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Chapter Text

A flash of light.

That’s all Thanos saw before his upper body went numb.

He looked down to see what was causing the extreme feeling, only to find half of a mighty ax buried in his chest. Unbearable pain started to bloom in his body, and he rested a hand on the invading object as he dropped to his knees.

Asgard’s king stood in front of him, now with 2 eyes and undeniable hatred in them. Thanos remembered him from the ship, where he took the Tesseract and completed his mission for the Asgardians. The ax shouldn't have been able to get past the power of the Infinity Stones. It made the king a much more formidable opponent. 

But in the end, it wouldn’t matter.

Thor stepped up to Thanos, putting a hand on the side of his head.

“I told you…you’d die for that,” the hero growled, before cruelly pushing the ax further into his body. Thanos yelled out in pain. He felt the ax cut deeper into his body, tearing skin and muscle. Purple blood was streaming from the wound, but he knew he couldn’t die now.

The work wasn’t done.

The work wasn’t done.

Thanos panted, realizing the king’s grave mistake. The arrogant never learn, never suspect.. His anger would be his undoing. He pushed past the pain, using the last of his strength to mutter out, “you should have…………………..you………” 

Thanos looked into Thor’s eyes. “You should have gone for the head.”

He raised his fingers, feeling the energy of the Infinity Stones, and started to snap-

Thanos opened his eyes, feeling around for the ax that had just been in his chest. It was no longer there, nor was the Infinity Gauntlet that had just been on his hand. Instead, he was greeted by an empty plane of murky orange that went on seemingly forever. The floor was watery, but his feet didn’t feel wet. It was quiet and cold, but it almost felt strangely familiar.

He swore he could hear faint whispers.

Something inside of him told Thanos to turn around. In the distance was a detailed arch, and under it, the figure of a small child facing the opposite direction. Thanos knew that arch. He stood under it 20 years ago, when he first met his daughter. 

“Daughter?” he muttered softly as he walked forward, an icy pain that couldn’t be caused by any weapon creeping into his heart.

Gamora turned around, the same age as she was when she was still small and clueless about the universe. Even the same peasant outfit and messy hair. Her face was devoid of any emotion.

“Did you do it?” Gamora asked solemnly, her voice echoing in his head.

Thanos looked down and weakly answered. “Yes.”

She stared at him for a moment before quietly asking, “what did it cost?”

Thanos thought about it. “Everything,” he decided to say eventually, a heaviness in the words..

In that second, as he looked down upon the child he had rescued, a sadness swept through him. He missed her. He knew that Gamora had never loved him, but she was his favorite daughter. His little One. He missed her so much that it started to get him thinking.

There was no way to bring her back, but what if…what if..

Thanos rationalized the idea. It’s tactical, he thought. It wasn’t selfish. It wasn’t. It was making sure the future was secured. He would be saving more lives this way.

Thanos looked at his daughter for the last time, before slightly changing his wish…

Then,

He snapped his fingers.

 -------------------------------------------------------------

“Okay, hold on. Don’t shoot.”

Clint stood next to his daughter Lila as she pulled back the arrow tightly clasped in the bow. As the sun rayed down on them, the wind blowing a slight breeze, he smiled for a second. Peaceful. Quiet. Clint held extra arrows in his hand as he looked down at the target nailed to the tree. There were more holes in it than paint at this point.

He looked back to Lila, who’s dark brown hair was pulled back and to the side as the string of the bow rested next to her cheek. Her eyes were squinted in concentration. 

“You see where you’re going?”

“Mhm” she said back.

“Okay,” he agreed, walking to the other side of her. Grass crunched under his feet on the hill they were practicing on. “Now let's worry about how you get there.”

He slightly moved her foot to point forward and shifted her body. 

“Can you see?” Clint asked her again, before playfully asking it again and again as he moved her hair in front of her eyes. Just seeing Lila smile and laugh made his day. Not to mention the fact that she was doing something that he had loved for years.

As his wife shouted for them from down the hill about if they wanted mayo or mustard, Lila asked with a raised eyebrow, “who puts mayo on a hot dog?”

“Probably your brothers,” he snickered before yelling back, “2 mustards please! Thanks mama!”

Laura shouted back, “you got it!”

He told her to mind her elbow as Lila raised the bow one more time and released. The arrow went straight into the yellow center of the target.

“Good job, Hawkeye” he laughed proudly and high-fived Lila before she went to grab her arrow.

He heard Laura’s voice and turned to where it was coming from. “Hey guys! Enough practice, soup’s on!”

“Alright, we’re coming, we’re hungry,” Clint said, turning back around. “Lila let’s go.”

He walked forward, frowning in confusion as he saw nothing but a clump of gray ash being blown away in the wind. He looked around, searching for his daughter. The arrow was still in the target.

“Lila?” he called, checking behind the tree. Nothing. “Honey?” he hesitated, starting to get worried. Where the hell did she go? He jogged back towards the bottom of the hill, hoping to see her down where the rest of his family was supposed to be. Setting up food at the picnic table. playing catch.

No Lila.

No Nate or Cooper.

No Laura.

Nothing.

What?

They’re fine, he thought desperately. They just went inside. Playing a game. Went out of sight. 

But…

He started running back down the hill, calling their names, his voice getting louder and more frantic. “Babe…? Babe!?” he shouted before whistling. “Boys!”

He made it to the picnic table. Nothing.

He suddenly noticed that it was more silent than before. Fewer chirps of birds, quieter buzzes of insects. An ominous feeling overcame him. He didn’t care though. He still couldn’t find his family. Clint was panting, not from the running, but from the fear that was making his breath go short. The air suddenly felt impossibly thick as he gasped, searching in every possible direction.

Nothing.

“Laura!?”

  ---------------------------------------------------------

Peter Parker was dying. 

He was 15 and he was freaking dying.

He looked up at Mr. Stark helplessly. He was laying uncomfortably on the rocky ground. Dust was swirling around, and he was suddenly sick of the thought of it being his former allies. Beyond him, the stormy sky of Titan boomed ominously. People were dying. People were dying.

Was Mr. Stark next? What about Ned? MJ?

May.

His Spider Sense was screaming at him, so much that he was in pain. He hated and was thankful that, for some reason, his death seemed to be taking longer than the others. It was painful, but…at least he got to say goodbye. 

He couldn’t leave them. He couldn’t.

Come on, Spider-man. Fight it.

Mr. Stark looked down at him. He looked…scared, Peter realized. An emotion he had never seen before on his face. Snarky, angry, disappointed, proud, surprised…never scared.

Peter could feel his hand disintegrating. 

God, he was dying.

I don’t wanna go, he thought desperately. At that moment, he realized, Iron Man couldn’t save him. No one could. They had one chance, once chance, and they failed. 

14,000,605 alternate outcomes…1 that would be successful.

But Peter failed. He failed, and now billions of people were going to die. Why couldn’t he have been stronger, gotten than stupid glove off sooner?

This couldn’t be happening. He was a superhero. Hero’s didn’t fail! Hero’s didn’t fail…

He whispered “I’m sorry,” taking one last look at his mentor, before the rest of his body was consumed. 

22 and 1/2 days later, Tony Stark sat across from his strang blue shipmate, Nebula, with a silver triangle-shaped piece of metal in his fingers. Hunger pains racked his body. He felt weak. But he put on his calmest face as he flicked the “football” towards her. Nebula grunted as she tried to punch it angrily. He leaned back, pointing at her, “you don’t need to do that,” he said with a slight smirk. “Because uh…you just hold it in this position,” he explained, making his hands into an end post.

She looked at him with a confused look, before flicking it towards him. 

“That was close,” he said cautiously when it missed, before Nebula tried again. This time, the triangle made it over his fingers.

“That’s a goal, we’re now one apiece,” he nodded. She leaned back in surprise. It had been a long time since she’d won something. They kept flicking the football back and forth before Nebula finally took the winning shot. 

“Annnnnd you’ve won. Congratulations,” Tony announced, holding out his hand. It took her a moment before she shook it. What was she supposed to do now? She knew what Thanos would have told her to do to the losing opponent. Of course, she had never won against Gamora, but this was different. It wasn’t for survival or honor, or even practice. What was the point?

“Fair game, good sport. You had fun?” Tony asked calmly.

Fun. Huh.

“It was fun,” she said uncertainly, but truthfully. She stood up slowly and walked away from a puzzled Tony Stark, contemplating this new experience. She couldn’t remember the last time she had played a game.

------------------------------------------------------------ 

Later that day, Tony carefully pushed the recording button as he had done every day on this ship on the battered Iron Man helmet. It felt symbolic as to what he was now. Beat down. Crushed. A useless tin can.

He sat back against the bleak metal walls of the ship, even exhausted by the small motion. A dark blue light shone from the window next to him from the millions of stars. He wondered which one of them was Earth’s sun. “This thing on?” he muttered, tapping the helmet, before deciding he was too tired to try and check. 

This is pointless, his brain unhelpfully supplied, but he decided to continue with his message. It was naive to think that this ship would ever get back to Earth. But if it did… He took a deep breath.

“Hey Mrs. Potts. Pep. If you find this recording…” he sighed tiredly. “Don’t post it on social media, it’s gonna be a real tear-jerker.” The joke didn’t land the way he wanted it to. Pepper deserved a real message.

“I don’t know if you’re ever gonna see these. I don’t even know if you’re still…” he trailed off, not wanting to think about it. The idea was too painful. “Oh, god, I hope so…”

He blabbered about the ship, Nebula, anything he could think of. He tried to make it sound calm and light-hearted, even when he was talking about their inevitable death.

“Oxygen will run out tomorrow morning…and that’ll be it,” he said with a sort of finality.

He looked longingly toward the mask, “Pep, I know I said no more surprises…but I gotta say I was really hoping to pull off one last one. But it looks like…” he squeezed his eyes shut.

Tony failed. He really did. And he didn’t even know who was left to fail. What if…

The Avengers?

The people of Earth?

Pepper?

The kid.

I don’t wanna go.

Damn it.

“Well, you know what it looks like. Don’t feel bad about this.” His head fell into his hand. “I mean, actually, if you grovel for a couple weeks…and then move on with enormous guilt…” He couldn’t stop with the stupid quips. It was all that was keeping him from breaking down.

“I should probably lie down for a minute. Go rest my eyes.”

He knew what was coming. Tony looked back to the mask, feeling like he was staring right into her eyes. 

“Please know…when I drift off, it’ll be like every night lately. I’m fine, totally fine,” he assured her, knowing how sarcastic he sounded. “I dream about you,” Tony whispered, tapping the screen. “Because it’s always you.”

For a moment, he stared at the mask. He didn’t know what else to say, so he finally shut it off, slowly pulling his jacket over his shoulder like a blanket. He laid down right there on the floor. He couldn’t even make it across the ship. What would people think of Iron Man now?

Tony closed his eyes, the blue light still slightly shining under his eyelid, saying a silent goodbye to-

A shadow.

He opened his bloodshot eyes to look up. A huge gray mass was blocking the light of the stars. He tried not to get hopeful, but it looked like a ship coming towards them. He really hoped he wasn’t hallucinating.

“Ne-Nebula,” he coughed in the loudest voice he could muster.

He heard metal stomping as she came to join him in the cockpit, before staring in surprise out the window.

“You…you see that too, I’m not crazy right?” he muttered, glancing between her and the ship. She nodded as they both squinted at the person in the front window of the ship.

Nebula doesn’t know how, she doesn’t know why, but she did recognize that ship- well, atleast ¼ of the ship. But even more- the lanky figure with Yondu’s arrow controller fastened securely on his head.

“Kraglin” she murmured.

------------------------------------------------------------ 

Steve Rogers looked into the mirror as he carefully finished shaving his beard. There was no point in having it anymore, as the Accords had been basically forgotten. Who cared about a few fugitive superheroes when the world was in a crisis like this?

He dabbed a towel at his face, before setting it down and bracing himself against the sink of the bathroom. He looked into the mirror for a second. Just staring at himself.

Sometimes, it still felt surreal. It all happened so fast….

He felt his hands starting to shake. He glanced at one of the small side-mirrors in the bright room, which was doing the same thing. Steve looked up hopefully, but cautiously at the ceiling. Maybe, just maybe….

He quickly ran outside of the Avengers compound to its grassy lawn. Natasha, Bruce, and Rhodey were quick to join him. They found Pepper Potts in a tan cardigan who was already standing there looking up. Above them, descending from the night sky, were 2 huge ships seemingly connected together. One was a musty gray with hundreds of exposed parts and systems. It looked like it had broken off, or half of it was missing. The other was attached to the bottom, a dark orange and housing impressively-sized wings. Both of them looked relatively old and beaten up.

A part of Steve had already accepted that Tony was gone. So he couldn’t bring his hopes up until he saw who was onboard.

“Careful,” Steve warned, “We still don’t know who this is.” Natasha drew her guns, and Rhodey pulled up the commands to call him suit.

“Calm down Stars and Stripes, that’s my ship,” a snarky voice called as Rocket stepped in front of them. Steve blinked like he always did at the talking racoon. All the things he had seen, and a talking, walking racoon was still one of the strangest.

The ship finally landed with a shaky THUD. It was a few moments before the gang plank of the orange ship started slowly lowering down.

Tony.

God, that son of a bitch was alive.

Tony was being supported by another person. They were…blue. Metal. An alien, Steve decided. But if she was with Tony, he deemed her trust-worthy….for now.

Steve ran up to them, taking Tony from her hands. He looked back at her for a second, before letting Steve help him walk away towards the compound.

Tony looked worse for the wear, emaciated and weak, even though he tried to hide it with a big, black leather jacket. His hair was messy and his skin was dirty and smudged. He was panting and stumbling, and he looked like he hadn’t slept in decades.

Tony cleared his throat before he muttered in defeat, “I couldn’t stop him.”

“Neither could I,” Steve replied grimly, thinking of how easily Thanos had tossed him aside. Pushed him away. He had fought Hydra, an army of aliens, robots, criminals, even his own teammates. And one purple bastard with a few colorful pebbles had looked at him with a faint annoyance. Like he was nothing more than a fly, before he went down.

“Hang on,” Tony said, stopping them before looking into Steve’s eyes. Tony’s were impossibly tired and sad.

“I…I lost the kid,” he breathed helplessly.

Steve?

Bucky.

He stared at Tony. “Tony we lost,” he said quietly.

“Is uh…,” Tony started hesitantly, but his question was answered as Pepper ran up to them.

“Oh my god,” Pepper cried, as she threw herself into Tony’s arms. He hugged her tightly,  before kissing her, whispering “it’s okay.”

While the Avengers reunited, Rocket ran up to Nebula, and Kraglin, pushing past them. The only thing he saw was an empty ship.

“Where…” he trailed off.

Nebula shook her head. 

------------------------------------------------------------

It’s been 23 days since Thanos came to Earth,” Rhodey stated. The Avengers were gathered around a round table projecting the confirmed deaths. Statistics. Faces of the people that had been snapped. Steve and Natasha were leaning solemnly against tables, while Tony sat in a wheelchair with an IV. Pepper had tried to get him to rest, but he refused, saying he wanted a full report. 

