46. Avengers: Endgame (1)

STEVE'S POV

It had been three weeks since the disappearance of half the universe. Two weeks since I had lost my best friends and my little girl. Tony had been missing during those three weeks as well, and we were all worried about him. Carol Danvers had shown up about two weeks ago and said that she and Nick were old friends. Carol had the ability to fly around in space without a ship and had gone in search of Tony, who was possibly lost in space. I had decided that there was no point in keeping my beard and my hair long, so I shaved and cut it. I wiped my face dry and looked into the side mirror when it suddenly started shaking. Running outside the compound to see what was happening, Natasha, Bruce, Rhodey, and I looked up to see Carol carrying a spaceship. She placed it gently on the ground, and the entry hatch opened. Tony stepped out with a blue alien girl. I ran over to take Tony from the alien's arms and helped him stand. As I guided him down the ramp, he spoke up,

"Couldn't stop him."

"Neither could I," I assured him. Tony stopped walking and turned to face me.

"I lost the kid."

"Tony, we lost."

"Is, uh...?" Before Tony could finish asking his question, Pepper ran over to join us.

"Oh, my God!" Pepper cried as she embraced Tony. "Oh, my God!"

"It's okay," Tony reassured her, and we all went back inside. The remaining team members sat in the living room area. Tony was receiving blood through a drip, and the table in the centre of the room projected pictures of all the people lost to the decimation. Rhodey started the conversation,

"It's been twenty-three days since Thanos came to Earth."

"World governments are in pieces," Natasha added with her blond hair getting in her face as she leaned forward against the table. "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 going to do. Thanos wiped out fifty percent of all living creatures."

A picture of Katie came up, and I had to look away to stop myself from breaking.

"Where is he now? Where?" Tony asked, and I informed him as I leaned against a table's edge,

"We don't know. He just opened a portal and walked through."

Tony then gestured toward Thor, who was sitting on a bench with a sullen expression on his face.

"What's wrong with him?"

"Oh, he's pissed. He thinks he failed," Rocket answered, "Which of course he did, but you know, there's a lot of that's going around, ain't there?"

"Honestly, until this exact second, I thought you were a Build-A-Bear."

"Maybe I am."

I interrupted their small talk,

"We've been hunting Thanos for three weeks now. Deep Space scans and satellites and we got nothing. Tony, you fought him."

"Who told you that?" Tony questioned, surprised, "I didn't fight him. No, he wiped my face with a planet while the Bleecker Street Magician gave away the stone. That's what happened. There was no fight."

"Okay."

"He's unbeatable."

"Did he give you any clues, any coordinates, anything?"

"Pfft! I saw this coming a few years back. I had a vision. I didn't want to believe it. Thought I was dreaming."

"Tony, I'm going to need you to focus."

"And I needed you. As in past tense. That trumps what you need. It's too late, Buddy. Sorry. You know what I need?" Tony stood up and pushed things off the table, and everyone winced at the clattering noise. "I need to shave. And I believe I remember telling all youse-" Tony started to remove the drip needle from his arm, and Rhodey protested,

"Tony, Tony, Tony!"

But Tony continued his rant,

"Alive and otherwise, what we needed was a suit of armour around the world! Remember that? Whether it impacted our precious freedoms or not. That's what we needed!"

"Well, that didn't work out, did it?" I retorted.

"I said, 'we'd lose'. You said, 'We'll do that together too.' And guess what, Cap? We lost. And you weren't there. So Katie's gone, too, isn't she? But that's what we do, right? Our best work after the fact? We're the Avengers, we're the Avengers. Not the Prevengers."

"Okay," Rhodey tried to push Tony into his chair.

"Right?"

"You made your point. Just sit down."

"Okay..."

"Okay?"

"Nah, nah. Here's my point. You know what?"

"Tony, you're sick."

"She's great, by the way," Tony referred to Carol.

"Sit down. Sit."

"We need you. You're new blood. Bunch of tired old mules!" Tony walked right up to me and pointed in my face. "I got nothing for you, Cap! I got no coordinates, no clues, no strategies, no options. Zero. Zip. Nada. No trust. Liar."

I had nothing to say, and after a moment, Tony ripped his arc reactor from his chest and put it in my hand. "Here, take this. You find him, and you put that on. You hide." Tony suddenly fell to the ground, and we all rushed to his side.

"Tony!" I shouted in panic and worry.

"I'm fine. I..." Tony then fell in a heap and became unconscious. We took him to the hospital area, and Pepper stayed by his side as he lay in bed. Rhodey came out to tell us what was happening,

"Bruce gave him a sedative. He's going to probably be out for the rest of the day."

"You guys take care of him. And I'll bring him a Xorrian Elixir when I come back," Carol stated, and I asked,

"Where are you going?"

Carol walked away as she quickly answered,

"To kill Thanos."

Natasha and I shared a look before walking after her.

"Hey," Nat called out, and Carol stopped to listen. "You know, we usually work as a team here, and between you and I, morale's a little fragile."

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

"You even know where he is?" Rhodey questioned, and Carol replied,

"I know people who might."

The blue alien, Nebula, spoke up while standing behind Carol,

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

We walked into the living room area again, and Nebula told us what she knew, "Thanos spent a long time trying to perfect me. And when he worked, he talked about his great plan. Even disassembled, I wanted to please him. I'd ask, 'where would we go once this plan was complete?'. His answer was always the same: 'To the Garden.'"

"That's cute, Thanos has a retirement plan," Rhodey joked.

"So where is he?" I questioned, and Rocket projected an image of Earth as he spoke,

"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."

A hologram of another planet came up with a shock wave visibly traversing the surface. "On this planet."

"Thanos is there," Nebula stated.

"He used the stones again," Nat knowingly said.

"Hey, hey, hey. We'd be going in short-handed, you know," Bruce warned, and Rhodey joined,

"Look, he's still got the stones, so..."

"So let's get him..." Carol suggested, "Use them to bring everyone back."

"Just like that?"

"Yeah," I affirmed, "Just like that." I shared a knowing look with Carol when Natasha spoke again,

"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."

"If we do this, how do we know it's going to end any differently than it did before?" Bruce asked, and Carol answered,

"Because before, you didn't have me."

"Hey, new girl," Rhodey said to Carol, "Everyone here is about that superhero life. And if you don't mind my asking, where the hell have you been all this time?"

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

Thor, who had been eating this entire time, stood up and walked over to Carol. She turned to face him, and he held his hand up. His axe flew over to him, missing Carol by inches. But Carol didn't even flinch. Thor then stated,

"I like this one."

I looked over at the holographic planet, thinking of Katie, Bucky, and Sam, before stating,

"Let's go get this son of a bitch."

Besides Tony, everyone boarded the ship that Nebula and Tony had arrived in. We were all strapped in when Rocket asked,

"Okay, who here hasn't been to space?"

I raised my hand, along with Nat and Rhodey, before Rhodey questioned,

"Why?"

"You better not throw up on my ship."

Nebula then warned us,

"Approaching jump in three... two... one!"

The ship jumped forward, and I held onto the seat tightly. We soon slowed down and hovered in orbit of the planet where Thanos was most likely hiding. Carol exited the ship and hovered in front of it before notifying us,

"I'll head down for recon."

Natasha and I prepared for the confrontation while waiting for Carol to return. I pulled out my compass with my picture of Peggy, then I pulled out a picture of me and Katie that I had placed in my pocket. She was on my back and laughing. I closed the compass and put the photo away. Getting Katie and everyone else back was the only thing on my mind. Natasha then broke me out of my trance,

"This is going to work, Steve."

"I know it will," I stated before turning to face her. "'Cause I don't know what I'm going to do if it doesn't."

Carol returned and told us what she saw,

"No satellites, no ships, no armies, no ground defences of any kind. It's just him."

"And that's enough," Nebula knowingly said before we made our way to land on the planet.

With Natasha following right behind me, I walked into the small house to see Carol's arms around Thanos' neck, Rhodey pointing his guns at him, the gauntlet on the floor, and Bruce in the Hulkbuster holding onto Thanos' arm. I gave Thanos a murderous glance as Rocket went over to the gauntlet and turned it over. But, to our shock, the stones weren't there.

"Oh no," Rocket whispered, and I demanded after a few moments,

"Where are they?"

When he didn't answer, Carol tightened her arms around Thanos' throat and ordered,

"Answer the question!"

"The universe required correction," Thanos stated, "After that, the stones served no purpose beyond temptation."

"You murdered trillions!" Bruce yelled and shoved Thanos to the ground.

"You should be grateful."

Bruce punched him again.

"Where are the Stones?" Natasha asked, and I saw tears form in her eyes as she shook with rage and pain.

"Gone. Reduced to atoms."

"You used them two days ago!" Bruce yelled, and Thanos used the same tone to answer him,

"I used the stones to destroy the stones. It nearly killed me. But the work is done. It always will be." Thanos sat up a little straighter before continuing, "I am... inevitable."

"We have to tear this place apart," Rhodey said, "He-he-he has to be lying."

"My father is many things. A liar is not one of them," Nebula told us, and Thanos turned to her,

"Ah, thank you, daughter. Perhaps I treated you too harshly."

All of a sudden, Thor raised his hammer and cried out in rage as he sliced Thanos' head off before anyone could stop him. Thanos' limp body fell to the floor, and Rocket questioned,

"What... What did you do?"

Thor plainly answered,

"I went for the head." He turned and walked out as we all realized there was no chance of getting everyone back. I looked down, knowing that I'd never see Katie, Bucky, or Sam again. My friends and family, and everyone else, were truly gone. Forever.

