╔═════════╗
𝑺𝑼𝑹𝑽𝑰𝑽𝑶𝑹
-𝒔𝒆𝒃𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏
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two.
ravenous
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❝READY  OR  NOT,
HERE    I    COME.
YOU CAN'T HIDE.❞

⋆

          STEVE rinsed off his razor, tapping it a few times before placing it beside the sink. Grabbing a face towel, he wiped off excess shaving cream whilst inspecting his face for any facial hair he missed.

Placing the towel down, he leaned on the basin before glancing up at himself at a second mirror that was mounted on the wall and was able to be pulled out. When the mirror suddenly shook slightly, his brows furrowed. Grabbing onto it, Steve looked towards the ceiling while a low rumble filled his ears.

          THE five Avengers that lived in the facility ran out into the night, watching above as a ginormous ship soared down, guided by something shining. Pepper's breath hitched as she watched a woman help land the Benatar.

The ship's landing strip slowly lowered, and three bodies slowly shuffled out. Nebula and Lexi helped Tony out since he was very weak, but Steve noticed how Lexi was also nearly skin and bones.

Steve ran forward, quickly taking Tony into his arms and helping him to the grass. "Couldn't stop him." Tony mumbled.

"Neither could I." Steve quickly replied as Pepper rushed forward.

Tony panted harshly, already winded from walking so much. He looked at Steve with wide eyes. "I lost the kids."

Steve frowned with sympathy. "Tony, we lost." Tony nodded at his words, his head bobbing from side to side.

Tony swallowed. "Is, um..." When Pepper reached the two, his words trailed off. Pepper gasped, quickly pulling Tony into her in a fierce but gentle hug.

He pressed a kiss to Pepper's cheek before the three headed off to the Avengers facility.

On the Benatar landed strip, Nebula, Rocket and Lexi all sat. The three's heads were bowed. Rocket patted Nebula's hand. Nebula slowly reached out, taking Rocket's into hers. Lexi sat with her own hands tucked between her knees. From the corner of Lexi's eye, she saw Nebula turn her palm up in a silently urge. Lexi slipped her hand into Nebula's giving a slight squeeze.

         "IT'S been twenty-three days since Thanos came to Earth." Rhodey said, updating everyone present in the room on the previous events.

Carol stood, now dressed in more comfortable clothing. She stared, unblinking at everyone who disappeared from the snap.

James Barnes, Stephen Strange, Sam Wilson, Hope Van Dyne, Wanda Maximoff, Amber Abel, Hank Pym, Scott Lang, Shuri, T'Challa...

"World governments are in pieces," Natasha added. "The parts that are still working are trying to take a census. And it looks like he did...he did exactly what he said he was gonna do. Thanos wiped out fifty percent of all living creatures."

Peter Parker and Lucy Green's headshots flashed in the holographs, and Tony bowed his head in shame. Nick Fury flashed next and Carol's eyes filled with dread. She was half-relieved that Holly wasn't killed by the snap since her picture didn't show up. She needed to find her.

Lexi sat beside Tony, both of them having IV's connect to their arms. Her hand grasped the pole on which the IV bag hung from.

"Where is he now? Where?" Tony asked, looking up at Steve.

"We don't know," Steve replied, crossing his arms. "He just...opened a portal and walked through."

Tony pushed forward in his wheelchair before glancing and pointing at Thor, who sat in another room, wringing his hands. "What's wrong with him?"

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

"Honestly, at the exact second, I thought you were a Build-A-Bear." Tony commented, looking down at Rocket in amazement.

"Maybe I am."

"We've been hunting Thanos for three weeks now." Steve jutted in, not wanting to play around. "Deep space scans and satellites and we got nothing. Tony, you fought him."

"Who told you that?" Tony asked with a hint of venom. Everyone turned to him. "No. He wiped my face with a planet while a Bleecker Street magician gave away the Stone." Tony's thumb went to the opening of his robe. He slid it down his ribs that were starting to show under his skin. "That's what happened. There was no fight..."

"Okay." Steve muttered, clearly sensing how much anger was in Tony. "Did he give you any clues? Any coordinates, anything? Lexi?" Her head lifted slightly so she could meet his gaze. "Do you have anything on him?"

Tony made an odd noise, touching his fingers to his head before jutting his hand out, almost mocking a salute to Steve. Tony suddenly turned, pointing a shaky finger at Lexi. "Don't answer him."

When he turned back to Steve, Lexi glanced at Tony before giving a small shake of her head back to the soldier.

"I saw this coming a few years back." Tony mentioned in a calm voice. "I had a vision. I didn't wanna believe it. Thought I was dreaming."

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

"And I needed you." The billionaire shot back at Steve. Steve stood from the table he leaned on. "As in past tense. That trumps what you need. It's too late buddy. Sorry." Tony leaned down, sniffing the bowl of food in front of him before smacking it away harshly.

The spoon inside the bowl flew, clanging on the table and it made everyone flinch. "You know what I need?" Tony stood to his feet with a wobble. "I need a shave. And I believe I remember telling—" He ripped out his IV with audible protests from Rhodey and Lexi. "—telling that otherwise that what we needed was a suit of armour around the world. Remember that? Whether it impacted our precious freedoms or not. That's what we needed."

Lexi stepped forward, placing a hand on his shoulder. Tony nearly smacked her away, but caught himself.

