Amanda Smith (The Avengers ff) #English

67.

Avenger's headquarter

Almost a month has passed, we've just sat there and thought about what happened. The fear that Peter disappeared like T'Challa and the others is raising more and more.
I know it happened to Grandma. Shortly after we came back, I was in our apartment and found only ashes, like in Wakanda. I don't want to think about it anymore.

Bright light comes through the curtains and causes me to wake up. Slowly I push it aside and watch a glowing creature land on the lawn and drops a spaceship.
It's the Benatar, the ship of the Guardians.
I leave the room and follow the others.
Seconds later Tony and Nebula come out of the ship. He looks terrible.

"I couldn't stop him", Tony says.
"Neither could I", Steve answers and I look at Tony questioningly.

"Where's Peter?", I ask.
"He's gone", he says quietly, but I still hear him and break down in tears.
No please, not Peter!
That can't be true.

Steve hugs me and watches him.
"Is ummm...", Tony starts but gets interrupted by Pepper.
"Oh my God!", she says and embraces him.
"It's okay", he whispers and shortly after we walk inside. The woman who brought him back, introduced herself as Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel.

"It's been 23 days since Thanos came to Earth", Rhodey says
"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 explains.
Tony looks at us,

"Where is he now?
Where?".
"We don't know. He just opened a portal and walked through", I say, crossing my arms.
"What's wrong with him?", Tony asks pointing at Thor.
"Yeah, he's pissed. He thinks he failed. Which of course he did, but there's a lot of that's goin' around, ain't there?", Rocket asks.
"Honestly, until this exact second, I thought you were a Build-A-Bear", Tony says.
"Maybe I am", Rocket just answers. I think he's not understanding, what Tony meant to say.
"We've been hunting Thanos for three weeks now. Deep Space scans, satellites, and we got nothing. Tony, you fought him", Steve explains.

"Who told you that?", Tony asks surprised.
"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", he looks away.
"Did he give you any clues, any coordinates?", Steve asks and I hear a little bit of hope in his voice
"Pfft! I saw this coming a few years back. I had a vision. I didn't wanna believe it. Thought I was dreaming", he walks around angrily.
"Tony, I'm gonna need you to focus", Steve tries to calm him down.
Now he walks towards him.
"

And I needed you. As in past tense. That trumps what you need. It's too late buddy. Sorry. You know what I need?
I need to shave. And I believe I remember telling you, Cap".

Rhodey holds him back,
"Tony, Tony, Tony, stop!",

"Otherwise what we needed was a suit of armor around the world!
Remember that? Whether it impacted our precious freedom or not- that's what we needed!", Tony gasps deeply.
"Well, that didn't work out, did it?, why did Steve just said that?

"I said, 'we'll lose'. You said,
'We'll do that together too'. And guess what, cap?
We lost. You weren't there. But that's what we do, right?
Our best work after the fact? We're the Avengers, we're the Avengers. Not the Prevengers, right?", he says. He can't stand on his own feet anymore.
"Okay, you made your point.
Just sit down, ok?", Rhodey tries to hold him but Tony pushes him away.
"Nah, nah, nah. Here's my point", he says.

Rhodey starts again, "Sit down".
Tony looks at Carol,

"She's great, by the way. We need you. You're some more new blood".
He's going too far
"Tony!", Rhodey tries a last time.
"Bunch of tired old mills!
Except speedy", he looks at me. I just look down.
"I got nothing for you, cap!
I got no coordinates, no clues, no plan, no options.
Zero.
Zip.
Nada.
No trust.
LIAR".

He looks affected by Tony's words. Seconds later he rips his Arc Reactor from his chest and shoves it into Steve's hand,
"Here, take this. You find him, and you put that on. You hide", he says and falls to the ground.

"I'm fine. I...", he passes out.

Some minutes later he's laying in a bed, deeply breathing.
"Bruce gave him a sedative. He's gonna be out for the rest of the day.
"You guys take care of him. And I'll bring Xorrian Elixir when I come back", she says walking away.
"Where are you going?", Nat asks.
"To kill Thanos", she explains.
"Hey, you know, we usually work as a team around here, and between you and I, we're also a little fragile", Nat walks towards her.
Steve looks at her, too,
"We realize out there is more of your territory, but this is our fight too".
"Do you even know where he is?", I ask.
"I know people who might", she answers.

Nebula appears behind her,
"Don't bother. I can tell you where Thanos is. Thanos spent a long time trying to perfect me. Then 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", she explains.
"That's cute, Thanos has a retirement plan", Rhodey says.

"So where is he then?", I ask.

Rocket walks towards us,
"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", he shows us a hologram,
"On this planet".
"Thanos is there", Nebula says.

"He used the stones again?", I look at him.

Bruce looks at us,
"Hey, Hey, we'd be going in short-handed, you know".
"Look, he's still got the stones, so...". Rhodey walks around.
"

So let's get him...
We'll use them to bring everyone back".
"Just like that?", Rhodey asks.
"Yeah, just like that" .
Steve and Carol look at each other.
"Even if there's a chance that we can undo it...
I mean we owe it to everyone who's not here to try", Nat says.

"If we do this, how do we know it's gonna end any differently than it did before", Bruce asks. He has been quite all the time until now.
C

arol looks at him,

"Because before, you didn't have me".
"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 asks standing next to her now.

"There are a lot of other planets.
And unfortunately, they didn't have you guys".

Thor stands up and walks over to Carol. He holds his hand up, and Stormbreaker flies over to him, missing Carol by inches. She doesn't even flinch, just smiling at him.
"I like this one", Thor says smiling.

"Let's go get this son of a bitch", Steve says, causing us all to look at him surprised.
He never said anything like that before.
But he's right.
We have to fight him again.
For everyone who's fallen.
For Peter.