28 - To Infinity And Beyond?

Steve's P.O.V

God, look at how much she'd grown! I didn't think she'd really have changed that much from two years over here, but she looked so different, she looked so much more like her mother did. I could see that she didn't recognise me at first, it must've been the beard. I was so glad that the S.H.I.E.L.D agents had allowed me out of custody to come out here, I just needed to make sure that they were all alright.

The snap had hit the world, even the universe hard, I didn't know who was still alive anymore. I just saw my two best friends disappear before my eyes. I just needed to make sure that that son of a b*tch didn't kill my only daughter. I embraced her with open arms, thank god I hadn't lost her too.

"dad, what's up?" Liberty asked, her eyes saddening, giving me the same concerned look that her mother would've given me if she were here right now.

" It's Thanos, he's here,"

Liberty stood there in silence. She'd known about the mad titan for a while, and I knew that she'd trusted us to defeat him, and we ultimately failed.

Just like that, she started packing, she knew what she had to do. No questions were asked, but she knew what the consequences would've been if Thanos won the inevitable battle for the entire universe. And, to be honest, if she would've asked me any questions, I wouldn't have been able to answer them anyway.

I could tell, just from watching her, that walking up the driveway to the house felt incredibly bittersweet for Liberty. In the two years without her, it had honestly been a struggle. I had lost most of the people whom I had previously called friends, I had seen two of my best friends fade before my own two eyes, but now that I had Liberty back, something felt like it was starting to be repaired.

We walked through the front door and Liberty went straight to her room, dropping her bags off and looking around at the place she used to live, in what felt like a distant memory. She then walked, her stance strong and brave, back towards the living room, where I was still stood.

"What happened?" She asked, as if she had already braced herself for the worst. But, oh lord, she had no idea.

"Thanos appeared, and we lost," I started, Liberty seemed impatient at my reply.

"I mean, what happened?"

I paused, trying to figure out how to form what had happened not just to verbally tell Liberty, but to also understand it all myself too.

"Thanos got hold of all of the Infinity Stones, he came to earth and stole Vision's Mind Stone, then he did the snap, and suddenly people began disintegrating and fading away all around," I tried to explain, my words failing me slightly. Liberty's eyes grew wider and then she calmed suddenly, curiosity overriding her system.

"Who-who disintegrated?" Liberty stuttered. I wasn't entirely sure that she wanted to hear the answers.

"There were a lot, Liberty, I'm not sure I can-"

"Who, dad, just name some," Liberty cut me off, I could feel her eagerness to solve this problem, she had genuinely started to remind me more and more of her mother every time I looked at her, even the bravery and intellect, she definitely didn't get the normal intellect from me.

"Well... erm... Uncle Sam, W-Wanda, King T'Challa -"

"T'CHALLA?!" Liberty exclaimed in disbelief, "He's-"

"Yes," I confirmed

"But Wakanda-"

"Yes, I know," I said, "we still don't know who is living anymore,"

Liberty's eyes switched from me to the floor, as if she was searching for something. Suddenly, her eyes shot wide open and she ran to her room, returning seconds later with her mobile phone clutched in between her fingers. 

Liberty's P.O.V

I grabbed my phone off my bed and began frantically searching through the world wide web. I needed answers.

I could feel dad's confused look over my shoulder as I swiped and searched, typing faster than my mind could think, and it was then that I saw it. On Twitter, a tag was trending, #spacedonut, and I just had a feeling that these two things were related in some form. On the side, I also messaged both Peter and Ned, they had somewhat become a priority to me right now. Seconds later, Ned messaged me back, which gave me the hope that they were both okay.

Yeah, I'm good, you?

At the moment, yeah, have you seen Peter?

Not since he asked me to cause a distraction and jumped out of the school bus because there was a giant space donut flying through the sky.

I looked away from the screen for a second, why was Ned being so casual about this?!

HE WHAT?!  I replied, using all capitals for the correct emphasis that should be used in moments like these.

I just did as he told me, plus there was a thing floating in the sky, I wasn't going to take chances of refusing.

I sighed out loud,

It's fine, it's just that I haven't seen him either, I'm getting kind of worried, people have died, Ned.

I'll let you know if I see him

Thanks, stay safe.

I carried on searching through the internet to try and find out any other information that I could about the situation that we have found ourselves in. It was then that a video popped up on my searching feed titled 'The Spiderman Escaping On Magical Space Donut'. I groaned internally, my eyes rolling as I clicked on it to watch whatever clickbait or footage this person had managed to get. But, to my surprise and my disdain, the footage seemed legit, which also meant that Peter had somehow gotten himself stuck in the middle of space. Great.

