And the Snap Echoes

The Parting of Ways

Three days on, the compound still looked worse for wear. 

The Avengers spent most of their time attempting to repair the damage but soon found out that it was unnecessary. 

Everyone was still getting their bearing back together after Thanos' attack, which either involved healing from injuries they'd sustained during the fight or the mental trauma of his attack. 

Thor was training even more than before. His ego had been hurt severely during the fight. The memory of Thanos dodging Stormbreaker with ease burned through his mind, making no indication of leaving. The same could be said for Rocket and Clint. One was occupied with his guns, the other with his arrows - constantly looking for ways to make them more lethal so that they would be of actual use, not just harmless projectiles bouncing off armor. 

The other Avengers were spending less time training and more time putting their heads together to come up with an optimal solution to defeat Thanos. Tony, Carol, Steve, Natasha, and Rhodey could be seen sitting in the lounge all day along, pouring over maps and discussing away. Bruce would walk up to them once in a while and just take a glance at their plans, along with Vision and Scott, and then retreat back to the lab to work on any new Quantum theories with Scott. 

They had made no progress so far. Nothing new about the Quantum Realm had been found, just the stuff they already knew. Their plans had been inconsequential as well. Every time one of them came up with a plan, someone else had a discrepancy with it, finding a fault which Thanos would possibly exploit if the plan would be executed. 

Tempers were running short at the same time. While some had the capacity to wait, others tended to lash out unnecessarily if things did not go their way. And in current times, things were definitely not going their way. There hadn't gone by a single day that there had been no arguments in the compound. The first day, it was Thor and Bruce, arguing about how logical it was to attack Thanos at such a time. The next time, it was Carol and Thor, although it wasn't much of a fight as it was a show-off challenge. Simply attempting to find out which one is the stronger out of the two. It only ended when Steve brought up Nick Fury and Loki. It proved to be quite effective in shutting them up. The next day, it had been Rocket and Clint, fighting about something silly once again; in this case, who was a better marksman. 

Steve was tired of all the fighting. He had done everything in his power to keep fighting to a bare minimum. But taking recent events into consideration, he had a hard time doing it. Planning to do the action of maintaining peace and quiet was easy. Actually doing it was proving to be much harder. He had talked to Tony about the same, and even he agreed. They really had come a long way after the Civil War. They couldn't stand seeing each other in the face back then, but now, Tony had become Steve's closest confidant. 

Then, one day, Steve lost it.

Thor and Banner were arguing once again on the same topic. 

"BRUCE, LISTEN TO ME!! WE CANNOT WAIT!! DON'T YOU GET IT? WE NEED TO ATTACK AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!!"

"IF WE DO THIS, WE'LL BE GOING IN SHORT-HANDED!!"

"Yahh, because he killed all our friends," Clint chimed in. 

"THIS IS EXACTLY WHERE WE WENT WRONG LAST TIME!! DON'T YOU GET IT?! WE'RE JUST REPEATING WHAT WE DID LAST TIME. WE WENT AGAINST THANOS, AND WE DIDN'T EVEN HAVE A PLAN!! NOW WE HAVE EVEN LESSER PEOPLE THAN BEFORE, AND YOU WANT TO JUST GO CHARGING IN AGAIN?! IF WE DO THIS, HOW DO WE KNOW IT'S GONNA END ANY DIFFERENTLY THAN IT DID BEFORE?!"

"Because before you didn't have me," Carol pointed out.

"Look, he's still got the stones- " Bruce said.

"So let's use them to bring everyone back," Carol intervened. 

"Just like that?" 

"Yahh, just like that," Natasha spoke. "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."

"You're going for this Nat?" Steve asked. 

"Yes, Steve. I know you don't agree with me, but I believe it's the right thing to do. I've faced too many losses to let this one just slide by."

"But we're not letting it slide by," Tony piped up. "We're just waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. And when that moment comes, we'll do everything to get the others back. Whatever it takes."

"And how do you know that such a moment is going to present itself to you? What if there is no perfect opportunity where you can just go in and defeat Thanos and get the others back? We can't spend all of our time just waiting for this perfect opportunity of yours to come. We have to do something as soon as possible."

"She's right, you know," Carol piped in. "Instead of him attacking us here like he did that day, I say we attack him when he's not expecting us."

"But- "

"Carol's right. In fact, I suggest that she leads a team for this very fact."

"GUYS!! LISTEN TO ME!!" Steve snapped. "THIS IS A HORRIBLE IDEA. WHAT BRUCE SAID WAS RIGHT. WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THEN AND NOW?! ALL OF YOU GUYS ARE JUST FOCUSING ON YOURSELF!! THINKING ABOUT YOURSELF ALL THE TIME! I GET IT, ALL OF YOU LOST LOVED ONE! THAT DOESN'T MEAN THAT YOU'LL JUST RUSH IN AND DO WHATEVER YOU WANT TO DO. FOR ONE SECOND, STOP THINKING ABOUT YOURSELF AND FOCUS ON THE BIGGER PICTURE!! THINK ABOUT WHAT'LL HAPPEN IF YOU LOSE!! WHAT'LL WE DO THEN?!"

"Steve, I'm sorry to say this," Carol said, "but I'm still going. Who's with me?"

Thor, Rocket, Natasha, and Clint raised their hands. 

"We're leaving in 15 minutes. And don't even think about trying to dissuade us from going. All of us have made up our minds."

Steve and Tony were left speechless as the others filed out of the room.

"It's alright Steve," Bruce said. "You tried your best. Some people are just too attached that they let their emotions overrule their actions."

"Thanks for backing me up back there," Steve said to Tony.

"We're not going to let them go off on their own, are you?"

"We have to do something."

"We will. Whatever it takes."