“World governments are in pieces,” Natasha added. Her voice sounded detached, her face blank, like she wasn’t fully present. “The parts that are still working - are trying to take a census and it looks like he did…”

Peter Parker flashed on the screen in front of Tony. He looked down, his head in his hands..

“He did exactly what he said he was going to do, Thanos whipped out…50% of all living creatures.”

She glanced over at Thor, who was sitting on the side of the room, looking down at the floor. He had a gray sweatshirt on, and his hands were clasped together, face scrunched up.

Tony pinched the bridge of his nose, before turning to Steve. “Where is he now? Where?” He demanded.

Steve grimaced. “We don’t know. He just opened a portal and walked right through. We’ve been hunting Thanos for 3 weeks now, but…Rocket said we don’t have the technology on Earth to track him.”

A moment of silence before Steve started up again. “Tony, you fought him-“

“Who told you that?” Tony cut him off, looking at him with a sarcastic expression. The room looked at him with confusion.

“I didn’t fight him. No, he wiped my face with a planet…while the Bleecker Street magician gave away the store,” he drawled.

Steve looked down. This, this is why the Avengers couldn’t stay together.

“-that’s what happened, there was no fight, ‘cause he’s not beatable.”

“Did he give you any clues, any coordinates, anything?” Steve pushed. He knew it was stupid, but he had to check.

Tony blew a raspberry, gesturing his hand. Nothing, like he thought, but the fact that he was making jokes right now…

Steve was trying very hard to keep things cooperative. Natasha rolled her eyes, exasperated.

“I saw this coming a few years back,” Tony pointed out, leaning back in his chair. “I had a vision. I didn’t want to believe it…‘thought I was dreaming…”

Steve stood up. “Tony I’m going to need you to focus-“

“And I needed you,” Tony interrupted accusingly, glaring at him. “As in past tense, that trumps what you need. It’s too late buddy. Sorry.”

Tony shakingly started to stand up, using the table to support himself as he knocked down a couple glasses. “You know what I need? I need a shave,” he said, his voice unsteady.

“And, and I believe I remember telling youse,” he started, angrily ripping the IV out of his arm as Rhodey protested, “alive and otherwise, that what we need was a suit of armor around the Earth!”

He was gesturing wildly as the rest of the Avengers watched him cautiously.

“Remember that? Whether it impacted our precious freedoms or not, that's what we needed.”

“Well that didn’t work out, did it?” Steve exhaled.. Did he not remember Ultron? The horrible destruction of Sokovia?”

“I’d said we’d lose. You said, ‘we’ll do that together too.’ And guess what, Cap? We lost,” Tony sneered.

“And you weren’t there.”

Steve stood there, lost for words.

“But that’s what we do right?” Tony rambled on as Rhodey tried to get him to sit down, “Were the Avengers. Were the Avengers, not the Prevegers!?”

“You made your point, just sit down, okay?” Rhodey said firmly. Tony struggled against him, pushing past Rhodey. “No, no, here’s my point-“

“Tony you’re sick, sit down!”

“I got nothing for you Cap!” Tony pointed his finger at his chest, now standing face to face. “I got no coordinates, no clues, no strategies, no options. Zero, zip, nada. No trust. Liar,” Tony ended quietly, fuming. The room was dead silent, the air so thick you could cut it with a knife.

Two years. The worst possible catastrophe they could have never seen coming. And they still couldn’t work together..

“Uhhhhh, is this a bad time?” Kraglin said from the doorway. His face was scrunched in discomfort, and he was barely peeking out from the door frame. Everyone turned their heads to him right when Tony started swaying on his feet. Rhodey came out of the stupor, grabbing his friend firmly by the arm and sitting him down in the wheelchair.

“Rhod-”

“Nope,” Rhodey said, before his eyes went softer. “Tones, you’re gonna kill youself if you keep going like this.” Tony bit his lip, anger flashing in his eyes. Surprisingly, he stayed quiet.

Steve breathed a sigh of relief. At Least that argument was over.

As Bruce came in to reinsert Tony’s IV, Kraglin nervously stepped into the room. “Yeah, um, Rocket wansta’ see y’all on his ship. Said it was impor’ant’.” 

  ------------------------------------------------------------

“Took you long enough,” Rocket grumbled without looking up as he tinkered with a control panel on the side of the door. The Avengers, Rhodey wheeling Tony’s wheelchair up, stepped up onto the gang plank. It flickered to life, quickly lighting up the whole ship. A flash, a spark, and it all went dark seconds later. Rocket kicked the side of the ship in anger, and it rockily started up again. 

Bruce looked around with a judgemental eye on the inside. Rocket turned to the rest of the group with his arms crossed and an eyebrow raised. 

“Well? Are you waiting for an invitation or…?.” Rocket rolled eyes before heading deeper in the ship.

The group walked warily into the halls of the ship. The place was collecting dust and oil was dripping from pipes into a puddle on the floor. The walls were steaming and hissing, with exposed panels and broken wires sparking. “Nice place,” Natasha said dryly, looking around.

“Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t tell my crew to prepare for guests when I left to go help the god make his magical hammer,” Rocket said through gritted teeth. There in the central room was Nebula staring at a map of space. Rocket walked over to a compartment on the side of the room. The glass door swung open, and a blue artificial light came on. It looked like a small mini fridge, only it was empty. Rocket checked one more time before turning on Tony.

“Did you eat all our food?!” He sputtered.

Tony stared at him for a second. “It was either that or starve,” Nebula said slowly, squinting at the raccoon.

“You didn’t even save the little star-shaped-”

“Rabbit,” Thor interrupted with a low and serious tone. “You said you called us here for something important. Get on with it.” Steve stared at Thor. This was the first time he’d spoken since the Snap.

Rocket glared at Tony one more time before hopping on the round table in the center of the room. And activated a hologram of Earth in the center.

“When Thanos snapped his fingers, Earth became ground zero for a power surge of ridiculously cosmic proportions,” Rocket explained as a flash of colorful light came from the hologram Earth and out into space. “No one’s ever seen anything like it. Now with…actual equipment, I was able to trace a second surge that occurred a minute later with the same energy levels.”

Rocket clicked a couple buttons, and the hologram zoomed out and into a random spot of space. Coordinates popped up in the corner. “At these coordinates.”

Natasha leaned into the table, staring at the blue-tinted screen. “He used the stones again.”

“But what for?” Bruce asked.

Natasha shrugged. “Weapons, an upgraded ship, armed forces. What would you do with unlimited power at your fingers?”

“So basically nothing good,” Rocket said sarcastically.

“It doesn’t matter what he did. We know where he is, and we have a way to get there,” Steve said, looking around the room.

“Hey, hey, hey.” Bruce waved his arms, stepping forward.. “If we do this, we’d be going in short-handed.”

Rhodey scoffed. “Yeah, you mean because he killed all our friends?”

“I mean that he’s still got the stones,” Bruce remarked.

“So let’s get them.” Steve stated, looking down at the hologram. “Use the stones to bring everyone back.

“Just like that?”

Yeah. Just like that.” Steve was determined. He wouldn’t give up just cause they were afraid. They’ve gone into missions blind before, and there was no time to sit and plan a whole lot of nothing.. Bruce and Nebula still looked unsure. Rhodey, Rocket, and Natasha were clearly ready to get going as soon as they could. And Tony…had been oddly silent the whole time.

“Even if there’s a…small chance that we can undo this…we owe this, to everyone who’s not in this room to try,” Natasha said to the room, her eyes still a stormy gray. But behind them, a fiery rage was building up.

“How do you know it’s gonna end any differently than it did before?” Bruce challenged.

“Because before, we weren’t together,” Steve said with a grimace. Tony snorted, muttering something under his breath. The room went silent.

Steve looked towards the two who hadn’t spoken. “Thor, Tony?”

Tony looked down at the ground, speaking through clenched teeth. “Even if we don’t bring them back, I’m going to kill Thanos. I don’t care if you’re coming with me or not. I said it once and I’ll say it again. If we can’t protect the Earth, you can be damn well sure we’ll avenge it.” Thor took a moment, nodded, and abruptly stood up. He held out his hand, and a few moments later, his ax flew into the ship.

Tony and Steve might have their differences, but there was one similar goal they both had. One they needed. And it was 11 billion miles away.

“If you give me a few days I can repair the ship enough to fly,” Rocket admitted.

Steve looked one more time at the hologram. 

Steve?

Bucky.

He sighed deeply. “Let’s go get this son of a bitch.”

Chapter Text

Natasha Romanoff had always wanted to go to space.

Yes, silly, she knows. It’s something lots of children dreamed of as a young child. But she couldn’t remember a time when she hadn’t wanted to visit the place.

The group was already strapped into the ship, miles and miles above the Earth. Even though Natasha had seen pictures, they really couldn’t be compared to the real deal. How infinite it all looked. The room was dark, with complicated systems surrounding her and a huge window in front. She knew better than to touch anything, but she did lightly trace the edge of the armrest of the chair. If only she could be here under different circumstances.

“Alright, who here hasn’t been to space?” Rocket called, turning back to the other Avengers with a suspicious look. Steve, Natasha, and Rhodey hesitantly raised their hands, the latter muttering why.

“You better not throw up on my ship,” the raccoon warned, turning back around.

God, the Earth looked so big, but…small at the same time.

Being trapped in the Red Room, white, red, and gray walls were all she ever saw. Blank ceilings and plain rooms. It wasn’t until she started going on missions till she really got fresh air. Felt the sun on her skin and saw the stars of the night sky.

Therefore, her little 10 year old self had stayed awake late at night staring at the ceiling, dreaming of going to space. Being up there alone, nothing but your thoughts to hurt you. Going anywhere you wanted to go. 

This would have been her dream, but it was more like a horrible nightmare. Natasha snapped out her light trance when she heard a sudden voice.

Nebula stated in a tense voice “Approaching jump in three, two one-”

The group tensed up, preparing themselves as the engines warmed up, the humming getting louder. They suddenly shot forward, and Natasha was pushed back in her seat. She gritted her teeth, but found herself mesmerized by the light show outside. Streaks of colors flashed by them at unimaginable speeds. For a split second, she saw a grid of hexagons seemingly separated by lightning. They shot through one, and suddenly it was over.

Natasha bucked forward in her seat a bit, feeling nauseous. At least she hadn’t thrown up, but she smirked a bit at the green tint of Rhodey’s face. The smile was wiped off her face as she looked ahead out the window.

Out in space, far away, was a ship. Could she even call it a ship? It was more like a floating fortress. It had four enormous wings that looked impossible enough by themselves, but the huge block in the middle connecting them was probably the size of a 1000 of their ships comfortably. It seemed to block out the light from a nearby star, casting them and the side of the ship in shadows. It was huge, black, terrifying. Natasha had a sudden thought. It looked like the Red Room.

She felt something squeam in her stomach. God, what had they gotten themselves into?

“That’s it,” a deep voice said from the very back. “That’s his ship,” Thor said solemnly..

There was a moment of silence before someone spoke up. “Seriously man?! You neglected to tell us how god damn HUGE this ship was?!” Rhodey snapped.

“I told you, Thanos has the biggest, most powerful army in the universe,” Bruce butted in.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Rhodey exclaimed, turning on Nebula as she raised her eyebrow.

“Uhhhhhh, is there any chance he isn’t home?” Rocket muttered.

“It doesn’t matter how big it is,” Steve cut in, making the room go quiet. “Losing…it’s not an option. No matter what comes at us…” he looked each one of them in the eye, “you take it down and move to the next. Clear?”

People gave various forms of yes. 

Natasha was strategic if anything. So this entire plan gave her an uneasy feeling. A ship that size, with unimaginable forces; that alone made her on edge. Not to mention Thanos, with the power of the universe at his fingertips. They failed once on their terms. How would they win this time on his?

But…she remembered. The faces. Friends and family and billions of people around the world, the universe in fact.. She had called Yelena over and over, with no luck. What if she…?

And Clint’s family…her godchildren.

Natasha’s face hardened. Fuck it all. She wasn’t just gonna stand by and let this happen. No matter the risks; whatever it takes.

Natasha looked at Steve, who had sat back down next to her. “I…I think this is gonna work Steve.”

“I know it will,” Steve said quietly, turning to her with dark eyes. “Because I don’t know what I’m gonna do if it doesn’t.

“Going dark…” Rocket called as he pulled down a new lever, “Now.”

Natasha looked around as the dim lights inside the ship started to flicker. The outside did the same thing as well, before eventually reflecting its surroundings, exactly like SHIELD’s quinjet. It took a bit of time to integrate the technology, but they got it done. Now they were almost completely unseeable. . Hopefully, they would have the element of surprise.

It’s not enough, her brain unhelpfully supplied. 

“I’ll admit once we start moving, this magic show ain’t gonna last long,” Rocket said.

“So we gotta go quickly. Sneak onboard and find Thanos,” Tony cut in. “And we’re all going in as one.” He shot a glare at Steve. 

“So…how are we gonna get on this thing?” Bruce asked, taking a long look at it over by the window. 

Nebula walked up next to him, pointing to the right wing. “Our easiest access point is there. The bay has a virtually unused dock we can land on.”

“How close is it to Thanos?” 

“My father spends most of his time in his…throne room at the center of the ship. Though I can’t be sure where he is now.”

The group tensed. Thanos could be anywhere. After a moment of silence, Tony abruptly stood up, pressing the newly-rebuilt triangle on his chest. Thousands of microscopic nano-particles flowed from the housing unit, covering all but his face with a dramatic red. The armor fitted securely around the man as he looked back at the solemn group.

“Let’s say we do run into the bastard,” Tony said with a cold voice, “all it means is I get to put a missile through his head sooner than expected.”

He looked at Steve. They shared a small nod.

“Whatever it takes.”

      --------------------------------------------------------

Thanos stared out his window from the control center. He looked out at where the small ship was and hummed. Interesting technology, but nothing a quick scan couldn’t pinpoint. Though he couldn’t see it, he had a pretty good guess of who came knocking at his door. Or rather, sneaking in.

Thanos frowned. The Avengers would not give up easily, and having them look around his ship would be rather inconvenient. It would be a chore to have to kill all of them. He looked down at his gauntlet, the infinity stones seeming to call to him. So he closed his eyes, concentrated…he could see them. They were getting ready to board his ship. Well, that wouldn’t do. He swiped his hand, and as the space stone glowed, a portal formed. Right under the feet of the confused heroes, delivering them right into the control room. Right to Thanos.

-------------------------------------------------

Tony hit the ground hard. He groaned, his ears ringing for a moment. His visions cleared up enough to see the other Avengers on the ground next to him. Tony looked forward with a great deal of confusion. What the hell-

A chill went down his spine as he saw who was walking towards them.

He jumped up, his arm stretched out and his repulsor charging up. A familiar fury rose up in his chest. He saw the rest of the Avengers quickly get up as well, pointing various weapons at the approaching threat. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the hulk-buster armor materialize around Bruce. It had gone wrong all too quickly. They had no plan, no strategy, and they certainly didn’t have the element of surprise.

The flashes of faces who had died on the screen. The death toll rising constantly, higher and higher. A number shouldn’t have made him so sick, but he felt like he needed to throw up.

I don’t wanna go…please…

Tony gritted his teeth. He couldn’t bring himself to care about the mess they were currently in. Screw a plan. He had one thought and one thought only. Make this bastard……….fucking……..…pay.

“I thought you might return,” Thanos said calmly. Tony’s anger only grew. It was 8 against one, and he wasn’t even fazed. It was the same slight annoyance he had felt from the titan the first time they had faced off. Iron Man was supposed to be strong. The Avengers were supposed to be strong. Strong enough to scare those who dared to threaten their world. It took a while, but he had seen fear in the eyes of Obidiah, Loki, Killian…

But he had never seen it in Thanos’.

“You could not live with your own failure. And where did that bring you? Back to me.” Thanos kept his slow, steady walk forward to the tense, furious group.

Finally, Thor snapped, chucking his ax at the titan. Thanos didn’t even flinch as it hurled toward him. Thor growled as the ax went straight through him, his form shimmering slightly like a hologram. Thanos laughed, his form disintegrating into red smoke. He reappeared where the ax had embedded itself into the wall. He easily yanked it out, turning it over in his hand with curious eyes.

“I do not make the same mistake twice. It’s quite an interesting ax, being immune to the power of the infinty stones. I might have an…idea of where you could have acquired such a weapon.” 

“Alright whiny. we’re through with the monologuing,” Rocket snarled, lifting up his gun. “Now, you’re gonna use that fancy trinket there, snap your damn fingers-”

Thanos calmly closed his fist, the reality stone glowing bright red. Suddenly, everything from Rocket’s gun to Tony’s armor was consumed with the color before disappearing.

Tony blinked. The abrupt absence of weight startled him. The nano-particles were…gone. He suddenly felt very vulnerable without his armor. It was the same feeling he felt when facing off against Killian on the catwalk. He had no weapons, no protection.

“You seem woefully unprepared-”

“You murdered trillions!” Bruce yelled furiously as his veins started to become more pronouced. More green. His clothes strained as he started to grow bigger, taller, and Tony knew the Hulk was about to come out-

The gauntlet glowed once more, and Bruce’s eyes were filled with a murky blue. Bruce shrunk back down and clutched his head with his eyes shut closed. He moaned quietly as he stumbled back and opened his normal brown eyes, looking around in confusion. 

The group watched in shock. For a moment, they all stood frozen.

“How-how…,” Bruce stuttered.

 “I believe you’ve realized your current position,” Thanos stated simply.

Steve snapped out of the trance, glaring at him. “We aren’t leaving until you bring them back.”

Thanos sighed. “The universe required correction. You should be grateful. I assure you, wherever you go, life will improve significantly.”

“Bullshit,” Tony cut in, seething.

“Deny it all you want, Stark. My point is, I will never forsake the universe for selfish reasons. There is nothing you can do that will make me reverse my mission.”

“Oh well, I guess we’ll just have to kill you and do it ourselves,” Tony said with a humorless chuckle.

Thanos laughed. “There is something that tells me you would have some trouble with that.” The gauntlet glowed again, and the Avengers tensed as their vision was covered in red-

They were standing in the dirty streets of New York. The first thing Tony noticed was how horrifingly empty it was. It was the middle of the day, and New York would normally be absolutely packed. Shoppers, tourists, muggers. But truly, it looked like a ghost town. The only signs of life were a few people hurrying across the streets with their heads down. 

The second, that people didn’t seem to see them. For a moment, he wondered why Thanos had brought them here.

Suddenly, a deafening sound shot through the city. Tony covered his ears, seeing a few of the others do the same. He looked up to see the building towering above them be engulfed in smoke and flames. He heard screams from around them as more buildings seemed to explode out of nowhere. His eyes widened. Tony felt the urge to go help, before he realized he had nothing. He wasn’t even a man in a can. He couldn’t help at all.

Natasha spun around. “How are you doing that?” she demanded.

Thanos raised the gauntlet, and another building was demolished instantaneously. “The Infinity Stones reach far beyond the capabilities you imagined in your small minds.”

“It could be a trick,” Steve said cautiously. “An illusion to scare us.”

“My father is many things,” Nebula said softly, speaking up for the first time. “A liar is not one of them.”

“See, I don’t know if I can just…accept that,” Natasha retorted.

“I suppose you’re right,” Thanos admitted. “I could be lying. This could all be an elaborate illusion as I destroy your little planet piece by piece. The question is if you’re gonna take that chance.” The infinity stones lit up again, and suddenly flashes of different cities went by their eyes. LA. Hong Kong. London. Paris.

All lit up in fire and smoke.

It seemed to go on forever, city after city. And Tony knew it was so logical it was fake but he couldn’t just let more people get hurt because of him-

“Stop”, he muttered, but it kept going. He could hear thousands of screams in his ears, echoing, pleading, crying. It didn’t stop, even when he said the word louder a second time.

A small boy landed at his feet. Blood poured from a wound in his head, his eyes blown wide with fear, but also hauntingly empty. How many more of-

“STOP,” he yelled, pleading for an end to the violence and bloodshed.

Everything went black.

The Avengers were back in the control center, clearly frazzled. Thanos looked at them with intense eyes, stepping forward. No one challenged him.

“The next time someone tries to board my ship,” he started softly, deadly, “I will crush your little planet. Reduce it to atoms. Tell me, would you forsaken billions for an attempt at fighting a battle you know you can not win?”

The Avengers stared. Tony desperately tried to come up with another plan, another way. There had to be some way. They couldn’t just….give up. The Avengers didn’t give up. 

But…

The destruction.

The screams.

Flames

Smoke

Death.

He…had to protect what he still had. A heaviness overtook him. Heavier than any armor could ever cause. They had really failed, hadn’t they? Tony looked over at the others, hoping for a spark of hope in one of their eyes. He saw nothing but emptiness.

Cap always had a plan, he would never stop fighting. And yet, there was nothing.

They couldn’t win against those stones.

Thanos brandished the ax. “I’ll be keeping this. If it is removed from my ship, I will take it as an act of aggression.”

Tony waited for Thor to protest. He simply stared at the titan, looking from his ax to the ground.

“You fought admaribly. I commend you for your sacrifice to help others. This was all to help billions of species throughout the universe. I hope you come to realize that.”

Tony’s expression darkened, and for a second, he forgot the consequences, forgot everything but the overwhelming desire to inflict pain on the bastard who thought he was doing good, and took a step forward-

He looked down in suprise and yelped as he started falling, this time landing back in the ship. Once the others landed next to him, the portal closed.

Tony stared at the ceiling as the others got to their feet.

Nobody said a word.

—----------------------------------------------------

No.

No.

Peter banged his fist against the window of his cell. Logically, he knew sound couldn’t travel through space, but they were so close. He watched in desperation as the small ship started up.

“I’m here, I’m here!” Peter yelled. He banged on the window some more, pleading in his mind for someone to notice him.

When he saw the ship, he had really thought they were coming for him. Honestly, he didn’t even know what was going on. One moment he was lying on the rocky ground of Titan as he was disitengrating to dust. He had really thought that was it for him.

Yet, suddenly, he appeared here. In a dark, foreign, small room. He had already inspected the…cell he guessed? There was a grated floor and a singular door (which was locked) and a small window. And that was it.

He generally thought his heart stopped when he looked out of the thick glass. 

He was in space.

Real, freaking, empty, endless, space.

And when he saw the spaceship materialize in the distance, hope had bloomed in his chest. The Avengers could fix this. Mr. Stark could fix this.

So it was horrifying to watch as the ship started moving away. They wouldn’t just leave him if they knew he was here…right? That must be it. They didn’t know.

Maybe I can find them right before they leave, he thought wildly. A part of him knew that was practically impossible, but he wasn’t just gonna sit here as his possibly only chance of escape flew away. Peter ran over to the fortified door. It was most definitely locked, but he could still try to kick it down. His foot shifted sideways on the grated floor.

He had lifted a building off himself. He could totally do this…right?

His fist clenched. Peter took a deep breath before lifting up his leg, putting all the strength he had into the kick-

His foot met the door. His eyes widened as he felt pain racing up his leg for a split second before he was blasted back into the wall opposite the window. He felt himself convulse for a second, grinding his teeth due to the white hot shock that went through his whole body. When that died down, he was painfully aware of how much his head hit from that hit.

His vision went slightly blurry as he swayed from his position on the ground. He felt himself slump against the wall. 

“No,” he slurred. He couldn’t afford to lose consciousness now. He needed to leave. He…he needed…he…..Mr. Stark….

The last thing he remembered was the ship shooting through an array of hexagons, disappearing from view. All he could see were stars and that suffocating black and….

After that, everything went black.

---------------------------------------------

Thanos was watching their pathetically small ship fly away when he got the alert. He pressed a button on the panel that warned him of an attempted breach that had occurred. Serious enough that the electrical defense had activated. The screen popped up, showing cell #45. A human teenager. Thanos hummed curiously. He activated the camera in the room, seeing the boy slumped against the wall.

Ah, Stark’s boy. The Avenger.

He remembered him from Titan. He had put up quite the fight for his young age. He used those…webs that he had shot. Thanos wondered where a terrain could have acquired such powers.

Well, he was the only one he knew. Now that the Avengers were dealt with, it was time to start introductions, wasn’t it?

Chapter Text

God, my head hurts.

That was the first thought that shot through his mind. Peter groaned quietly. His head felt light, heavy, and fuzzy all at once. He tried to open his eyes, but quickly squeezed them shut to block out the bright light assaulting his irises. 

Peter realized then that he was lying on a cold metal surface. He grunted, pushing himself into a seated position. He felt his back against the wall, but he could barely see anything. Peter held up a hand to where the bulb was in the middle of the room. He didn’t remember it being so painfully bright.

“Oh, I’m still here,” he said out loud as reality crashed into him. Everything started to come back. The cell. The door. The ship-

“Shoot,” he muttered before hurrying to the window. He didn’t know how long he was unconscious. Peter looked out the glass to find….nothing.

They were gone.

For a second, he froze. Everything seemed to stop as he stared, unblinking, out the small square of glass. Empty black and stars and ...no life in sight. A shiver went down his back. Was he alone out here? Probably not, but then who had taken him? His stomach rumbled with discomfort, and he grimaced. When was the last time he had eaten something?

Suddenly, all the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. He whipped around, searching every nook and cranny of the small room. Something was wrong, something was very, very wrong. No, wait….

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Someone was coming. Peter gritted his teeth. If his senses were going off, that probably meant trouble. Most likely the reason why he was here. He curled his fingers onto his web shooters, or where they were supposed to be. Peter blinked, looking down. For the first time, he noticed his nano tech suit was gone. He was in his spandex suit, but his mask was nowhere in sight. And neither were his web shooters.

I must have dropped the mask when I fell off the ship, he thought to himself, his face scrunching up. And his web shooters, maybe someone took them?Whatever happened, he couldn’t count on anything he had on him.

Peter looked around the room for something to defend himself with. His gaze landed on the ceiling, and he smirked. Well, if his captor was gonna come in…He hopped up on the top of the ceiling, crawling to the corner of the room closest to the door. Thank god for his sticky hands.

Peter could hear his footsteps coming closer. Maybe….5 feet? Now 2 feet. Silence. He breathed. They were probably right next to him. A loud click went through the room, and the door swung open.

Internally, Peter cursed at the sight. It was Thanos. It made sense, but oh does Parker Luck like to strike him at the worst times. Thanos stepped into the cell, looking around curiously. Peter’s eyes locked onto the gauntlet on his left hand. Sure enough, all 6 stones were securely locked in there.

For a moment, he complentated if he should try to steal it back. It's what the Avengers would have done.

Then again…they had failed with an entire team. There was no way he could get that gauntlet back in his current position. His first objective was to get the hell out of this ship. He slowly crept along the wall and dropped down next to the door. He smirked, pleased with how well his plan worked as he ran out of the cell-

Peter froze. His eyes widened. He couldn’t move. He could move at all. He could barely even breathe. Peter tried to force his legs to keep running, but all he succeeded was making his body shake violently. He internally cursed.

Damn it.

 Peter suddenly felt himself fly backwards, crashing into the floor on his back. Peter groaned, tensing his muscles. That was gonna leave a bruise. His ankle was burning from the weird way it hit the ground. Broken, sprained? For a second time, all he could think about was how much his head hurt. And why was that light so freaking painful? A loud clang echoed through the room. Peter sat up on his elbows, squinting through his blurry vision to look where the door was. 

Oh. Thanos had closed it. Probably locked it too.

Peter felt the panic start to set in as he looked up at the Titan from his place on the floor. Thanos raised his gauntlet, and again Peter lost control of his body. He bit his tongue as he was forced up in a kneeling position, putting pressure on his aching leg. Peter tried his hardest to break out of it, but the magic held strong. Well, at least he could breathe. Hooray for small mercies.

“I thought I would speak with you first since we’ve already met,” Thanos said with an unnerving smile.

“Well, aren’t I lucky,” Peter retorted with gritted teeth.

“Tell me Little One, what’s your name?” Thanos asked gently. Peter felt slightly sick at the tone of voice. Like he wasn’t holding Peter captive on an alien spaceship.

Peter shut his mouth tight, glaring at the Titan. Even something as trivial as his name felt like giving in. And he wasn’t going to give in. The Avengers wouldn’t. Mr. Stark wouldn’t. So he wouldn’t.

Thanos sighed heavily. He raised his gauntlet, and Peter hated himself for the way he flinched. As the golden stone glowed, he felt his vision go blurry. Everything looked tinted with a dark blue.

“Peter. Peter Parker,” he heard himself say. Suddenly, everything went sharp again, and the blue tint was gone. He blinked, shaking his head a little. He hadn’t said that-

“Ah, Peter,” Thanos said curiously.

“What-what was that?” Peter demanded.

Thanos looked down at the stone, which had stopped glowing. “The mind stone has many powers, including a way to…temporarily take control of another person. Quite interesting, and very useful.”

Peter’s breath sped up. Ok, so the bad guy can control anyone he wants, including him. Great, just fantastic. “Ok, while we’re playing 20 questions,” Peter asked quickly to try to divert the subject, “I’ve got one for you. Why am I here?”

Thanos shrugged. “I imagine because of your powers. It must take a lot to join the Avengers at such a young age.”

“Wait,” Peter said, hope growing in his chest, “does that mean everyone you snapped is here, on this ship?” Maybe he had friends here, other Avengers even!

Thanos laughed, and the hope felt like it was crushed. “No Peter. My mission was still completed. Only a small handful were delivered to my ship.”

Peter stared at him with squinted, confused eyes. “What? Why?”

“The stones chose you,” Thanos insisted.