"Well that didn't work out, did it?" Steve asked in a calm voice, not trying to rile Tony up more.

"I said we'd lose. You said, 'We'll do that together, too'. Well guess what, Cap? We lost. You weren't there. But that's what we do, right? Our best work after the fact?" Rhodey stepped forward when Tony started to wobble more on his feet. "We're the Avengers? We're the A-vengeres? Not the Pre-vengers?"

Lexi tightened his grip on Tony to help him stand. Rhodey nodded at him, "Okay. You made your point. Just sit down, okay?"

Tony writhed in his grasp. "No, no. It's my...She's great by the way." Tony pointed at Carol, trying to talk over Rhodey. "We needed you. You're new blood. Bunch of tired old mills." Tony jerked from Rhodey and Lexi, striding at Steve. "I got nothing on you, Cap. I got no coordinates, no clues, no strategies, no options. Zero. Zip. Nada. No trust, you liar."

Grabbing onto his Arc reactor on his chest, Tony pulled it off and slapped it into Steve's hand. "Here. You take this. You find him and put that on."

"Tony—" Lexi protested, stepping forward. She tried moving past Rhodey but her knees buckled suddenly, causing her to collapse. Rhodey went down with her, trying to lessen the fall.

Tony's breathing became laboured. "You hide." He stumbled back but tried to balance himself. He fell to the ground next. Panting, he looked at Lexi. "You...You okay?"

"Tony!" Steve called, bending down to help him. He swatted Steve away.

"I'm fine. I..." he breathed before collapsing and falling unconscious. Lexi heaved, hand clutching her shirt and Steve and Rhodey helped her to feet. As Rhodey led her towards the medical wing, Steve grabbed Tony.

          TONY and Lexi both laid in medical beds. The two were fast asleep. Pepper sat by Tony's bed, glancing every other moment towards Lexi in worry. The nurse aiding the two placed Tony's glasses on the table beside him before walking away.

Rhodey walked out to the other Avengers waiting on word for the two. "Bruce gave Tony a sedative. He's probably gonna be out for the rest of the day. Lexi's fine, she's just asleep now."

"You guys take care of them." Carol piped up. "And I'll bring an Xorrian elixir when I come back."

Steve's brows furrowed as she walked away. "Where are you going?"

"To kill Thanos."

Natasha and Steve shared a skeptical look. Glancing back at Carol, Natasha moved forward. "Hey," Carol turned. "you know, we usually work as a team here. And between you and I, we're also a little fragile."

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

"You even know where he is?" Rhodey asked, leaning on the doorway.

"I know people who might." Carol replied, nodding.

"Don't bother." Said a husky voice. Carol turned to see Nebula standing in the corner of the room. "I can tell you where Thanos is."

Everyone moved into a conference room and Nebula started explaining, "Thanos spent a long time trying to perfect me. Then when he worked, he talked about his great plan. Even disassembled, I wanted to please him. I'd ask, where would we go once his plan was complete? His answer was always the same."

Nebula walked forward, leaning on the table in the middle of the room. "To The Garden."

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

"So where is he?" Steve wondered, walking up to the table as the hologram switched on in front of everyone. It displayed Earth.

"When Thanos snapped his fingers, Earth became ground zero for a power serge of ridiculously cosmic proportions." Rocket said, climbing onto the table. The Earth was replicating exactly what Rocket said. "No one's ever seen anything like it...Until two days ago."

The holograph zoomed away from Earth, going a few galaxies over to a different planet the looked similar to Earth, except much greener. "On this planet."

"Thanos is there." Nebula concluded.

Natasha leaned forward, studying the planet closely. "He used the Stones again..."

"Hey, hey, hey..." Bruce started, warning in his voice. Thor, sitting at a table near the wall looked at everyone in silence, not having the energy to talk. "We'd be going in short-handed, you know?"

"You know, he's still got the Stones, so..." Rhodey said, having uneasiness in his voice.

"So, let's get him." Carol proposed. She looked around at everyone. "We use them to bring everyone back."

"Just like that?" Bruce scoffed.

"Yeah. Just like that." Steve answered, looking at Carol. Carol nodded back.

"E-Even if there's a small chance that we can undo this, we owe it to everyone who's not in this room to try." Natasha nodded with her short hair swaying back and forth.

"If we do this, how do we know it's gonna end any differently than it did before?" Bruce protested.

"Because before, you didn't have me." Carol replied to Bruce. Rhodey rolled his eyes.

"Hey, new girl, everybody in this planet in this room is about that superhero life." Rhodey motioned around the room. "And if you don't mind my asking, where the hell have you been all this time?"

"There's a lot of other planets in the Universe." Carol smirked. "And unfortunately they didn't have you guys."

Steve's lips tugged upwards as he gazed at the floor. Thor rose from his seat loudly, walking over to Carol in long strides. Carol turned, propping her hands on her hips as she stared up at him. Thor frowned, outstretching his hand over her shoulder.

Suddenly, Storm Breaker flew into his hands without Carol flinching. Licking his gums, Thor nodded at her. She reminded him of Amber; strong, confident, refusing to back down...

Carol narrowed her eyes, a smirk on her lips. He lowered the axe, looking up at the rest of the team. "I like this one."

Steve looked at the planet Thanos was on. "Let's go get this son of a bitch."