—Two Years and Two Months after "The Decimation"—

Storms usually go on for four months on the planet that Thanos inhabited. He was sitting inside his shack as water dropped inside. He had been working four hard months on the vibranium weapon he had made. It had two sharp points on both ends and was to be held in the middle.

Once he was finished, the rains were still strong but not as much as two months earlier. The storms were so deadly that the shack began to give up but not entirely. His gauntlet was still stuck to the wall but almost fell off at some times.

The rain settled down for the first time in six weeks and it started to drizzle. This would last for about four hours before the rain would come back at full force. Thanos returned outside while holding his new weapon. There were some animals walking around his crops, searching for something to eat.

"Shoo!" Thanos shouted at the animals but they did not move. The animals on his planet were more fierce than other planets. Thanos sighed.

With little force, he threw the sharp weapon and it pierced the skin of the animal. The others ran away off into the forests nearby. Thanos walked towards the animal, as it slowly bled and started whimpering at Thanos.

"I'm sorry..." Thanos muttered and grabbed his weapon out of it, "little one." Once more, he stabbed the animal in the stomach.

—Avengers Headquarters—

Scott woke up in the afternoon as it started raining. It irritated him but he realized the rainfall didn't wake him up, it was the sound of gunfire coming from within the facility. There were also muffled sounds of what seems like a new building being built, but it was obviously coming from the lab.

After grabbing some coffee from the table, he walked over to the gym where there were many equipments. When he went in, he walked over to the room beside it where there was a shooting range and a nice view of the sunset. Scott peeked inside the range and saw Natasha, hair tied back, shooting the target with perfect precision.

When the range was over, Natasha realized that out of her ten shots, two missed the middle. She sighed deeply and muttered, "You are a failure."

"Don't you think you're being too hard on yourself? I mean you just missed a few shots from the middle." Scott said, sipping his coffee.

Natasha scoffed and grabbed two boards with all the shots hitting the middle, "These are from Rogers and Barton. Look at mine, I missed two."

"C'mon, it's hard. But I think I can do it." Scott placed his cup on the floor and walked over to Natasha. She placed the ear protection on his head and relaxed his arms. Once he was ready, Natasha placed a new board and moved out of the way.

"Just don't get pressured." Natasha smiled sarcastically and Scott scoffed. Scott started shooting and only one bullet almost went in the middle, "You can do it, huh?"

"Didn't you hear me say 'I think'?" Scott argued. He looked at his board, "At least one almost went in!"

"Let me show you." Natasha forcefully grabbed the ear protection and gun. "Will you grab me a board?"

"Will do, your highness." Scott joked and placed a new board in. As he was placing it in, Natasha started firing at the board which made Scott flinched, "What the hell, Natasha!"

Once she was done firing, she smirked at him. Scott looked at the board and all the shots landed in the middle, "Why thank you for your support, Scott. Couldn't have done it without you."

"Yeah, sure." Scott said with a annoyed tone, "Since you're busy shooting some guns, have you seen Steve?"

"Haven't seen him, oddly enough. I usually see him talking with Danvers." Natasha said, grabbing a new board, "I think Tony saw him. He's in the lab."

"Should I ask him?" Scott asked.

"You should. I want you to see him get pissed off." Natasha smiled.

"Keep joking, Natasha." Scott shook his head and walked over to the lab.

It was getting dark and foggy around the headquarters. All the lights were off to save some energy. Almost everyone has moved out of New York because of the scarcity of supplies. Now, only some survivors live there because of the wealth they possess. That doesn't mean some homeless people have left.

Scott entered the living room right beside the lab. There was some serious work being done in the lab where Tony, Nebula, and Rocket were working in. He entered the lab and everyone stopped to look; only for them to continue working.

"What do you want Scott?!" Tony raised his voice as he was using a blowtorch on the table, "It's getting pretty dark!"

"What are you working on?!" Scott also raised his voice.

"What we've been working for months now! The goddamn time device that all of you have been craving about!"

"Is it almost finished?! Because I can always help, Tony!"

"Nebula and I can do this by ourselves!" Tony said and looked behind him, "Right?!"