He was….so confused. “Chose me for what?” Peter asked.

Thanos stared at him. “Why did you join the Avengers, Little One?” He asked out of the blue.

Peter laughed. “You know, I knew you were crazy, but this…I generally don’t know where this is going.”

“Answer the question,” Thanos said quietly with a dangerous tone.

“Mhmmm, you didn’t answer mine, so I think it’s still my turn.”

Thanos stood there for a moment before squeezing his fist. For a second, nothing happened, and Peter breathed a sigh of relief. Or atleast, he tried to.

Shoot.

Oh.

Peter gasped as his throat suddenly constricted. It felt like an unforgiving hand squeezing in on his neck. There was nothing there, but he swore he could feel these strong fingers crushing his windpipe. He tried and failed to take another breath, growing more panicked by the second. His hands wriggled slightly as he shook violently, but he still couldn’t move. Peter wanted to get out, he needed to get out of the chokehold, but black spots started to appear at the edge of his vision as he was desperately trying to get another breath in and there was this white noise-

“Stop,” he wheezed out quietly, the white noise in his ears getting louder and louder-

The fingers around his neck finally let go. He let out a shuddering gasp as air came into his lungs. He coughed, relishing simply in the ability to breathe. How had he ever taken it for granted?

“You can answer yourself, or I can make you. It’s your choice,” Thanos stated calmly.

Peter looked away, feeling weak. How many times had the Black Widow or Hawkeye endured torture before even saying their name? One simple choke and he was spilling his guts?

But….he’s gonna make me tell anyway, Peter thought bitterly. And it wasn’t that harmful, right?

He took another deep breath, still staring at the ground. “I just wanted to help people. What’s it to you?”

Thanos nodded. “It makes sense then. You would be useful to my mission Peter.”

“Wh-what?” Peter said in confusion. “You murdered half the universe. I thought that was your mission.”

Thanos hummed before squeezing his fist, the reality stone growing brightly. Peter tensed, but all the stone did was create a bench for him to sit on.

“Yes, I did. But overcrowding, scarcity of resources, those issues will never go away. And unfortunately, I will not be around forever to protect this universe. I imagine someone overwhelmed by grief and vengeance will take my life one day.”

Peter swallowed, mostly due to the nonchalant manner the Titan talked about his own death.

“Which is why you are here Peter,” Thanos insisted. “Should I die, there will be others to continue on. To do the work should the universe need it. And to protect it from being reversed.  The stones called you here for this purpose, Little One.”

Peter gaped a moment before breaking out into humorless laughter. “I’m, I’m sorry, you think I would help you with your genocidal plan?!”

Thanos’ eyes narrowed. “If you truly wish to save your loved ones, it is the only way.”

“No,” Peter said seriously, his laughter long gone, “It’s not.”

“So naive. I was once like you myself. But I came to realize-”

“I’m nothing like you-“ Peter choked on his next words as he felt his breath being forcibly released from his lungs. Fear shot through him as he started to shake again. No, no, not again….

Thankfully, the assault only lasted a couple seconds. He sucked in a shuddering breath, staring at the Titan with wide eyes.

“Do not interrupt me,” Thanos advised, a spark of anger behind his eyes.

Peter glared, a retort on the tip of tongue, but the phantom feeling of his throat collapsing was burned in his mind. Peter bit his lip, alarmed when he felt a metallic taste in his mouth. Blood. 

“I came to realize that sacrifice is required. Titan, my planet, was consumed by it, and yours will be as well.”

“Yeah, I heard the sob story already. News flash, I would never help you with something like that, and I never will. So too bad, so sad, you might as well send me home,” Peter snarled.

“I suggest you reconsider my offer,” Thanos said, looking down on him with disdain. Peter swallowed, shooting a glance at the gauntlet. His resolve hardened. This was different than telling the enemy his name. This was agreeing to potentially help them murder billions, no, trillions of innocent people. No matter what Thanos threw at him, he would never give in. 

Ever.

Peter’s resentful eyes locked with the Titan’s. “Go to hell,” he seethed. Thanos sighed, and the stones started to glow. Peter barely had time to tense before-

Slam.

Peter was thrown into the ceiling. He could only think about the sudden sticky substance he felt on his head for a moment before he started hurling back towards the ground. He landed on the unforgiving grate, slamming hard against it. Peter groaned, lying on his stomach. He spat onto the ground, alarmed when he saw red flecks in there. Blood. He winced. That probably wasn’t good. Peter put a hand to his hair, and just like he thought, it came back dark red. The sight of his hand covered in blood-

‘Ben, Ben please’ he whimpered, holding his uncle’s hand. He couldn’t die, he couldn't, he couldn’t….

And later, as he sat on the edge of the ambulance, and the EMT handed him a blanket, he almost dropped it in surprise as he finally noticed the red stains on his hand-

Peter snapped back to the present when he saw the Titan walking away. He didn’t say another word, just slammed the door behind him. Peter may or may not have flinched. The silence was…weirdly loud in his ears. He shakily sat up, finally getting a chance to clutch his ankle in pain.

It doesn’t matter, he told himself. It didn’t, Because he was making a promise to himself. He would never help the Titan kill a single person. Not one. Peter glared at the door, drawing in a shaky breath. Despite his oath, it didn’t make him not nervous. Or incredibly homesick.

He choked a bit at the sudden desire to start sobbing, tears starting to form in the corners of his eyes. Peter buried his head in his hands. He missed his friends. He missed his aunt. He, he missed Mr. Stark. And he really wanted to get out of here. 

He let out a miserable chuckle into his hands. God, he really should have stayed on the bus.

--------------------------------------

Thanos slammed the door to the cell shut, grimacing. He knew this would happen, but it didn’t make it any less irritating. It was a long process, just like it was for his other children. But eventually, they had all come around.

Thanos stepped into the middle of the grand circle, looking up. 5 levels of fortified doors. And behind them, potential. Potential at its finest. Childrens’ minds were so much easier to manipulate than adults.

It would take time, work. But he would convince them to become who they were truly meant to be. See his plan for what it is. The stones chose them for a reason. He looked back at the cell he had come from and gave a small smile.

Peter would come around. They all would. Thanos hummed, walking over to another cell. It was time to start the long game. It would still take a few days for all of them to submit. And they wouldn’t eat until they did. They might be the strongest of their universe, but the children would all break eventually. It was just a matter of when.

--------------------------------------

Silence.

Who knew silence could be so loud?

Tony pinched the bridge of his nose. He closed his eyes for a moment, hating the awful migraine he was housing. It didn’t do much to help, but he dropped his hand, looking around the table. Natasha, Steve, Bruce, Rhodey, and Thor were sitting down with him. Rocket was on the stairs and Nebula against the wall.  Steve was staring at the table, an empty look in his eyes. Natasha, Bruce, and Rhodey all had beers in their hands. Thor took a huge swing from his. He stared at it for a moment before violently throwing it down on the ground. The others jumped as it shattered, the miniscule glass shards bouncing across the floor.

“Point Break, if you do that again,” Tony fumed quietly.

“Third time, man,” Rhodey grumbled.

“I don’t care,” Thor muttered, wiping his hand across his mouth. 

There was a moment of silence before it was broken. “You can’t just put them back on the table like a normal person?” Tony asked, his voice a little louder.

Thor looked up. “Oh, so that’s where this is going?”

Tony glared at him. “What.”

Thor gave a humorless laugh, slamming his hand down on the table. “We’re just gonna pretend like-like the broken glass is our biggest worry. We’re just gonna sit here and drink beers and-and….” Thor trailed off, looking away.

“What, you wanna start the conversation?” Natasha asked quietly.

Thor stood up abruptly, walking over the glass shards to get another beer. “Why not?” he snarled, slamming the fridge door closed. “Why don’t we discuss your petty disagreement that caused the Avengers to split up, allowing Thanos to take the infinity stones. The entire universe is in utter chaos because of your failure-”

“Our failure?” Rhodey said incredulously, scoffing. “How ‘bout the guy who threw an ax straight at the giant purple meat sack and missed.”

“I wouldn’t have needed to if you had properly protected the Vision-”

“-what we were trying to do. It would have been nice to have the hulk,” Natasha butted in, side-eyeing Bruce.

“Oh, so this is suddenly my fault!?”

“You disappeared for two years-”

“Stuck on an alien planet!”

“Which wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t run off,” Tony snarled.

Steve was trying to calm to group, who was growing increasingly agitated,, “Guys, fighting isn’t-”

“And how the hell did he get the time stone from, what was it, 7 of you-”

“You can thank Flash Gordan for-”

“Can you let go of your ego for one damn second Stark and take responsibility-”

“I told you!” Tony roared, slamming his hands down on the table, shocking the group into silence. “I put those Accords together to keep the Avengers together. To keep us together. Because I knew that up there,” he pointed to the ceiling, “that’s the Endgame. And if we even had a chance of coming out on top, we would need to stick together. So I sat through hundreds of meetings with Ross, I took responsibility for my actions, I tried so damn hard to get this to work. And I know it isn’t perfect, good even, what the hell do you think I’ve been doing for the past 2 years?” Tony seethed.

Silence.  Deafening silence.

“But I stuck through it cause I knew this would happen,” Tony said quietly, his gaze landing on Steve. “And you left without a second thought.”

A notification on his phone. Tony looked down, his stomach plummeting when he saw who it was. May Parker, asking about her son. His face fell. For almost an entire month, she didn’t know if her son was….

And now he would have to tell her.

“I have to go,” Tony muttered, turning away. A hand caught his arm, and he looked over his shoulder angrily to see Steve.

“Tony, wait,” Steve said urgently. “This isn’t over.”

He could feel everyone’s eyes on him. Waiting for him to agree, waiting for the stubborn bastard he was to continue on, say something snarky. “Yes, it is Rogers,” Tony ended quietly. He yanked his arm out of Steve’s grip, marching out of the room.

Even as the door was slammed, the wood almost splintering with force, glass shards bouncing off the floors, it couldn’t cover up that overwhelming sound of silence.

-------------------------------

“Took you long enough,” Valkyrie called, an eyebrow raised and arms crossed. Anger radiated off of her like waves. She had changed from her silver armor and bright blue cap to a green leather jacket and jeans, but that didn’t make her any less intimidating.

Thor walked past her towards the edge of the cliff, looking around. The area was mostly empty, but a small camp could be seen in the distance. The remaining Asgardians had landed where he told them to: the place he had found his father. ‘New Zealand’ the humans called it. He looked out towards the ocean. It truly was a beautiful place. Long, luscious grass and rocky, magnificent cliffs. You could hear the roar of waves and smell the salt in the breeze. You could see the life in this place. It would make a fine spot to rebuild Asgard.

And yet, he couldn’t help but think of the golden towers of his homeland in grief.

“You know, I asked you here to help. So sitting on your ass in New York or on this cliff, both are not exactly doing me any favors,” Valkyrie huffed.

Thor didn’t move, still staring out at the ocean. “They don’t need me,” he said miserably, “I mean, truly what have I done to help them?” He turned around. “Name a single choice I’ve made that hasn’t turned our kingdom into dust?”

“The people need their king!” Valkyrie shouted, throwing up her hands.

Thor squeezed his eyes, grimacing when he opened them again. There was so much misery and pain behind his eyes that Valkyrie almost took a step back. “Most of our people are gone…………….how……..,” he swallowed, “how many….”

She looked down, cursing. “About 2⁄3 's of the original population,” she stated quietly.

Thor felt his breath catch. And in a moment of sheer shock and grief and pain, he smiled. In the first month he had been king, and he had managed to get ⅔’s of his citizens killed. The people he was trusted to protect. The people who had trusted him. His father had trusted them.

If Asgard was a people, then was it still Asgard? With all those lost?

“Is this funny, your majesty?” Valkyrie asked incredulously, glaring at the god.

Thor stared at her for a moment before stumbling away.

“Where the hell are you going?” Valkyrie shouted, following him down it. He didn’t answer, didn’t even turn around, so she stopped at the bottom of the cliff, watching him go.

Thor’s smile dropped. He didn’t know what-he needed to do something. What should he do? His breath seemed to pick up, getting faster and shallower. And he kept walking and walking across the grassy plains, and everything was suddenly too loud to too bright-but what? What could he possibly-and how to-he didn’t-he needed-

Thor stopped, catching his breath. He put his hands in his hair, trying to stop the unwavering grief pounding down on him, the pain that was giving him this horrible migraine, the weight of his people on his heart. Hundreds, thousands, trillions of deaths. They were all on him. They truly were. Thor finally looked up after a minute, seeing where his frantic walk had taken him. Asgard’s small beer supply. He felt his breathing start to slow down. And suddenly, he knew exactly what he wanted, no, needed to do. 

——————————————————————

Steve tapped his pen against the wooden table restlessly. He ran a finger through his hair tiredly, looking back at the screen in front of him.

“Did North Carolina finish their census yet?” Natasha asked emotionlessly, sitting across from him with a screen of her own. She looked so…put together. And it looked so entirely fake. In the dim lighting of the compound at night, he didn’t have a very clear view, but the light reflecting off the moisture in her eyes was still noticeable. 

“Uh,” Steve started, trying to get his focus back together and not think about…no. This, this he could do. Numbers, assignments, orders. “No, 6 districts are still rounding up people.”

Natasha nodded. “And…crime?” She added.

Steve looked at the screen. “It’s hard to say,” he admitted, “the police, the government, they’re a mess.

Natasha scoffed, “tell me about it,” she muttered.

Steve continued to tap his pen as they dissolved into another heavy silence. And so they did what they did best - helping. They contacted states and countries about censuses and set up policing for areas under threat. They helped establish political substitutions for those….absent, and contacted shelter after shelter for those who would need support. They went through missing person calls, finding where they were last and the best possible guess if they were…gone or not, sending it to the police, and a whole lot of other things that Steve didn’t remember.

And then they contacted Wakanda and their remaining allies, checking up on them and sending support for the battle they had endured. It made an itch in Steve’s brain. He hesitated a moment before breaking the silence.

“So, we just move on?” He asked quietly. “Make another….team? And, I mean, who would we-“

“I don’t know,” Natasha interrupted, “whoever’s left.”

They both winced at the word. Whoever’s left. “Do you think Thor is coming back?”

Natasha finally stopped typing, looking down. She breathed out shakily. “No, I don’t.”

“So who-“

“I don’t know!” Natasha exploded, shoving her notebook off the table. It plopped on the ground, sending a few loose pages flying across the room. It was the first bout of emotion Steve had seen from her in days, and he stared at her with wide eyes.

And there was that silence again.

“I…I don’t know anything.”

————————————————————————————

Tony sat on the edge of his unused bed. The mattress sagged as he eased his way onto it. Tony held his phone in his hand with slightly trembling fingers, staring at the name on the screen. May Parker.

He knew he needed to do it. She was his aunt, she deserved to know. She needed to know. And of course it should fall on Tony; Peter i-....was his responsibility. And he was the last one who saw him. Watched him….

