch."