𝐒𝐈𝐆𝐍 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒 » 𝐸𝑁𝐷𝐺𝐴𝑀𝐸

2~They're Gone

"NO PILLOWS FOR MY HEAD-

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-Tristan woke with a start, sweat glued her hair to her forehead. She frowned when she noticed she was in her room at the Avengers Compound. She put her head in her hands, realizing that everything that had happened wasn't a nightmare. She was going to get up but stopped. A blanket was covering her but....she hadn't had a blanket.

Someone was here.

She jumped off her bed and ran down, stopping to listen for any noise, and she heard voices. Her heart sped as she followed the noise. She went into the living room and her voice caught in her throat.

Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff were in front of her, leaning against a table. Tristan hadn't seen them since the fight broke between the Avengers. She wanted to run at them, hug them tight, but anger and confusion clouded all her good emotions. "Where were you guys? What the hell is going on? Where is Tony?!"She spat out. Steve held up his hands. "Tristan, let us explain."

And they did, leaving Tristan blank. When they finished she licked her dry lips. "So, something must have happened if they never came back. Maybe..."

Maybe it was because Carly had vanished, she finished in her head. Her silence made the two understand what she meant. Tristan walked closer to them, standing between them and leaned against the table. She crossed her arms and hung her head. "Who did we lose?" She asked.

Natasha sucked in a breath. "Wanda, T'Challa, Vision, Sam and..."Nat stopped, glancing at Steve who was looking away. "And Bucky." He finished. Tristan looked at Steve with sympathy. She rubbed his shoulder. "I'm sorry."

Tristan let go of his shoulder and stared back down at the floor. "Aloria is gone too" She added. They wrapped their arms around her shoulder as Tristan held back the tears. "I panicked and when I was outside...I saw Fury vanish too and-"Tristan gasped, remembering the pager she had picked up. "He dropped something." She reached into her pocket but nothing was there. "Tris we have it. We are already analyzing it. " He reassured. The Stark sighed in relief.

An alarm cut their silence and they looked at a holographic screen that appeared in front of them. It was the Compounds surveillance system that had caught someone in the area. "Someones outside. It's a boy" Steve said. They studied the screen to see a tall boy with sandy hair, just walking around. Tristan squinted her eyes. "A very familiar boy." Bruce and Rhodey came into the room at the alert. The men stared at her.

"Bruce! Your back!!" Tristan said, running to give him a hug. "Yeah. I'm here too." Rhodey said annoyingly. "Are we gonna go check?" They all nodded and headed to the entrance, running out to the field.

It was Ryan Blaze, twisting around and panicking, realizing that maybe coming to the Coumpund was a bad idea. He yelped when he saw the five adults nearing him, making him began to stutter. As Tristan studied him and she noticed who he was. "Ryan! Ryan Blaze?" She said. Ryan managed to stop himself from falling to the floor since his legs were giving up on him. "Hey, Miss Stark." Tristan smiled. "This is one of Carly's friends," She turned to look at the others. "We're good!" She informed with her thumbs up. "Just like that, we're cool?" Rhodey mumbled.

"I- Uh- Just ignore I was here. I am not supposed to-" The teen began to stumble back, whipping around to leave. The adults frowned. Tristan got closer, catching his shoulder, which snapped Ryan out of his trance. He blinked before letting out a deep breath. "I'm sorry. I just panicked because my parents literally turned to....DUST! And......THEY VANISHED! I go out to- and people-," He held out his hand, pointing at the city. Then turned back. "Wait, do you guys even know what's going on out there?!"

Steve nodded. "Well....then.....why aren't you guys out there and do something!" Ryan exclaimed. "There's nothing left to do." Natasha said softly. Ryans hands dropped. "What?"

Tristan looked at her friends, and they nodded at her, giving her permission to tell him. She looked at his eyes, her hand still on his shoulder. "Ryan, they lost. The cause of all this was a Titan named Thanos. He wanted to make half of all living beings across the universe disappear." Ryans eyes popped. "As in....half of all living things on this world....are going to vanish?"

Tristan slowly nodded. "They tried to stop him but...they had never faced anything like him. We..just don't know what to do." Ryan sighed, admitting in his mind that everything that was happening was real. "Where's Peter?" He looks behind Tristan. "Spiderman? And Carly?" They all looked at each other. "Umm...we don't know exactly," Tristan said.

"We were attacked in Wakanda and-" Ryan immediately cut off Bruce. "Wakanda?!" Ryans heart began to race again. "Did you see a girl there named Skylar?" Steve scrunched his eyebrows. "You know her?" Ryan nodded. "Shes a.......friend. And she is also-"

"Carly's sister," Steve finished. "Yeah, we know." Tristan's eyes widened. "Excuse me what?" She exclaimed. Ryan shrugged. "It's a long story, but... where is she?" Ryan asked again, more softly and begging. Steve crossed his arms and sighed. "When Thanos came to us in Wakanda, Carly also came to us. She said Tony, the kid and her were on a distant planet. When we lost, Carly went back to Titan to rescue Tony and Peter..." Steve stopped for a moment before continuing. "- And Skylar left with her. They never came back." Ryan let out a strangled gasp and felt his legs give out from under him. Tristan was there to hold him.

Ryan took heavy breaths. "I-I ...I really lost them all." He breathed. Tristan once again looked back and Rhodey nodded his head towards the building, telling her to bring in Ryan. Tristan gripped Ryans hand and led the teen inside.

-Ryan slumped on his seat, staring ahead at the hologram on the table. Every picture had a different city. He watched in horror as the population numbers dropped drastically. He then hung his head low, a tear rolled down his cheek and fell to his sweater.

"Hey," Tristan kneeled by Ryans seat. "You hungry? Thirsty?" She asked. Ryan shook his head slowly. Tristan sighed and stood up to where Natasha and Steve were. "This is a nightmare," Steve said.

"I've had better nightmares." Natasha said softly. A moment later Rhodey came in. "Hey," They all turned to look at him. "So that thing just stopped doing whatever the hell it was doing." They all shared a look. Tristan frowned. "What?" She was the first one to walk out of the room. Ryan watched as they all left. Curiously, he pushed himself up and followed them.

He walked in to see them already staring into a box with a device inside. "Why did it stop though?" Tristan demanded, facing Bruce. "I thought we bypassed the battery." Steve added. "We did. It's still plugged in it just...just stopped." Rhodey answered.

Ryan stepped closer, studying the technology. Everything looked good. "Then reboot it and send the signal again."

"We don't even know what this is," Bruce said. "Fury did," Natasha defended. "Tell me the second you get a signal. I want to know who's on the other end of this thing."

"Wait," Ryan spoke up with his eyes still on the device. "What if it stopped because whoever was supposed to receive the message already did and......is already here." Ryan said his last words slowly. The mood in the room changed as everyone looked at each other. "T-That would mean-" Just as Bruce spoke they all whipped around to see a woman standing a few inches away from them. 

She wore a suit of red, gold and blue with soft gold hair, a stern look on her face. "Where's Fury?"