He had been responsible for deaths before. Hell, it used to be his job to create things that caused it. But it had never been so personal. And he had never, ever had to deliver that kind of news to a family member. Especially a family member who he had sworn to to protect her nephew.

And he didn’t. Tony failed, and Peter was on him. Completely, utterly on him. So it should fall on him to call her, right? Yet, he sat there for more time, staring at the screen, his thumb hovering over the green button. He growled in frustration, putting his head in his hands. Pathetic. Pathetic. Pathetic. Coward.

“Tony,” a soft voice called from the door. He looked up in misery to see Pepper in her business clothes. High heels and a slick business suit and immaculate ginger hair. She came in, sitting next to him with a small paper package in her hands. Pepper put it lightly on the bed next to her before hugging him, and Tony leaned into it gratefully, relishing in the small comfort it brought. When she pulled away, he was left to stare at the screen again in dread.

“May Parker?” she asked quietly, trying to catch his eyes. Tony didn’t meet hers, staring down at his phone.

“I need to tell her,” he answered, “I have to.” Pepper nodded, and yet they sat in silence. Tony didn’t move a muscle; neither did Pepper.

“That reminds me,” she said suddenly, breaking the silence. She picked up the package, carefully pulling up the already-opened flap, pulling out- “This finally came,”  she said with a small smile.

Tony did a double take, taking the small photo from her hands. Him and Peter. The fake Stark Internship photo they had taken when Parker had off-handedly mentioned his troubles with the lie. It was supposed to be a professional photo, which is of course why they immediately ruined it. Plaque upside down, goofy faces. He remembered rolling his eyes when Peter had put up bunny ears behind his head, but threw up his own a second later. Of course, 

Parker’s hand was nowhere near his head. The photographer had gone from trying to kiss his ass to undeniable rage so fast. Tony swallowed. He couldn’t tell if the photo made him happy or if he wanted to vomit. A fond memory, or a horrible reminder? Still, a small smile came to his lips. He would have to get it framed. 

“Thanks Pep,” he whispered, tears pricking at the corners of his eyes. She kissed his cheek, and for a moment, the world felt like it slowed to a stop. Just the two of them safe in their bedroom.

Pepper’s phone went off in her pocket. Her face drooped as she grabbed it and pressed the call button. Tony nodded to her, and she walked out of the room, talking business to another person.

He took one last look at the photo before setting it down gently on his bedside table, taking his phone into his hands again. After a deep breath, he finally pressed the call button.

The phone rang.

And she answered.

Chapter Text

Have you ever been hungry?

No, not like “shoot I forgot a snack” or “when the hell is lunch?” kind of hungry.

The kind that leaves an incurable ach in your stomach. The kind that makes you feel dizzy and fuzzy in the head. The kind that turns your dreams into dreams of towers of pizza and donuts and mashed potatoes-

Peter wrapped an arm around his stomach. He slumped in his position against the wall, wincing as it made the pain in his head spike. It was an annoyingly present migraine pressing behind his eyes and deep into his skull. But honestly, he would deal with the migraine for a whole week if he could get rid of the horrible emptiness in his stomach.

Peter groaned quietly, wanting to smash his head against the wall. God, how long has it been? He looked miserably toward his tick markings on the wall. He had been starting to count the days with a rusty screw he had found on a sweep of the room. It had only been 4 days since he arrived here, and yet he felt like he was dying. Ever since the spiderbite, he had needed to eat 3 times as much to keep up with his crazy metabolism. With three meals a day, some protein bars, and a sandwich from Delmar’s, he had always been pretty comfortable.

So what was 4 days without food was more like 12 to him. Had it really only been 4 days? He had been keeping track through the moon he could see a little ways away, unless he’s been hallucinating? Or sleeping longer than he thought? Logically, he knew he was probably right, but how could it have only been 4 days with the way his stomach felt?

What I wouldn’t do for a sandwich right now, Peter thought to himself, and for a second, he closed his eyes, and he could practically see it. Number 5 with pickles, smushed down real flat, and his stomach rumbled at the thought-

Peter shook his head, trying to clear it of the thoughts. It seemed to make it worse and better at the same time? Like his mind was satisfied, and yet his stomach was screaming at him to go get the damn thing-

He laid down on his side, staring at the door. Besides the hunger, the next thing on his list of reasons why he hated existing right now was boredom. Who knew that being taken captive on an alien spaceship would be so…freaking…boring!

Peter counted the screws in the door, looked outside his small window, paced upside-down on the ceiling, anything he could in the tiny room. Mostly he just wanted to distract himself from the hunger and the pain in his head, but he couldn’t find anything useful. It made him frustrated, just sitting in a cell waiting for…well, he didn’t really know what he was waiting for. Besides fruitlessly searching his cell (which he had already done multiple times), was he just supposed to sit around waiting for Thanos to come back? 

No, of course he had a plan! An Avenger in a cell for 4 days straight would have tons of time to make a plan! He…he….definitely knew what he needed to do.

Peter slapped his forehead. He stopped pacing, jumping down and landing on the floor. He stumbled as his vision slightly blurred, black spots appearing in the corner of his eyes. Peter gulped. Okay, not doing that again for now. He sat back down on his original position on the floor, closing his eyes.

Alright Peter, he thought to himself, you’re in a cell, in space, being held captive by the most powerful alien in the universe. He scrunched his nose, a small smile coming to his face. It sounded so absurd, so ridiculous. Ned would go bonkers. The smile fell into a worried frown. Unless, Ned was…

Focus. Focus. Peter bit his lip. Okay, so kicking down the door, not an option. Being electrocuted was…not fun. Going out the window, also no. And waiting it out….probably not either, because he would starve to death. And honestly, it wouldn’t be too much longer till he got to that point.

Peter grimaced at the morbid thought. So, what did that bring him to? Giving up? No, he couldn’t give up. He would never help Thanos hurt people. Ever. So, does that mean he just…accepted it? Peter put his head in his hands. He wasn’t ready to die. He wasn’t…

What was left? What would an Avenger do? What would-

Honestly kid, I don’t know what to do with you,” Tony huffed as he blasted a mask guy across the warehouse. The man yelped, flopping unconscious once he hit the dirty concrete ground.

“I didn’t know this was their hideout, I swear!” Peter insisted. He kicked someone else in the stomach, wincing as he went crashing into a table with weapons. “My bad, that was a little hard.”

Tony smirked, blocking a couple bullets with his arm before shooting at the guy with the gun. It knocked it out of his hands as the guy stumbled backward. He turned around, starting to run before Peter shot a web at him that pinned him to the ground.

“I was just following the guy back here and he led me straight into this mess!”

“Yeah, and instead of calling me for backup you decided to take on the entire base-”

“I had it under control!”

“Tied to a chair in an abandoned warehouse is under control?”

“You broke me out like 2 minutes later!”

“Yeah and what if I didn’t?” Tony’s tone was suddenly serious, turning to Peter with a dark look in his eyes. “What if I’m not there next time?”

Peter frowned before shrugging with hesitation. “I’ll break out.”

Tony sighed, “It’s not always that easy, kid.” The faint sound of sirens were growing louder. Tony gestured to Peter before taking off in his suit out a broken window. Peter followed in swing, meeting him on the top of a building. 

There was a moment of silence before he spoke up. “So….what do I do, like, in that situation?”

Tony huffed, “depends on the situation.” He turned to Peter, stepping out of the suit. Peter reached up and grabbed his mask, ripping it off his head with a slight shake. “If you think they’re gonna hurt you, get out of there. Your life is more important than keeping the secret of the baby inside the onesie.”

“If it’s something they want from you, just do it kid. Money, weapons, I’ll find you before anything gets serious. If you keep the damn tracker on you.”

Peter smirked, scuffing his foot on the concrete. He looked up, hesitation in his eyes. “But what if they ask for something I can’t give?”

Tony’s smile faltered slightly, before turning into a full fledged smirk. Yet this one looked more fake, even slightly forced. ”Then pull a me, aka fake cooperation until you can build something bad-ass and escape.”

Peter nodded with confidence. “Got it!”

Tony laughed, rolling his eyes.”What….what?” Peter asked with a confused expression as Tony stepped into the suit. “Were—were you kidding or-was that serious?”

A small smile came to Peter’s lips at the memory. Okay, so Mr. Stark was probably kidding on that last part. But what other choice did he have? No one was coming for him, not the Avengers, not even Mr. Stark. He couldn’t count on them to help.

And Mr. Stark would probably hate this plan. And that probably meant another Peter-Screwed-The-Pooch lecture, which he was really looking forward to. This definitely seemed like a ‘let Iron Man handle it’ kind of situation. But he really didn’t have a choice. He was an Avenger (well…kind of), so that meant he could save himself. He had to. 

Peter groaned. Fake cooperation, build something badass and escape. Easy. No problem. Perfect.

—------------------------------------

“Mr Stark.”

Tony pinched the bridge of his nose. “Mrs. Parker.”

Silence. Tony looked down at the ground. For a second, he wished it would swallow him up, take him away from the broken pieces of this world. Take him away from the horrible conversation that was seconds away. That was happening now.

“I-I’m-”

“He’s gone, isn’t he?” May choked out. Tony’s mind went blank. He didn’t want to say it. He didn’t want to confirm it. Agreeing would only make it more real, more final-

Tony breathed out through his nose. “Yeah.” 

It hurt. It hurt admitting it. Like a knife through the chest. Like a glass shard sliding down his throat. He swallowed, and that glass shard seemed to dig deeper, scraping the inside of his throat. Tony squeezed his eyes shut, his fingers camping around the phone next to his ear.

“I saw on the news. ‘Spiderman and Iron Man Fly to Space. Will….Will they Come Back?.’” A muffled sob came from the phone. “And-and-”

“May, I’m so-”

“Don’t,” she said harshly. “I sat in my apartment, calling Happy over and over. And I waited, no response, praying my nephew would come home in one piece. For almost an entire month.”

Tony felt something wet slide down his cheek.

“Why was he there, Stark?”

“I tried to send him home,” Tony said quietly, desperately. ”But he wouldn’t listen. And we were already on the ship, I didn’t have time to get him home. And honestly, I doubt he would have agreed to it.”

May sniffled. “He was never good at taking care of himself.”

Again, silence. Tony grimaced, desperate for her to understand. “Please May, it was the snap.”

May breathed out a shaky breath. “‘So….so he would have died anyway?”

Tony blinked. “Yeah,” he managed to say after a moment

He had never thought of it that way. That no matter if Peter was there or not, the Snap would have taken him. That he could have dusted an exhibit in MOMA just as much as on Titan.

“So he went to space? Doing what, fighting-fighting aliens?”

Tony nodded, before realizing she couldn’t see him. “We tried, we tried to stop it. But we failed…and….and-”

Tony trailed off. He was done with the excuses. It was his fault. And May deserved to yell at him, scream at him. So why wasn’t she? Why wasn’t she furious? Why didn’t she hate him? “I’m sorry May.”

He pulled the phone away from his ear, his finger over the red button-

“I don’t blame you Tony,” she said quietly. He froze. An angry look came to his face. Not for May, not even for Thanos, but for the horrible trail of bodies Tony left in his path. For the constantly rising death count over his head. For the red dripping from his ledger.

“You should,” Tony said harshly. His finger came down, a light beep, and the call ended.

------------------------------------—————-

Natasha quietly crept along the top of the isolated house. It was cold, freezing even. At least the blizzard had passed before she came here. With nothing productive left to do at the compound, she could finally pursue her lead. Her only lead.

You know what you’re gonna find,  the voice in her head whispered to her as she climbed through the carefully opened window. She glared at the wall and eased her way down, landing softly on the polished wooden floors. Natasha pulled out her gun, slowly stepping down the stairs. Yes, there was a very good possibility. But…she couldn’t just assume. Not like last time. If she was wrong, Natasha would never forgive herself.

Natasha glanced around, straining her ears. She could hear soft footsteps coming from a couple rooms over, and a light humming with the occasional words.

“Bye, bye, Miss American pie. Hmm hmm to the levee hmm the levee was dry.”

Her blood ran cold. Natasha’s gaze hardened, sucking in a breath before bursting into the room, gun held high.

Anna startled, dropping a large glass. It shattered on the ground, glass pieces skirting throughout the dining room, but Natasha didn’t blink, pointing the gun right at Anna’s head as the lady whirled around.

“Where is she?” Natasha asked with a cold voice, ice in her eyes.

“Where-who?” Anna asked, incredibly confused as she put her hands up. Natasha saw her eyes glance at her gun, but they both knew Natasha could shoot her before she could do anything.

“Don’t play dumb,” Natasha demanded, “This was the last place Yelena was before I lost contact. You’re a former Widow, I had to hear this from an outside contact, and I heard you singing her song. I think the picture paints itself.”

Anna blew out a breath, dropping her hands. “Yeah, she came through here…maybe a month ago? But Natasha, she’s gone.”

Natasha’s eyes widened before she took a step forward, her finger trembling on the trigger. “Don’t lie to me!”

“I’m not,” Anna assured her, taking a step forward with a pitying look. “She thought I was under the mind control. I wasn’t, and she went to the bathroom…and never came back.”

Natasha’s hands clenched on the gun, her finger tensing on the trigger. Anna tensed. “I’m telling the truth,” she assured her. ”And…and I’m sorry.”

Natasha glared. She could be lying. Yelena could be here, kidnapped or hostage-

Natasha’s arm dropped and fell to her side. She was telling the truth, wasn’t she? She squeezed her eyes shut. It was time to call it. It was basically confirmed. So why couldn’t she just accept it?

Anna walked slowly up to her. She was still wary, but a form of trust had solidified between the two former assasins “What now?”

Natasha looked up with tired eyes. “What?”

Anna shrugged. “How are you gonna get her back? Get everyone back?

Natasha sucked in a breath. The ice on her heart froze over. They stared at each other for a second before Natasha brushed past her, knocking her shoulder aside. Anna let her go, watching her walk away with a wince. Natasha shoved open the door, stepping out into the yard in front. The chilly gust of wind blew a strand of red hair in front of her face. 

She shut the door, breathed out heavily, and bent over. The horrible emotions she had been keeping at bay for so long swelled so violently and suddenly she couldn’t hold them back anymore. A sob built up in her throat, and she slammed her gun against the house. The bricks cracked, her hand throbbed, but she didn’t care.

She couldn’t care less.

“Where did you think I was all this time?”

…

“I thought that you got out and…were living a normal life.”

“And you just never made contact again?”

“Honestly I thought you didn’t want to see me.”

“Ha! Bullshit. You just didn’t want your baby sister to tag along whilst you saved the world with the cool kids-

“You weren’t really my sister.”

…

Natasha was wrong. She was so, so very wrong. Yelena might not have been biologically related, but she was more family than her real parents ever were to her.

And now she was gone.

Most of her family was gone.

--------------------------------------

He was coming.