FIVE YEARS LATER

I had started holding group therapy sessions a few years ago to try and help people cope. Katie and the others never left my mind, but I figured I could help other people move on. One of the seven people in the group, Joe, was talking about an experience he had recently had,

"So I, uh... Went on a date the other day. It's the first time in five years, you know? I'm sitting there at dinner... I didn't even know what to talk about."

"What did you talk about?" I encouraged with a smile.

"Same old crap, you know? How things have changed, and... my job, his job... How much we miss the Mets. And then things get quiet... He cried as they were serving the salads."

"What about you?" another member, Jim, asked.

"I cried... just before dessert. But I'm seeing him again tomorrow, so..."

I gave a reassuring nod before speaking,

"That's great. You did the hardest part. You took the jump, you didn't know where you were going to come down. And that's it. That's those little brave baby steps we gotta take. To try and become whole again, try and find purpose. I went in the ice in '45, right after I met the love of my life. Woke up seventy years later. When I thought I had no one else, I met my daughter. Then I lost her in this mess. But you gotta move on. Gotta move on. The world is in our hands. It's left to us, guys, and we have to do something with it. Otherwise... Thanos should have killed all of us."

We concluded the session, and I decided to stop by the Avengers Compound to see Natasha. In the past five years, I had tried to move on and get things done in my life. So, I bought a house in Brooklyn, just like Katie and I had talked about. Secluded but still open and close to the centre of the city. However, Natasha had continued to do work as an Avenger. I walked into the room that I knew I would find Nat in. When she was in my view, I noticed she was trying to hold back tears. I spoke up to announce my presence,

"You know, I'd offer to cook you dinner, but you seem pretty miserable already."

Natasha quickly wiped the tears off her face before smiling and making a joke,

"You here to do your laundry?"

"And to see a friend."

"Clearly, your friend is fine."

"You know, I saw a pod of whales when I was coming up the bridge."

"In the Hudson?"

"There's fewer ships, cleaner water."

"You know, if you're about to tell me to look on the bright side. Um... I'm about you to hit you in the head with a peanut butter sandwich."

We both jokingly smiled, and I apologized for the attempt at positivity,

"Sorry. Force of habit." I tossed my jacket on the desk and sat in the chair opposite Nat. "You know, I keep telling everybody they should move on and... grow. Some do. But not us."

"If I move on, who does this?"

"Maybe it doesn't need to be done."

Natasha didn't respond, looking at a picture of her and Katie together that she had framed on the desk. A few moments later, Nat spoke again,

"I used to have nothing. And then I got this. This job... this family. And I was... I was better because of it. And even though... they're gone... she's gone... I'm still trying to be better."

"I think they would want us both to get a life," I assured her, knowing she meant Katie and her lost adopted sister.

"You first," Nat smiled. She then pulled up some camera footage after the computer beeped, and I turned to watch as well. It was a video of Scott Lang with a van sitting behind him.

"Oh! Hi. Hi! Is anyone home? This is Scott Lang. We met a few years ago. At the airport? In Germany? I got really big, and I had my mask on. You wouldn't recognize me."

I stood up in shock and asked,

"Is this an old message?"

"It's the front gate," Natasha stated as she stood with me.

"Ant-Man? Ant-Man, I know you know that. I need to talk to you guys."

We brought Scott inside, and he paced the room worriedly.

"Scott. Are you okay?" I asked, concerned.

"Yeah. I'm fine," he replied before blurting out a question, "Have either of you guys ever studied Quantum Physics?"

"Only to make conversation," Natasha shrugged.

"Alright. So... five years ago, right before Thanos, I was in a place called the Quantum Realm. The Quantum Realm is like its own microscopic universe. To get in there, you have to be incredibly small. Hope, she's my... She was my... She was supposed to pull me out. And then Thanos happened, and I got stuck in there."

"I'm sorry. That must've been a very long five years."

"Yeah, but that's just it. It wasn't. For me, it was five hours."

Natasha and I shared bewildered glances before Scott continued, "See, the rules of the Quantum Realm aren't like they are up here. Everything is unpredictable. Is that anybody's sandwich? I'm starving." Scott marched over to pick up the sandwich and took a bite. I tried to get his attention and get him to focus again,

"Scott, what are you talking about?"

"So. What I'm saying is, time works differently in the Quantum Realm. The only problem is right now, we don't have a way to navigate it. But what if we did? I can't stop thinking about it. What if we could somehow control the chaos and we could navigate it? What if there was a way to enter the Quantum Realm at a certain point in time but then exit at another point in time? Like... Like before Thanos."

"Wait, are you talking about a time machine?"

"No. No, of course not. No, not a time machine. It's more like a... Yeah, a time machine. I know it's crazy. But I can't stop thinking about it. There's gotta be some way... There's gotta be...some w... it's crazy."

"Scott, I get e-mails from a raccoon," Natasha reassured him, "So, nothing sounds crazy anymore."

"So, who do we talk to about this?" Scott asked, and the first person that came to mind was Tony. We knew Tony had gotten married to Pepper, and they were living on a farm on the edge of the city.