V.F.D.

Chapter 23: A Lonely Night

It was a woman.

"Who is that?" Ven asked, amazed.

"I don't know, but I have a feeling she's here to save us." Terra said.

"Don't worry, I'm gonna get you back to Earth." She said through the glass. "The Avengers are waiting."

Everyone's jaw dropped. "The Avengers?" Abel exclaimed.

"Long story." Ven said, still as excited as everyone else.

"You know The Avengers?"

"Well, just Tony and Dr. Strange. That's about it for now."

"Who are you?" Tony asked.

"I'm Carol Danvers, a friend of Nick Fury's. Now let's go."

As the woman grabbed the bottom of the ship, she flew everyone back to Earth, they landed at what Tony said was the Avengers headquarters.

They left the ship still in shock. 8 figures appeared from the building. Pepper Potts, Steve Rogers, Colonel James Rhodes, Bruce Banner, Natasha Romanoff, Thor, and... A walking raccoon?

Tony was the first to walk off, and Captain America ran over to him. "Couldn't stop him." He said.

"Neither could I." Steve replied.

"I...I lost the kid."

"Tony.... We lost."

The raccoon walked over to Nebula sadly.

"Who's he?" Pharrell asked.

"This is my friend Rocket. He came with Peter Quill and Gamora."

"But... He's a raccoon."

"Not exactly."

Pepper ran over and hugged Tony tight. Then she looked at everyone else.

"Long story, Pepper."

She nodded, and let them walk into the headquarters.

"So, what exactly went on with you guys?" Steve asked Terra.

"We found Tony just as everyone else had gone. We wanted answers from Dr. Strange, but he disappeared as soon as his portal brought us to that planet."

He looked over at the kids, who were talking to Romanoff excitedly. She was smiling, but Steve could tell that she was still sad about losing some of her friends.

Abel, Wayne and Pharrell were conversating with Rhodes and Bruce about what was happening, and Thor just sat alone, brooding.

"And you were trying to rescue your other friend from The Dark One? All while we were fighting Thanos?"

"Exactly. Now we don't know what's happened with him, but we have a feeling he's still alive. So what do we do about that?"

"Well, let's call a meeting with everyone and figure it out."

"Figure out what, Cap?" Tony said. "I didn't fight him, and a magician gave away the stone. You said that if we'd lose, we'd do that together too. Well guess what? We lost... And you weren't there. So you wanna know something? We can't fight him. We can't do it. We... Lost."

He ripped out the metal thing in his chest, and gave it to Steve. Everyone turned around to see what was going on.

"Take this. When you see him, put it on him, and hide." Tony fell to the ground.

"I'm fine. Just let me..."

He passed out, and Pepper ran to get him to a bed, and a little while later, he was recooperating in a separate room.

Everyone stood around the room, looking sad.

"What're we gonna do?" Baelfire asked, his head hanging. "My Papa's probably out there, wondering where everyone went. Or maybe..."

"It's ok, Bae. He's not gone. We'll be ok." Ven whispered.

"V-Ven." Bill said. "When we f-fix this, will everything be n-normal again?"

"I don't know. But I hope so."

"Who do we even go for first?" Terra asked. "Rumple or Thanos?"

"Probably Thanos." Abel suggested. "He's the one who did all of this."

Suddenly, Carol stood up, and started walking away.

"Hey, where are you going?" Natasha asked, confused.

"To kill Thanos." She replied.

"You know, we usually work as a team here. Between you and I, morale's a little fragile."

Steve stepped up. "We realize up there is more your territory, but this is our fight too."

"You even know where he is?" Wayne inquired.

"I know people who might."

"Don't bother." Nebula interrupted. "I can tell you where Thanos is."

She talked for a while about how Thanos tried to perfect her, and how he told her about The Garden.

"That's cute, Thanos has a retirement plan." Rhodes said sarcastically.

Rocket then informed everyone that he knew where The Garden was. Thanos had used the stones there a little while ago.

"You know, we'd be going in shorthanded." Bruce piped up. "Thanos still has the stones."

"So let's get em." Carol said, looking determined.

"Even if there's a small chance we can undo this, we owe it to everyone not in this room to try." Natasha said.

"How do we know it won't end differently than it did before?" Pharrell asked, not so sure of himself.

"Because before you didn't have me." Carol replied.

"Guys, we can do this. And after that, we can go after Rumplestiltskin. And then, everything can be back to normal again. Are you in? Cause I am."

Thor stood up, walked over to Carol, and brought Stormbreaker to his right hand.

"Whoa!" The kids said simultaneously.

Carol just narrowed her eyes and smiled.

"I like this one." Thor announced.

Captain America stood up. "Let's go get him."

So the team, along with the Avengers, left on this lonely night to go to The Garden, and finally make things right.

874 words.