Peter tensed from his spot on the ground. The ringing in his ears prevented him from making out footsteps, but every hair on his arm shot up straight. He grimaced, slowly pushing himself into a standing position. If he wasn’t bracing a hand against the wall, he’d probably be swaying on his feet right now. Whatever was about to happen, he just hoped it would end with, no, start with some food. God, what he wouldn’t do for a sandwich. 10 sandwiches. It had only been a couple hours since he formed his plan, and yet he felt like he was gonna pass out any second. Peter glared at the door. He couldn’t show that. He wouldn’t give Thanos the satisfaction. 

Ok Peter, time to be brave, he thought to himself. Or….not brave, cooperative? Compliant? Whatever.

A click, and the fortified door swung open. Thanos walked in with heavy steps, looking the teen up and down. A shiver went down Peter’s spine. He glared at the Titan, wobbling a little when he took his hand off the wall.

“You’re not looking too good,” Thanos observed. “Worse than I would have thought in 4 days for a Terrain.”

Peter looked down. “Well, I have a higher metabolism than most humans. While we’re talking about it, got a sandwich?”

Thanos hummed. He ignored the question, asking, “why is that?”

“A radioactive spider bite,” Peter deadpanned, completely serious. Thanos gave him an unimpressed look, turning around. A bolt of panic caused Peter to jolt forward as Thanos grabbed the side of the door to leave-

“Wait.” 

Thanos turned around, his eyebrow raised. His heart rate picked up as ice cold blue met brown. “Something you want to say, Little One?”

Peter gritted his teeth at the patronizing tone. Keep your cool, keep your cool. “I’m hungry,” he managed to spit out.

Thanos shrugged.

Peter blew out a breath through his nose. “I’m dying,” he said quietly.

“So?”

Peter glared at him in hatred. Thanos looked at him expectantly. So Peter swallowed his pride, looking the Titan in the eyes.. “I’ll do it. I’ll-I’ll join your stupid mission.”

They stared at each other for a second. Peter held his breath, squeezing his hand into a tight fist. Come on, come on.

Thanos nodded, a small smile coming to his lips. “I knew you would come around. They always do.”

The metallic taste of blood erupted in his mouth as Peter bit his tongue again. Keep your cool. Fake cooperation, build something bad-ass and escape.

Don’t do anything I would do. And definitely don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.

Thanos turned around, starting to walk back towards the door. Peter hesitated, and the Titan looked back at him. Peter hated how every time he met his eyes it made him tense.

“Come. It’s time to begin your destiny.”

--------------------------------------

A muffled shouting seeped through the inky black surrounding him. It was an overwhelming, crushing darkness. It was uncomfortable, suffocating even. But at least it shut out the world outside. So Thor didn’t want to leave. It was better than waking up and dealing with anything in the future.

But the shouting was getting clearer and less muffled. Thor groaned as his head was stabbed with pain. Pins and needles erupted through his arms and legs. It took a moment before his thoughts cleared up, and he realized he was laying on something hard.

For the love of Odin he couldn’t figure out what he was doing here. He couldn’t even find it in him to open his eyes. There was a reddish tint to them. Huh, so light was here.

…..-You…..        wake-....           Tho-.....

Thor gently curled his fingers to test his muscles. It was a weak movement, but it was doable. Thor squeezed his eyes as another bout of pain came poking at his skull. Maybe he had gotten injured in battle. It didn’t feel like he was wearing his armor though. And where was Mjloner?

This was the thought that his brain clung onto. He put in the small reserve of energy he had left to try to carefully open his eyes. Thor squinted at first because the light was so bright- Valkyrie’s blurry face came into view. She was saying something, and she looked worried. Huh, that wasn’t an expression he saw often on her face.

And then, everything came crashing back. Slamming into him like waves.

Hela.

Loki.

Asgard.

Thanos.

The snap.

Thor’s breath caught in his throat. Oh. He slowly sat up, hissing when his hand met the dirty concrete ground. There were deep cuts in his palm along with scrapes on his fingers. Small pieces of glass were scattered in it. Thor looked around, seeing a mass of broken glass near him that had probably been a bottle at one point. Everything was starting to come back, including his venture to Asgard’s beer supply. And how he drank a jug. And another. And…to be honest he didn’t remember how many or how long, but apparently it made him pass out

His head snapped to the side, and the stinging in his cheek brought him out of his thoughts. Valkyrie was kneeling in front of him, a frightening mixture of concern, annoyance, and fury.

“Are you back on Earth yet?” Valkyrie grumbled, putting her hand down.

Thor still didn’t feel like he could speak, so he simply nodded, trying to get himself up.

“You need to sit down,” Valkyrie ordered harshly, her eyes softening. “What the hell were you thinking?”

“That I wanted some beer. I’m a god, Valkyrie; I’m fine,” Thor mumbled.

“You could have hurt yourself,” she insisted angrily.

Thor rolled his eyes. The negative emotions were already starting to swirl and attack his thoughts, like a virus or a weed. He wanted-he needed to forget-50%-brother-get-its over-

Get rid of it get rid of it get rid of it forget forget get rid - 

Thor stood up, heading to an unopened beer bottle. Valkyrie yanked him back in front of her in a fury.

“You're done. You’re done, Thor. You’re gonna kill yourself if you don’t stop.”

They stared at each other, one furious and scared, the other hopeless. It was a mere couple seconds, but it felt like an eternity as Thor considered what she said.

No-no….Loki-

Another second, and Thor stepped forward. He shoved past Valkyrie, knocking her onto the ground. Valkyrie stared at him in shock. She stood up, looking like she was gonna start shouting, but paused when Thor started chugging another bottle.

“I’m done,” she said simply. She scoffed. “Asgard. For thousands of years, the Valkyrie have protected the royal family, and all it ended with was my friends, my sisters, getting massacred over petty family squabbles. And as soon as someone beated you, you’re just gonna give up? Abandon your people?!”

Thor ignored her, chugging another drink. He felt relief as her words started to tune out, and a thick numbness came back over him. His thoughts quieted, turning to whispers instead of shouts.

Finally. He just wanted-

-What more could I lose-

to forget.

Chapter Text

Peter eyed Thanos carefully as he walked in front of him. For the first time in 4 days, he stepped out of the small cell into a wide circle. His eyes widened at the sheer amount of doors. 3 levels of fortified cells surrounded the railing in each level. The room was tall, but very dimly lit. His small footsteps echoed throughout the room as he limped into the center. It wasn’t very different from his cell besides the size. It was still all dark metal walls and grated floors.

“I’m not the only one here,” Peter said out loud as he realized. He turned to look at the Titan.

“I had the stones deliver me the strongest, smartest, and most powerful children of the universe.” Thanos explained calmly. “You happened to be one of them.”

Lucky me.

Thanos gestured forward towards a hallway straight ahead. Peter reluctantly turned around and started towards with a slow walk. It made him nervous to have the Titan out of his sight. His sense was going crazy, an internal voice that was screaming at him to turn around danger get away turn aroun-

Peter forced himself to keep walking down the dark hallway and ignore the nauseating feeling in his stomach, trying to look around to distract himself. The walls were solely made of solid metal, with the occasional dim light scattered about. There truly was nothing pretty about the ship - it was solely made for function. He wrinkled his nose at the slight smell of oil. At the same time, a gust of cold air blew from a vent overhead, making him shiver. He was just wearing a thin spandex suit afterall. Not very good for ice cold temperatures of space.

“What are we doing?” Peter said suddenly in a quiet voice, glaring at the ground. Thanos didn’t answer, just continued to silently follow behind him. “The doorway on the right.”

Peter raised his eyebrow, seeing a place where the hallway finally split. He turned, expecting to find some small room, but it was much different than that. He stopped for a second staring at it, before Thanos harshly shoved him inside.

Peter stumbled into the dim room. He shook his head a bit to clear his blurring vision. It was a massive circular room, empty, but intimidating nonetheless. Grated floors and metal walls and a dim blue lighting. Peter tensed as Thanos pushed him further into the room. What were they doing there? Something tells me it’s not a kitchen, Peter thought sourly. He turned around, giving a questioning look to the Titan

Thanos raised his gauntlet, and Peter felt his spine go rigid and eyes widened as the reality stone glowed bright red, but all it did was create a sudden, heavy, feeling on his right ankle. He shot a glance down, grimacing when he saw the steel chain attached to the floor. A metal cuff was secured tightly around his ankle. Peter wanted to argue, but Thanos gave him an intense look that prompted him to stay silent.

Fake cooperation, build something badass and escape, he repeated to himself internally.

“I will be back in a moment. Stay,” Thanos ordered calmly. The titan turned around, walking back towards the way you came from. Peter scoffed once he was out of view. It’s not like he could do much other than “staying” anyway. He rubbed his nose as another migraine poked at his head. For a few minutes, Peter looked around the room in boredom. His stomach growled again. Suddenly, he perked up as he heard a new voice, his head snapping to the doorway. High-pitched, feminine, and a foreign accent.

“Thanks, but I can walk on my own,” the voice scoffed. Two sets of footsteps. One slow and heavy, the other quick and light. Thanos came into view, pushing a small figure into the room. Peter blinked, It was a young woman. Her skin was pretty dark, her hair up in 2 tight buns. They were fraying now, probably from spending 4-ish days in a cell. She had a bright orange dress-like jumper and an angry look on her face. Or was it more annoyed? She raised an eyebrow when she saw Peter.

“I was hoping for a cafeteria,” The girl deadpanned. Thanos squeezed his fist, and a huge metal door slammed down in the doorway. There was no other way out.

Peter and the other girl shot a nervous glance at each other. There was a loud clunk, He looked down in surprise to see the cuff had fallen off and disappeared. The girl looked down at his suit with confusion appearing on her face before it dawned on her.

“You’re Spiderman,” she stated.

“Shuri, Peter,” Thanos addressed the two. “I am pleased you have accepted your destinies.”

“Yeah, because we had a lot of other choices,” Peter said sarcastically.

Thanos shrugged. “Not every situation has multiple beneficial choices, Little One.”

“Yes, I love bonding as much as the next person, but could we wrap this up? Why are we here?” Shuri snarled.

Thanos hummed, staring at the two with cold eyes. “I’ve trained some of the most powerful warriors in the galaxy. My daughter Gamora….was the fiercest woman known to many.”

“Was,” Shuri emphasized questioningly with narrowed eyes.

“She served her purpose,” Thanos stated firmly. “I wish to see why the stones choose you both.” He gestured to the open floor before crossing his arms.

“Do not kill each other. Yield when you must.”

Peter just blinked, staring at Thanos incredulously. 

“I’m not fighting some 13 year-old,” Shuri said angrily.

“I’m 16,” Peter muttered in annoyance.

“I could take you back to your rooms, but you will eventually. It’s either this or dying. Inevitable.”

It was stated so calmly, so simply, like he wasn’t talking about 2 kidnapped kids dying in their cells. The two shot another stone-faced look at each other.

“Again, not much of a choice,” Peter said quietly.

Thanos gestured to the floor for a second time. Peter and Shuri turned to face each other with grim looks.

“I don’t accept half-efforts. Giving a proper fight will get you both a reward. If not, the “victor” will take it and the other can go back to their room.”

“We’re not exactly at our bests right now, so if you switched those two around-”

“If you continue to refuse-”

“Alright alright!” Peter said loudly, trying to prevent further argument. “We’ll do it.”

Thanos narrowed his eyes while Peter’s widened; he had realized his mistake. The teen was violently thrown into the air before crashing to the ground a few feet away. His head bounced painfully on the grated floor before he came to a stop. He groaned as a ringing in his ears started up. His mind was spinning and he felt nauseous, like he was going to vomit. He rolled onto his side, panting a bit. Peter had trouble getting back onto his feet, stumbling as black spots appeared in the corner of his vision.

“I will not be interrupted.”

“He’s in no shape to fight!” Shuri shouted.

“No!” He said quickly, shooting a glance at Thanos. “I’m-I’m fine.”

Shuri looked like she wanted to argue, but she stopped when she realized her position. Peter nodded at her, shifting his foot sideways. They didn’t have a choice. And they were both, really, really hungry. It wasn’t ideal by any means, but even though their heads were spinning and their stomachs were growling and they felt weaker than ever, Thanos was right. This was the best option for both of them.

Peter hesitated as he looked at Shuri again. She looked a lot more messed up than he had originally thought. Her hair was a mess, there were deep bags under the eyes, and she had dirt smudges all over her orange jumper. From her stance, it didn’t look like she fought often, at least not with hand-to-hand combat. Then again, he could barely stand up without feeling dizzy, so it was a pretty even match. He took a deep breath, silently saying an apology to whatever higher power he pissed off. 

Unexpectedly, Shuri took the first move, her fist coming for his chest. Peter barely lurched back, trying not to throw up at the feeling in his stomach. He grabbed onto her fist, trying his hardest to push her to the ground softly without it looking like it. Shuri let out a gasp as she fell before her gaze hardened. She swept her leg, knocking Peter to the ground. He grunted as he hit the grated floor, his head spinning. He felt dizzy. Shuri punched him in the face, snapping his head to the side. It only added to his light-headedness and the pounding on his skull. Shuri was on one knee, so he kicked his leg into her stomach, wincing as she flew into the wall. So his super strength wasn’t completely gone. Great. Peter took the time to stand up, trying to shake his blurry vision away. He cautiously walked over to the wall as Shuri slumped against it.

“Um…Shuri, do-do you-”

She violently sprung at him, grabbing Peter’s shoulders and slamming him into the wall. His head banged hard against it. He closed his eyes at the impact before he threw his fist out. He grimaced as Shuri grunted and fell to the side, landing on her hands and knees. He picked her up, slamming roughly into the wall.

“Just yield now,” he hissed quietly. Peter was facing away from Thanos, but Shuri only shook her head. There were small tears in her eyes.

“He wants a show,” she muttered harshly. Her hand came up, throwing a punch up into his jaw. Peter stumbled backwards, letting go of her jumper. Her knee knocked into his stomach. Peter coughed as the air went out of his lungs. He planted his leg as Shuri lurched at him. He grabbed her arm and flipped her over her shoulder. Shuri slammed into the ground, yelping as she hit the grated floor. Peter panted, even from his position over her. They couldn’t do this forever. Shuri stumbled to her feet, her eyes widening as Peter’s kick was coming straight for her head. She ducked before her fist came right back at him. Peter fell unnaturally on his ankle, letting out a yelp as he felt it twist to the side. He swung his leg over to the side, wincing when he saw the awkward angle it was at. He shot a quick glance at Thanos. The Titan looked pleased, but he wasn’t done. Peter huffed out a breath. Just a little more. He used his hands to get to his feet, letting out breaths of pain when pressure came onto his left leg.

Shuri took the opportunity to catch her breath before she was back at it. She threw another punch, but Peter grabbed her arm, pulling her closer before using his other hand to push her back. She stumbled, but came right at him. They were right up in each other's faces, trying to get the upper hand. Peter grabbed both her arms, and Shuri used the opportunity to knock her head into his. Stars appeared in his vision. Shuri stamped her foot down, right onto his twisted leg. Peter gasped out in pain as he started to fall to the ground, but he gritted his teeth and grabbed Shuri’s jumper, pulling her down with him. He slammed her into the ground.