"Was Peter with you?" I asked dad, he shook his head,

"I'd have thought he would've been at school,"

"Not according to Ned," I replied, my eyes still glued to my phone screen as I watched through the footage of the video. 

Of course, Peter would've gotten himself to space by accident probably, it sounds like the most Peter Parker thing he could do.

"No, he was with me," A voice suddenly came out of the shadows, a man in a metal suit whom I recognised all too well.

"Tony," My dad said under his breath, his face filled with shock.

"What did you say, Tony?" I questioned, almost as shocked as dad was that Tony had managed to get into our house, but not that surprised, the amount of tech that that man owned was limitless.

"I said, Peter was with me," He attempted to wipe off some of the muck from his face, it still remained there staining his face like a battle scar, " I was up on that 'space donut' with him,"

I breathed half a sigh of relief, half a 'what-the-heck-you-could've-died' kind of sigh.

"So, where is he now?" I asked, I had more than a few words for that boy, as well as the biggest hug, but weirdly enough, Tony's smug face faded, leaving behind the truth of an emotionally broken and scarred man with a suit.

"Tony?" I asked, my heart already partly knowing what words were going to come out of his mouth, but I was in denial, there must've been another way. My eyes looked up at Uncle Tony, his eyes too became sad and his head bowed, confirming what thought was true.

"They were disintegrating all around me, I sat and waited for myself to do the same but it seems that I was spared," Tony started, still looking at the floor, but I could see that there were tears in his eyes. "P-Peter ran to me, asking for help and, for once, I couldn't help him, I-I was completely helpless."

"Tony it's not your fault," dad piped up sympathetically, he knew the love that he had developed for the kid, and he knew what it was like to almost lose a kid.

Meanwhile, it was as if I had suddenly been ripped from my body, seeing everything from an outside perspective. I could see the three of us, stood in almost a triangle formation, Tony sat down with his head in his hands, my father had gone to his side, it was nice to see them together again, even in the dire situation we had found ourselves in.

My mind whirred, my heart beating a million miles per hour. He was gone. He didn't make it. I could feel every crack of my heart that I had managed to stitch up over the years splitting back open once more and crashing against the cage of my body, creating physical pain that I had never felt before in my life so far. It was then that images and clips of the times I had spent with Peter flashed before my eyes, as if I was just simply watching a film about our friendship so far. I seemed to begin to melt every time he looked my way, my heart rate elevating 100 times, my chest ached and my head was reeling as I came back down to earth, red hot tears streaming down my cheeks, leaving streaks across my face.

"Liberty, your- your eyes," dad muttered, Tony lifting up his head to see, his face too turning to one of surprise. I could feel my anger and sadness churning through my body, coursing through my veins. I moved towards the nearest mirror to see that my eyes were glowing, glowing the most vibrant shade of gold.

"Liberty? Are you- ow!" Dad said, reaching for my hand to see him I was alright, pulling away as soon as his fingertips met my skin. he looked at me in a state of shock. Somehow, I had burnt him.

Then, I did the only thing I could think to do, I ran. I ran from where my feet were firmly planted on the ground straight to my safe place, my room.

I paced back and forth, looking a myself I the mirror, my eyes still glowing, a powerful feeling coursing through my veins still, I felt as if I could do anything, like I could breath fire if I willed it to happen. This had only happened once before, I remember now, I was in that room, the mouse room, and I had just woken up, sitting in one of the hard, grey doctors chairs, my arms an legs bonded to the chair, people in pure white lab coats and terrifyingly large goggles surrounded me on all sides. I panicked, and suddenly, all of the people in the lab coats backed away, I could see their fear even from beneath their goggles. I could feel the same powerful feeling surging through my body. Managing to break free of the bonds that were tying me down, I felt my feet lift off the cold light grey floor, a slight breeze taking me up and the suddenly dropping me back to my feet again. After that, all I remember was darkness, and then being woken again which led me to meeting dad.

Back then, it felt more like power, like magic, but now it's bubbling deep in my soul, my chest aching, anger rising through my body. How dare Thanos do this? What right did he have to destroy all the lives and families lost from what he thought was 'just a bit of fun'? No. He wasn't going to get away with this, even if it was the last thing I ever did.

"Liberty?" I heard dad's voice say cautiously from outside my closed bedroom door. I stared back at myself in the mirror, the golden glow of my eyes fading, the powerful feeling doing the same. My hand reached for the door handle, opening the door to reveal both dad and Tony stood outside, looking slightly worried.

"I'm going to find him," I found myself saying, speaking more confident than I expected to.

"Who?" dad asked as I walked out of my bedroom and down to the gym area in the basement, both of them following me as I went.

"Thanos," I replied, "I'm gonna kill him."