And the Snap Echoes

Assembled

As soon as they were off the Benatar, they rushed towards the lounge.

"Where's Nebula?" Tony asked when they first saw the others.

"She's..." Thor stuttered.

"What happened to her?"

"Thanos," Carol said simply.

"You mean you found him?" Tony asked apprehensively. "But that's excellent news if you look at it from one perspective."

"Tony, we lost Nebula," Carol said. "She tried to jump Thanos and kill him, but he somehow knew that she would be coming, and was lying in wait of her. Before we could reach her, he used the stones to literally pull her apart. We could only watch. I'm sorry."

Tony's expression was unreadable. Nebula had given him company on board the Benatar on their way back from Titan immediately after the Snap. He was tired of losing people permanently.

"Just give me some good news." He responded.

"As you said, we know where Thanos is. At least for now. So there's nothing stopping us from ambushing him." Thor replied

"Hold up, Thor. That's going to take some time." Steve stepped in. "Before we go there, we need to have a foolproof plan. We've gone up against Thanos before, and you know how that turned out to be."

"That's because you didn't have me last time." Clint quipped.

"Shut up, Clint," Steve replied with a smile. "Anyways, as I was saying, we'll need to train. It may take some time."

"Back on Titan, before the battle, I remember that Thanos had told Strange that he planned on settling on one planet. So maybe, he may be staying there for some time now. But you never know - Thor and Carol and Rocket going there may have forced him to move on."

"I don't think that we have any other option. Going there now would be suicide. Thanos would do to us exactly what he did to Nebula. We'll need Wong for this one. His teleportation things would be useful." Steve said.

"I'll drop him a message," Tony said. "Also, Bruce, Scott and I went down to the Quantum Realm when y'all were Thanos-hunting."

"Did you find anything important?" Steve asked, apparently having forgotten about their trip.

"We didn't see anything important. Not a soul apart from the two of us. But I would definitely like to look at the Realm closely again. There's something about it which is not normal. Some kind of restrained force, almost as if it is waiting to burst open."

"I didn't see anything like last time." Scott continued. "Just the usual orange and the occasional multi-colored flashes of energy."

"Cap, did you and Nat find anything?" Tony asked.

"We went up to the Arctic, the spot where I crashed, and Stuttgart. But no signs of anything unusual. All was well. We plan on going to meet Selvig later." Steve replied.

"Okay good. Now, if you'll excuse me, Bruce, Vision and I need to go work on my armor. Oh, and Thor, I might need your help later. I have a crazy plan in mind." With a wink, he left the room along with Banner and Vision, Scott tagging along with them.

"What does he want now?" Thor asked exasperatedly. "Anyways, Carol, Rabbit, c' mon. Training's waiting for us." They left the room.

"Nat, wanna do target practice?" Clint asked.

"You know you'll win anyways. I know you just want to rub it in my face." Natasha said but went with him nonetheless.

Steve simply sat down on one of the sofas, his mind already buzzing with plans.

At dinner time, the Avengers met in the dining hall. Tony had a wide grin on his face.

"If my calculations are correct, I might actually need you, Thor. I have an idea."

"You said that during the whole Ultron thing. Look how well that turned out to be." Thor complained.

"I promise you that nothing will go wrong this time. Nothing can go wrong in this plan."

"And what exactly is this plan?"

"We need more weapons like Stormbreaker. So, we're going to this "forge" and making more. It's simple, really."

"That's not possible. I mean, no offense to you guys, but you guys will not be able to wield Uru. It'll take a toll on your bodies, your soul."

"But we haven't even tried it once." Tony shot back.

"It's general knowledge, Stark. Only Asgardians can wield the metal. Your bodies would simply collapse." Thor tried to explain.

"I still think that we should try it once. I have an idea for that as well. We'll take some of our pre-existent weapons, and then just add a layer of Uru. Is that possible?"

"I'm not sure, but I think that it has more chances of success than making a brand new weapon."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Tony smiled. "Lead the way to- to?"

"Nidavellir."

"Whatever."

"Hold on, Tony." Steve interrupted. "Are you absolutely sure that this is going to work? It'll be really nice if you take our weapons away and then Thanos attacks right when we don't have them."

"Relax Cap. I'll be taking your spare shield, Clint's extra arrows, you get what I'm talking about. You'll have plenty of stuff back here to fight. I'll go with Thor and Rocket. The rest of you, Cap do whatever you want with them."

"Okay then. But be back as soon as possible."

"You got it. Thor, Rocket, mind preparing the ship? I'll be back with the weapons." He went back into his lab.

"Do you think it's going to work, Steve?" Thor asked. "After the whole Ultron thing, I don't know. I've lost my trust in him a bit."

"I HEARD THAT!" Tony's voice rang through the door. There was a bit of hurt in his voice, but he did not say anything else.

"As I've said for multiple things, we don't really have a choice, Thor. But I know that Tony's a changed man now. The Civil War, the whole Thanos thing, it's changed him. He lost Peter, and I know that Peter we meant a lot to him. Not only him, but it has changed all of us. My gut feeling tells me that he's doing the right thing. I believe it's worth a go."

"Okay. Best not to go against your choice, Cap."

"We lost, all of us. We lost friends. We lost family. We lost part of ourselves. This is the fight of our lives."