And the Snap Echoes

Man Without a Country

Steve Roger's mind was a mess.

Firstly, the so-called "Avengers", or what was left of them, had gathered alongside the Wakandan army to fight against a bunch of aliens. They had just been on the verge of defeat when Thor made an entry which was spectacular according to even Steve. Along with him were a rocket and a tree, which called itself "Groot". Apparently, the tree was obsessed with introducing itself to others, "I am Groot". They had destroyed the alien army, and just when all seemed good, Thanos entered the fight. Simply walking across a few meters of earth – that's all he had to do to accomplish his goal. Despite all of their efforts, Thanos had gotten the mind stone from Vision's forehead. After a bit of valiant but futile resistance from Thor, he had snapped his fingers and then vanished. Still trying to come out of the shock from battle, Steve had just gotten up to check on the others, when he had heard his name.

"Steve", Bucky Barnes called out, and then faded into dust.

Steve was horrorstruck, confused and angry at the same. Horrorstruck out of worry for his best friend, confused because he had literally no idea what was going on, and angry at Thanos for causing all of this bloodshed. He looked around to see if anyone else was experiencing this strange phenomenon, and to his added horror, he saw Wanda Maximoff fading away from where she was sitting next to Vision's body. He heard Okoye's screams and knew that it could mean only one thing – T'Challa had been taken as well. He set out to search for Sam Wilson, but James Rhodes' unanswered cries for the same purpose soon informed him about Sam's fate as well.

Dejected, he checked out Vision's body, before sitting down next to it, all hope lost. Bruce Banner, Rhodes, Thor, and the raccoon all walked towards him, all of their faces showing dismay. Last came Natasha Romanoff, running towards where all of them stood.

"What is this? What the hell is happening?" Rhodes asked.

"Oh, God..."

He vaguely saw Natasha sit down next to him, his mind completely focused on recalling how Bucky had disappeared right in front of him. It wasn't until he felt Nat hugging him that he was jarred back to his senses.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I know what Bucky meant to you, and I know that it isn't easy to see your best friend just abruptly leave you. The third time, that too."

"Why does it always have to be him, Nat? Why is it always him who has to go through all the pain?! Why not me?"

Natasha just hugged him tighter until he had calmed down. She knew about the bond that Steve had with Bucky, with Sam, with all of his fellow soldiers and comrades. Seeing them all fade away into dust was bound to rupture any man's heart – even that of the mighty Captain America. Knowing that he only had her left for company now, she tried consoling him.

"You know Bucky wouldn't want to see you like this. He'd expect you to keep on fighting for all that you have lost, for all that the world has lost. Same with Sam."

"There's no point now, Nat. He's gone now. All of them are gone. We were too late. Thanos has done whatever he wanted to do, and he's left us here to rot. There's nothing we can do. We failed! I failed!" Tears were pouring out of his eyes at this point.

SLAP!!

The clearing in which they were standing echoed the harsh sound. Steve's stared at Natasha, not believing for even an instance that she would resort to such an action. Not just Steve, everyone else was staring at her as well, but they knew to keep mum and just watch the spectacle unfolding in front of them.

"You think you're the only person who's lost something?! You think that just because you've lost Bucky, it's the end of the world?! Well, listen to this, Rogers! Reports are saying that half the earth's population is dead! I'm going to find out what exactly is going on, and try my best to put things back right! I don't know what happened to the "oh-so-great" Captain America, but you are definitely not him!"

Saying that, Natasha turned to the rest of the people gathered nearby, "And you! Are all of you going to help me, or going to sit around and mope like Rogers over here?!"

No one moved. Not a sound was heard.

Then suddenly, "I believe you are standing in my position, Black Widow."

Whirling, Natasha found Steve back on his feet again, a look of determination on his face. "We need to help clean up. I know that all of you must be tired after the battle, but this is no time to rest. We need to restore order everywhere, and I don't think that anyone else can do it for now. It's been a while since I stopped being Captain America, so for now, we need a leader.

"Since when have you not been Captain America? Last we met, you were him," Thor piped up.

"Umm... it's a long story... probably suited for another day."

"Even if you no longer are the Captain, I still elect you as our leader. I know a leader when I see one, and you, Rogers, have all the qualities of a true leader."

Rocket, Okoye, Bruce, and Rhodes all agreed with Thor's decision.

Steve looked up at Natasha.

"You already know what I am going to say, Steve."

"Okay, listen up! Okoye, look after the Wakandan royal family. Thor, use whatever resources you have to try and gather a rough location of Thanos, wherever he might be. The raccoon can help you with that."

"Heyy! I am no raccoon!" Steve ignored him.

"Bruce, work with Shuri and the rest of Wakanda's science and tech department. Gather all the information possible on whatever just happened. Also, take Vision with you, and work on your earlier theory about him being able to function without the Mind Stone."

"Yes, Cap!"

"Nat and Rhodey, you come with me. We need to go to New York and alert the UN about the recent happenings. No doubt they'll be confused about what's going on. We also need to lift the Accords to ensure that the world doesn't descend into chaos."

Steve had just finished saying this when Okoye's Kimoyo Beads beeped.

"There's some kind of bogey which entered our atmosphere over Wakanda." She cast a projection of the craft for everyone to see.

"That's my ship! Don't shoot it! That's my crew in there!" Rocket cried out. Groot's death had hit him hard and he was hoping that the other Guardians had made it through.

"The rabbit is correct. It's the morons' ship" Thor added.

A few minutes later, the ship touched down. Rocket raced towards it, followed by Thor. The others hurriedly followed them, hoping for some additional kind of support.

The doors of the ship opened, and a lone figure walked out.