“I think that was good enough,” Peter whispered from his place over her.

“Yeah,” she said, but then narrowed her eyes. “I’m not losing though.” She kneed him in the stomach once more, and as Peter gasped for breath, she flipped them over. Her elbow pressed into his neck, and she looked at him with an expecting look. Peter gasped. He nodded, and she slowly took her elbow off of him. She suddenly grimaced before falling to the side on her elbows. Shuri panted as she laid on her side on the ground. Peter took a deep breath, shivering at the cool touch of the metal beneath him. As the adrenaline rush died down, the pain in his leg started to become excruciating. Shuri and Peter gave each other a miserable glance, a silent apology exchanged with their tired eyes.

Heavy footsteps snapped them out of their moment. Their heads shot up in the direction of Thanos, who was walking towards them. Peter sucked in a breath. That was definitely good enough, right? His armored boots connecting with the metal floor made it seem like deafening echoes were reverberating throughout the room. Shuri slowly stood to her feet, offering her hand to Peter. He took it with a shaky hand, hissing when he tried to lean on his bad ankle. The two teens looked sullenly up at their approaching captor. Thanos had a completely neutral look on his face as he came to a stop in front of him, his hands behind his back.

“Sloppy,” he stated simply. Peter glared at him, but Shuri beat him to the punch.

“What were you expecting?”

Thanos sighed. “I suppose you’re not at your best right now. I expect improvement in these coming weeks.”

The two shot a glance at each other. Was it good enough for the titan? Thanos raised his gauntlet, and both Peter and Shuri took a wary step back, eyeing the reality stone. A loud sound came from the other side of the room. They shot their heads towards it, seeing the metal door slowly lower down. Peter let out a relieved breath as quietly as he could. Thanos slowly started walking towards the doorway, gesturing for Peter and Shuri to follow him. They looked at each other before starting forward. Peter grunted at the pain in his leg. Shuri winced, offering her arm out. She helped him start to hobble towards the doorway, a few safe feet away from the Titan.

“Are you okay?” she muttered under her breath,

“Peachy,” Peter whispered back sarcastically. There was an awkward moment of silence as they passed through the doorway back into the dark hallway.

“Sorry about your ankle,” she said guiltily.

“S’fine. I heal fast.”

Shuri stopped when Peter lost his balance, helping him stabilize as they continued to walk. They turned a corner, walking down yet another hallway. Wow, dark grey metal. Peter was tempted to make some stupid quip, but he really didn’t think he could deal with Thanos’ retaliation with his ankle.

“You’re Spiderman,” she stated. It wasn’t a question. Peter winced. There wasn’t really any point in hiding it, but he couldn’t deny the wariness in admitting it to someone he just met. A teenager no less. Then again, it wasn’t like he could get out of this, seeing as he was wearing his suit for everyone on the ship to see.

“Yeah,” he grumbled, hissing in pain when his foot got caught on an uneven grate. They shook for a second before continuing their walk behind Thanos. “Probably why I’m here. What about you?”

“I am technically the princess of Wakanda, but I don’t believe that means much here.”

Peter blinked. He was talking to a princess. He suddenly became very aware of the tangled mess that was his hair. There were dirt smudges on his face and huge bags under his eyes. He probably didn’t smell too great after four days either. His face burned with embarrassment, and he felt the urge to put a bit of space between her. A flair of pain in his ankle reminded him that if she wasn’t holding him up, he’d have probably passed out by now.

“I know some basic defense, but I am not much for hand-to-hand. Most of the time I am building something for my kingdom, or my….brother,” she trailed off, her gaze unfocused. Peter looked at her with concern.

“Is he even alive?” she whispered while looking down. Small tears were forming in the corners of her eyes. One fell, trailing down her cheek. She hastily wiped it away with her free hand.

Peter’s thoughts turned to his family. Ned. MJ. May. Peter grimaced. They could all be gone. All of him. His breath got short as the dark thoughts swirled in his brain. What would that mean for him? Even if he got out, what would be left for him? Would he have to go to foster care? What if they took him out of New York? No, he can’t leave New York. Midtown Tech.. Mr Stark. The Avengers. Ben’s grave. They were all there. He couldn’t leave….he couldn’t….

Peter felt a wet mark slide down the side of his face. The tears clung to the most annoying places like his nose, the top of his cheek, and the edge of his jaw. They tickled his face slightly, and he scrunched his nose in discomfort.

“We’re getting out of here,” Shuri stated suddenly. It was quiet, but firm and strong. She was staring straight ahead, a determined look in her eyes. Peter breathed in deeply. He believed her. It was going to be hard. Tiring. But they had too.

“Yeah, we are.”

Chapter Text

Evidently, the spar had not ended with food. Thanos immediately took them back to their cells. Peter was utterly exhausted as he fell onto his knees in the small room. He hissed at the weird angle that was causing him pain in his foot. Thanos slammed the door shut and Peter flinched slightly... but at least he was alone. As soon as that thought shot through his head, a wave of dizziness went through him. He wobbled on his knees, his hands shooting to the ground to try to steady himself. His vision was going blurry, stars appearing in the corner of his eyes. He gasped for breath, trying to stabilize himself before he failed, collapsing to the ground, out like a light.

———————————————

It was a while before he was able to open his eyes. How long? He didn’t have a clue. Peter groaned as he pushed himself up, looking around while swaying. Well that was new. Peter sighed before easing himself into a position against the wall. He clutched his foot with gritted teeth. Alright Parker, what do you do with this?

Peter gently twisted his foot back in forth, wincing at the different angles. He doubled forward in pain when he tried to point his toes. Okay, so probably twisted. Nothing to do about it right now without bandages. Next, his ribs. He winced as he poked his chest. Definitely bruised, if not cracked as well. Without bandages though…he would just have to deal for a while. Everything else was bruises and scratches and a whole lot of annoyance.

And maybe some anger and fear. Not that he wanted to admit the second one.

Peter breathed out shakily. Gosh, he missed home. He missed food. He missed Aunt May and Ned and, and even Flash’s stupid face. Closing his eyes, he whispered at the ceiling longingly,

“How long am I going to be here?”

—————————————

A rushing sound made Peter jump, shaking his head to try to get rid of the drowsiness. He didn’t need to look far, because right in front of him was a swirl of blue clouds. It looked stormy, the clouds so thick he couldn’t see the other side of it. He tensed, waiting for Thanos to step through. 5 seconds turned into 30, 30 to a minute. Peter hesitantly stood up, squinting his eyes at the strange thing. It was only a few feet in front of him.

Peter remembered it from their brawl on Titan. When Thanos simply stepped backwards and disappeared. The crushing feeling of disappointment and shock. The feeling of failure.

Was this a test? Was he supposed to go through? Or was something coming to him? The Avengers, or Thanos? He stepped closer, straining his ears. Very quietly, the sound of people talking could be heard. Kids' voices? They weren’t deep, they sounded more scared than anything. 

A portal. Another 30 seconds of staring at it had him fidgety and restless, impatient and bored.

Well…no use in waiting, right? Unless…unless it kills him… it’s not going to kill him? He drew in a breath, setting his face before stepping through with a limp.

“Please don’t kill me, please don’t kill me,” Peter whispered as he stepped through. The clouds were dark and thick, and he blindly walked forward with a hand over his eyes. He couldn’t see a thing, so he just had to hope everything would be fine, everything would be fine -

“Yayyy” he said weakly as he stepped out. Peter looked around at his new surroundings. It was a large room with row after row of tables. The same bleak metal. Still a dim room. He leaned on one of the tables to get rid of the unbearable pressure on his ankle. Peter eyed the other people in there. No Thanos thankfully, just a bunch of other people. No, kids. Kids from all around the universe it seemed. He winced at the look of them. Some of them were sporting injuries like him, others looked like they were gonna faint at any second.

Another realization hit him fast. He was…the only human here. Well not the only, Shuri was one, but from what he could see, they were mostly species from all around the galaxy. Different colors and shapes, numbers of legs, fur, teeth, and…that guy. What even-

His eyes widened. He shot a look over at the corner of the room where a door had been thrown open. Out came a small group of…of…aliens? Things? They were horrific, with ash gray skin and a grotesque pointed face. Layers of huge sharp teeth and intimidating body armor. Chitauri, Peter thought suddenly. His eyes widened at the memory.

Screaming. Sirens. Dust. Explosions. Roars in the distance that grew closer by the minute. Peter buried his face further into his Uncle's jacket as a piece of concrete fell from-

But who, what, and where could have mattered less in that moment, because a smell hit Peter’s nose like a truck. It wasn’t a particularly good smell, but he couldn’t have asked for something better. His eyes widened and his stomach growled. Food.

It was incredibly strange, but the Chitauri started loading…links of cups onto a table on the side. He looked around at the others. They were standing there with wide eyes, open mouths. Peter’s stomach growled again uncomfortably: they were all so hungry, but too wary to go up with the aliens there.

But they didn’t leave, and as Peter stood there staring, he internally growled. Screw it. He started marching up to the Chitauri. Everyone had turned to him with wide eyes as he went up. He couldn’t say he wasn’t nervous but the feeling of hunger was way too strong. He slowly grabbed a link from the table, staring up at the aliens' faces to gauge their reaction. They didn’t look friendly, but they weren’t attacking him. He decided to push his luck, grabbing for another link-

The alien growled, causing Peter to jump back. Yep. Okay. Got it. One link per person. It wasn’t enough for his metabolism, but it would do. He would take anything over nothing. He walked away, seeing other people starting to go up slowely with nervous expressions. Hunger really can make you do anything. 

Peter sat down at the nearest table, digging into his food. His face scrunched at the disgusting taste, but he was desperate to have something in his stomach again. The texture was awful, some kind of squishy mush. Was this prison gruel? He suddenly felt awful for every petty criminal he had put away. If he had known about this food, he might have let a couple get away. But even though it was sickening, he gulped it down and it was the best thing that had happened to him in days. Peter uncapped a small canteen and chugged down the water. His throat hurt as it went down, but he swallowed it forcefully. He really needed water. And even though it hurt like hell, it was so relieving to make his throat less dry. To taste something other than blood or spit. It was gone so fast. He stared down at the empty cups in front of him. He was still…so hungry. But it had helped…the water too.

“Finally,” a feminine voice said grumpily. Peter looked up to see Shuri slide in across from him. “That line was so long,” she complained before starting to scarf down her food as well.

Peter didn’t say anything. He knew that he wouldn’t have appreciated someone trying to talk to him while he was eating after being denied it for so long. All too quickly Shuri finished as well, also frowning when she was done. It wasn’t nearly enough.

There was a moment of awkward silence as they both looked at each other. “How’s your ankle?” Shuri asked quietly.

Peter shrugged, trying to twist it to the right. He winced. No luck. “Not great. I need to cast it or something.”

“Ohhhh thank goodness,” a relieved voice sighed. Peter shot a look behind his shoulder. A young girl, maybe 15 or 16, with a round face and short and wavy black hair. Her hair was in knots, paired with dark bags under her eyes and wrinkled clothes. She was just in a hoodie and black leggings, and Peter internally winced at how cold the ship was, but there was still a small smile on her face. The girl quickly sat down next to him with her link of cups.

“Uh-”

“I thought I was the only, well…human here,” she said sheepishly. She hastily took a sip from the canteen with water, sighing when she did.

“Uh, nope,” Peter replied with a nervous chuckle.

“Gosh, I’m starving,” the girl moaned. She clicked open one of the cups and dipped her spoon in, bringing it to her mouth. Her face scrunched up in disgust, slowly lowering the spoon back into the cup.

“Yeah, not so good, huh?” Shuri said with a smirk. She crossed her arms, taking a sip from her canteen. “So what are you in for?”

“In for?” the girl repeated unsurely, shooting a glance over at Peter. She suddenly did a double take, looking Peter up and down. Oh boy, he thought in unease.

“Wait, wait…you’re-you’re Spider-Man!”

He cringed. “Yeah…” Peter looked down at the spoon in his hand. He tossed it a couple of times. His stomach was still pretty empty. The food had helped, but wasn’t nearly enough for his metabolism.

“Ok, oh-oh my gosh. Oh my gosh! I-I’m am-wow, okay…heh,” she stuttered with large eyes. She blinked a couple times, tapping her foot. Suddenly, she frowned, tilting her head to the side in a confused look.

“Wait, are you like…like 13?” she asked hesitantly.

Shuri snickered as she took another sip from her spoon. Peter groaned, rolling his eyes. “Why does everyone think that?”

“Because of your baby face.” Shuri startled as someone abruptly sat down beside the other girl. Peter stared at her in suprise. She wasn’t a human; to be honest, he wasn’t sure exactly what she was. Her skin was harder than that of a human, but the biggest difference had to be the light green shade it had. There were straight lines down her face, with pointed elf-like ears and big eyes. Even then, a part of her still looked like a teenage girl. She had a ruffled pink jacket and a gray tee-shirt underneath along with tight black leggings.

“OH….oh, um-hi!” Kamala squeaked.

“Before you ask your questions….let me finish this,” she grumbled. She quickly scooped a few spoonfuls into her mouth. There was a discontent look on her face, but she still quickly gulped the icky substance down.

“Sorry, I’ve just never talked to an…alien? Before?” Kamala laughed nervously.

“Technically I’m not an alien to you, we’re from the same planet,” the green girl said without looking up. She tipped her canteen up, sighing when the water hit her throat.

“Wait, you’re from Earth?” Peter asked incredulously. He had never seen anyone who looked remotely like her. Then again, he had barely been outside of New York, and with all the strange things that came to their planet, it really wasn’t that hard to believe….

“I’m from Russia,” the girl clarified in a dull voice.

“Yes, that’s on Earth, genius,” Shuri scoffed.

The two looked up. Both girls’ eyes locked onto each other and narrowed. “Is there a problem?”

Shuri huffed. “No, of course not. I’m great. Amazing. Why would anything be wrong?”

“Oh, then let me clarify. You seem to have a problem with me,” the girl said a bit louder, the same dull tone she used before.

“Guys-” Peter tried to say before Shuri cut him off.

“I don’t know, should I?” Shuri snapped. There was a moment of silence as Kamala's eyes glanced warily between the two. Peter held his breath.

The other girl was the first one to look away. She sighed, taking another bit of her food. “G’iah.”

The teens looked at each other with miserable gazes before looking back down.

“Peter.”

“Shuri.”

Kamala.”

Kamala gave a wave and a small smile at the people around the table. The corners of Peter’s lip went up as well. G’iah’s didn't, but her eyes seemed less cold, a bit more emotion shining through…

“Nice to meet you all,” Kamala said timidly.

G’iah looked down at her link of cups. She twirled her spoon between two of her fingers lazily, but there was a certain tension wavering off of her. “I don’t know about nice-”

“You’re kidding.”