"What?!" Nebula asked, also using a blowtorch on a large device stuck into the ground.

"Never mind!" Tony said and stopped using the blowtorch for a second, "Nebula, did you check the radioactive levels on the device?"

"I didn't." Nebula said, placing the blowtorch on the table, "Let me check."

"Of course you didn't." Tony sighed, "You're a robot."

Scott moved away from the tech geniuses and walked over to Rocket who was using the computer.

"Hey Rocket, have you seen Steve?" Scott asked sincerely.

"What happened? You did something bad to him and you really want to say sorry?" Rocket joked.

"Just tell me where he is." Scott said with some annoyance still in his voice.

"He went out wearing some jeans and a shirt. No luggage which means he must have paid a visit nearby."

"Alright, thanks then." Scott said, leaving the lab.

"What did he ask?" Tony asked while checking the computer.

"Where Rogers was."

Tony became silent and Nebula and Rocket glanced at each other. Tony hated that name.

—Somewhere in New York—

Curtis Hoyle gathered the group of veterans in a circle and made them comfortable. He was using a new facility after getting some money from his friend in the CIA. There were only six of them present; which was expected after "The Decimation."

"Since it's a Thursday..." Curtis sighed at the amount of people, "I think Ryane should start."

"Thanks, Curtis." Ryane smiled and leaned back, "Well, I'm new here. This is my first session with all of you. Um... I just want to talk about my friend. He was a good friend. I would go fishing with him from time to time after our second tour. But I saw him, man. I saw him fade. Like one second I was looking somewhere and then the next... he wasn't there. I couldn't do anything."

"I could've done something." A stranger watching the group in the dark said. "But I couldn't."

"And who are you?" Curtis asked with a intimidating tone.

The stranger answered back with a more intimidating tone, "Steve Rogers."

"As in the Captain America of the Avengers?" Curtis said.

"No." Steve emerged from the shadows, "I'm just a lost man looking for answers."

"Well you came to the right place, friend." Curtis smiled and pulled out one more chair from the side.

"Thank you." Steve muttered, sitting down.

"So..." Curtis sat back down, "what were you saying Ryane?"

"I'm actually intrigued on what he has to say, actually." Ryane said.

"Rogers? You want to say something to the group?"

"Sure." Steve sighed and laid back, "I was there. When everyone faded? I could've stopped it but I didn't. I met the one who killed... half of the universe."

"And you didn't do anything? You just watched?" One of the members asked.

"I did my best. I held him down. I tried to punch my way through him but I couldn't. I was... too confident."

"You could have done more, you know."

Steve looked at that member with a death stare and wanted to punch the living hell out of him. Curtis tapped him on the shoulder which calmed him down a little. Steve shuffled his mouth around as he stared down with nothing to say.

"Does anybody else want to share?" Curtis encouraged.

—One Hour Later—

Steve was on the balcony of the facility as he watched the rain drizzle. Curtis, holding a cup of coffee, approached him in the balcony and handed him the cup. Steve kindly nodded and took it.

"I'm sorry about what happened earlier, with my colleagues." Curtis muttered.

"It's alright. They have the right to get mad. I always get that from the media. I'm kind of used to it." Steve said, "Not in a sarcastic way."

"Well you don't deserve it, in my opinion." Curtis said, leaning on the railing, "You did enough for this country. It's about time they gave you some goddamn respect." Curtis sighed, "You know, I have a friend like you. Ex-military and he does heroic things like you. Thing is, both of you don't get goddamn respected by everyone. Only difference between you two is that the other one kills."

"You have to earn everyone's respect, soldier." Steve said, "You can't earn it in a heartbeat."

"Saving New York? Protecting us? You have done too much shit, Captain. Give yourself some respect. Because if you do, you'll find more will in what you're doing." Curtis said. "People like them have given up, but people like you are fighting to bring back what was ours."

"Maybe you're right. It's just that..." Steve sighed deeply, "some people move on. But not us... not us."

Curtis nodded slightly. He slowly walked inside the building which left Steve drinking his coffee, watching the rain drop onto the streets of what use to be New York City.