Everyone looked around to where the rough voice came from. Peter’s eyes widened as they fell on another…teen? He certainly wasn’t human, with pointed ears and a grotesque face. He had no hair, just a smooth head with dots running over it. His skin was a sickly beige, and his razor sharp teeth were pointed in a cruel smile. Or at least…it looked like a smile. He was standing close to the table, staring at them with an incredulous look.

“Terrains….?Seriously? I thought he said the strongest of the universe.” Internally, Peter rolled his eyes. Even in space on an alien ship, some people still felt the need to be a b-

“That’s definitely the question why you’re here,” Shuri said dryly without missing a beat. Peter shot Shuri a glance, shaking his head slightly. Sure, Peter loved getting jabs in with people like that. Well, Spiderman loved it. But this was really not the time.

“....hmm?” The guy took a step forward with no sincerity in his smile.

“Ohh, hearing problems too? Those stones must have glitched or something,” Shuri said in mock surprise. Kamala snickered into her hand, trying to turn it into a cough. The guy’s eyes narrowed.

“Shuri….” Peter said warily, catching her eyes. Shuri gave him an unimpressed look before turning back to the alien.

“I think we should settle this then…see if that’s true!” He said with a dangerous glint in his eyes, his smile getting wider. G’iah continued to look down at the table, ignoring the conflict. Kamala’s smile had dropped, turning into a grim, concerned straight line. Shuri’s face showed no intention of backing down. She put her hands in the table, getting ready to push herself up-

Peter stood up before she had the chance, trying to put an end to the petty argument. ”Alright, we’re on the same side here.”

“Side? What sides are there?” G’iah butted in. Peter looked at her in confusion.

“If we want to get out of here, we need to work together.” Peter insisted as he looked around the group. There was a moment of silence. Kamala nodded in earnest. G’iah looked away from his questioning eyes. The alien scoffed, giving Shuri one last glare before stalking away. Shuri slowly eased back into a relaxed position at the table. She threw up a middle finger at his retreating figure before turning back to the rest of the group.

“...You do all want to get out….right?” Peter asked hesitantly.

Again, Kalama said a quick, eager yes. Shuri nodded with solemn eyes. G’iah on the other hand glanced at the people around the table before looking down. He could see the doubt in her eyes. Peter narrowed his. He couldn’t have that, he needed everyone on board for something like this to work.

“G’iah….?” He asked again, a little louder. G’iah sighed, turning to face him. Her huge eyes blinked,  the hopelessness she was radiating shining through.

“You think we can beat him? Really?” she said quietly. Shuri opened her mouth to speak before G’iah beat her to the chase. “He’s the most powerful person in the universe!”

“Shh!” Kamala said when her voice got a little too loud. They looked around, noticing some people giving them side eyes.

“We have to try.” Peter said in a hushed voice..

“Look, you all can risk your life for a lost cause but…I won’t. There’s no point.” G’iah sighed. She took another swing of water to finish it off and then swiped the back of her hand across her mouth. Suddenly, her body started to change. Her green skin turned to a pale white. Pointy ears became round and she had short, brown hair covering her scalp. Her eyes were a soft baby blue, but there were deep bags underneath him. Peter gaped at her. Shuri blinked a couple times. Well now she looked like a human.

“Skrulls can change forms, okay?” She said tiredly. Kamala bit her lip while her knee bounced quickly up and down. Shuri rolled her eyes, looking off to the side. Peter opened his mouth again to try to convince her-

BANG

Everyone spun around at the deafening sound that came from the right side of the room. Huge metal doors had been thrown open to reveal a much larger group of Chitauri.

‘Uh oh,” Kamala muttered nervously as the Chitauri moved further into the room. People started standing and backing up from their tables as they advanced. The aliens jerked their spears forward and scared mutters erupted around the room as the Chitauri started to herd people out. Shuri moved quickly, taking her link in her hands while trying to snap a cup off. Peter looked over before gesturing to her to hand it over. She looked confused but tossed it to him nonetheless. He easily snapped the metal, handing the singular cup back to her with a small cheeky smile.

“Woah,” Kamala said with wide eyes. A small smile crept onto her face before it went back to being concerned.

“Sooo, what are you going to do with that?” He asked quietly, his eyes shooting glances over at the approaching Chitauri.

“I-I don’t know, it’s something, alright?” Shuri hissed.

“Put it down,” G’iah said harshly. “What’s that even supposed to do? It’ll just get you in trouble!”

“I’m gonna get in trouble for having a cup?” Shuri asked sarcastically.

“I don’t know if you wanna test this guy,” Kamala said. A snarl startled Peter into jumping up. Behind him, a chitauri forced the rest of the table up to their feet. He looked around. Shuri had pocketed the cup, but started to head the direction they were forcing her with a grimace.. Kamala winced as a spear poked at her back, and quickly scurried after Shuri. She shot a glance at Peter with pleading eyes.

“Guys?” she asked hesitantly. 

“It’ll be fine, Kamala,” Shuri whispered. She didn’t seem to quite believe her, but she followed without another word. While he didn’t want to be alone again, Peter didn’t see another choice but to go wherever everyone else was going. A spear came out of nowhere, halting Peter in his steps and blocking him from following. He looked up at the chitauri with confusion. The chitauri started to force him the other way. G’iah looked behind her, watching them. Their eyes locked on each other for a second before she was shoved forward. Peter finally turned around, letting the Chitauri lead him the other way. No one else was following him.

This oughta be good, Peter thought, grimacing as he went through the huge metal doors opposite of everyone else.

—----------------------------

Tony stared at himself in the mirror, his mind drifting. His hands were moving as he made a loop in his tie, but there was no intent in the action. No focus. How could he? He needed to pull himself together, he couldn’t go onto that stage shaking. but…this wasn’t a press conference. It wasn’t a speech or a meeting or an award. It was a funeral. A funeral for every single person that had been taken from this world by the snap. Cruelly. Unfairly. So, incredibly too early. Babies, toddlers, teenagers, even adults who had just started their lives. People who could have had long, lovely - He didn’t know when he had stopped breathing, but he quickly noticed as his hands started to shake in place. He looked down at them as his breath started to get shallower. There was a ringing in his ears that seemed to get louder every second, and his vision was getting darker. It was like there was a noose tied around his neck, squeezing and squeezing. It was so, so familiar. Tony gasped, putting a hand to his chest as he slumped to the floor, knocking the mirror over as he fell. It toppled to the floor, shattering into hundreds of glass pieces. Tony felt himself shaking, desperately trying to suck in breathe. Just one fucking breath Goddamn panic attacks!

I don’t wanna go-

Fuck, he couldn’t do this. He couldn’t do this-

We regret to inform you that Maria and How-

He couldn’t do this-

“Tony.”

How could he go up there and, and properly acknowledge, properly apologize for the loss everyone of them had gone through? How-How could- 

“Tony!”

Tony shot a glance up, slamming his wrist watch to form a gauntlet, pointing his palm at- oh, oh Pepper.

“Tony,” she said softly, kneeling down beside him, pushing his outstretched hand away. He tried to respond, he really did, but the noose was tightening again, cutting off any hope of breathing let alone speaking. He choked on his words and pounded on his chest for his damn lungs to start working again. Pepper put her hands on his shoulders, speaking softly, “Tony, Tony you’re okay. Please, breathe. I got you…”

The feelings of her hands on his shoulder grounded him, her voice shooting through the ringing like a gust of wind, quieting the awful noise. Yet he still couldn’t get rid of the unbreakable pressure in his throat that was cutting off any air. He squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his fists.

“I-I can’t,” he gasped.

“Deep breaths are scientifically proven to calm yourself down. It’s science Tony.”

Science. He could do science. Science was his thing. Tony shakily inhaled as much air as he could, ignoring the pain of the noose and the panic of suffocation. He exhaled slowly, fighting off every instinct that told him to keep breathing as fast as he could. It took a few tries, a lot more deep breaths, but eventually his heart rate slowed down to a manageable pace. His deliberate shaking slowed into a slight tremble, and the noose around his neck had loosened.

Tony opened his eyes slowly and blinked at the bright lights, looking up at his fiance. The two locked eyes, Pepper staring at him with sadness and concern. “Are you okay, Tony?” she whispered.

He swallowed painfully. No. No, not in the slightest.

“Fine,” he croaked, using the counter to push himself up. He wobbled on his feet for a second before straightening up. He slowly yanked down the cuffs of his suit, turning back to the mirror to fix his tie. Oh wait, Tony looked over at the mirror lying on the ground. A hundred reflections stared back at him, cracked and distorted. “We need a new mirror,” he stated in a dull tone.

Pepper furrowed her brows. “Tony-”

“Potts, I’m fine,” he said harshly.

“That’s bullshit and you know it,” she snapped. He opened his mouth to respond before a knock on the door startled them both. 

“Mr. Stark? They’re ready for you,” a muffled voice said from behind the door. Tony squeezed his eyes shut.

“I’ll see you later Pepper,” Tony mumbled. He made his way to the door before Pepper stopped him by standing in front. She carefully straightened his tie and tugged on the shoulders of his suit to even it out. He couldn’t meet her eyes, staring down at his shoes. A hand came to his cheek and gently raised his face so their eyes could meet.

What had he ever done to deserve someone like her?

He kissed her softly, fighting back the urge to stay in the room before he let go, lingering for a second before releasing her hand and stepping out the door. He looked around; the rest of the Avengers were standing nearby. They were all dressed in formal attire but…truly none of them looked good. Bags under eyes and wrinkled clothes. He gave a stiff nod to the others. This was a courtesy to the people by showing up together - that didn’t mean they were good. That didn’t mean they were a team anymore. They took their seats in the front row, staring up at the stage solemnly. Rhodey had sat down right next to him. He gave a small smile to Tony that didn’t quite reach his eyes, but was meaningful nonetheless. Rhodey put his hand on his shoulder, and it was so achingly normal but not normals and everything was wrong but-

I’m here.

The funeral was long. There were separate funerals for countries, states, even cities, but this was the global one. A collective loss that all the world could share. Something that had affected each and every one of them. Of course it was impossible to read every name, but prayers and poems and speeches after speeches were given. Readers from different ethnicities, some even talking in different languages. Tony could feel himself getting fidgety and uncomfortable. The funeral was outside and yet it felt so stuffy, like the air was artificial and thick and wouldn’t move in and out of his lungs. Hearing people after people recount the countless loss and deaths and tragedies made his hand shake, the panic coming back. The thoughts of all those people swirled around in his head like a hurricane, circling and never fading. The noose was tightening again and he desperately took heavy breaths to try to keep himself calm.

There were a few minutes where he heard nothing around him, felt nothing, saw nothing, the only thing present and real was his lungs trying to work properly. Suddenly, he felt pressure on his arm and was pulled to a standing position. It was like being dunked in a bucket of ice water, all his senses slammed back into him and Tony’s hand trembled. His eyes squinted at the blinding sunlight. He looked to his side where Rhodey was grasping his arm and giving a little pressure, trying to have Tony walk with him. The rest of the Avengers were ahead, walking towards the stairs to the stage.

Oh right. Speech,

Tony nodded and Rhodey let go of his arm. He slowly walked towards the stage, climbing the small steps before facing the audience. He stared. Rows after rows of people. Hundreds of filled chairs of all different looks and cultures and places, and yet they all shared one thing in common: grief.

It was a short speech. Steve gave it, solemnly speaking into the microphone while the Avengers stood stoically behind him. It was a speech that Steve had practiced. Coming from his heart, but he had thought long and hard about those words and it didn’t feel…right.

“..the Avengers…we did everything we could. Unfortunately…reality is that it doesn’t always mean you’ll succeed. But that doesn’t mean you give up. We must…

An old anger bubbled in him as Steve's words faded into white noise. ‘Did everything they could?” Everything they could?!

“...thank you for your time,’ Steve said softly. Reality snapped back again as the Avengers started going back down the stairs. Tony looked towards the audience. He breathed deeply and his expression hardened.

No. Not like this.

Rhodey looked back at Tony with a confused expression. It quickly went from confused to sad to worried to oh no. The rest of the Avengers had also noticed Tony, who had not moved from his place on the stage. Steve looked at him sternly, gesturing for him to come back down. Tony glared back.

He’s my friend.

….

So was I

Tony stepped up the mic. People were looking up at him with confusion. He opened and closed his mouth a couple times. No, he had not planned this. No, he did not have a heartfelt and carefully thought out speech. He swallowed painfully, his fast heartbeat thumping in his ears.

But he’d be damned if this world didn’t know about a kid that deserved the whole fucking thing.

He deserved the universe.

“A long time ago, a reporter asked me if I would ever take internships at Stark Industries,” Tony began in a horse voice. “I laughed. I told him that if it was my choice, I would keep anyone younger than 30 out of my tower. That I didn’t need college kids trailing after me for coffee runs and printing papers.”

He looked towards the camera that was pointed straight at him, broadcasting his speech to millions, maybe billions of people. He hoped…that May was one of them.

“Then I started up the September Foundation for college students, and I found an application that caught my attention. I could tell; they were smart. Genius even. Out of the thousands of applications, I saw this one. I was interested and I looked the student up.” Tony smirked slightly. “Turns out the little shit had hacked my system, put his application in even though he was only a freshman in high school.” He looked at Rhodey, who was no longer beckoning for him to come back down the stage. He simply stood on the stage, nodding at Tony. He turned back to the audience, the smile slightly growing wider, “so now I really had to meet him.”

Small chuckles erupted throughout the crowd. And Tony knew that it was all a well thought out lie, but it was still his story.

“Somehow that kid had become my personal intern. He was smart. Making his own stuff, even helping me with my suits occasionally.” Tony sniffed, fighting back the tears forming in the corners of his eyes. “But it wasn’t his smarts or his grades that mattered.”

When you can do the things I can, and you don’t, and then the bad things happen….they happen because of you

He…I don’t…most of his inventions weren’t for himself; they were to help others. He was always looking out for the little guy. The best of us, really,” Tony muttered, holding onto the microphone to steady himself. He didn’t know where he was going with this. Judging by the faces from the audience, they weren’t sure either.

“He should be here,” Tony whispered. “This world…it’s lost a light.” He paused, looking up again. “It’s-It’s lost so many lights,” he stuttered slightly. “So many people who deserved a chance to-to make a difference.”

He paused, trying to catch his breath and slow his heartbeat which have both been steadily getting faster throughout the speech. Was this a speech? It was more like a blob of words that had been sitting on his tongue for so long, too long, begging to be spoken.

“I’m sorry we failed you,” Tony said softly. “I’m sorry…I’m sorry I failed you…Peter.”

That noose was there again.

It was a noose that had been there since Afghanistan, since he learned about what his weapons did. A noose that had stayed when he heard the death count of New York and Sokovia. A noose that had been suffocating during Lagos, when Rhodey and lost power, when Pepper fell into the fire below. A noose that had been killing him since the Snap.

A noose of grief.

One that whispered one thing, one universal truth.

your fault

your fault

your. Fault.

One that he believed.