2018 ― Upstate New York
"Our best work after the fact? We're the 'Avengers.' We're the 'Avengers,' not the 'Pre-vengers.' Right?"

"It's been 23 days since Thanos came to Earth." James Rhodes spoke as all the Avengers were together in the common area of the facility explaining to Carol Danvers what happened in the last 23 days, while a screen showed everyone who had disintegrated during the snap.

"World governments are in pieces. The parts that are still working... are trying to take a census and it looks like he did... He did exactly what he said he was going to do. Thanos wiped out... 50% of all living creatures." Natasha said, looking around the room. Katherine was standing next to her husband, the remaining avengers were spread around the room, while Thor sat off away from the others because he was pissed.

"Where is he now? Where?" Tony asked. It broke Katherine's heart to see her godson in a wheelchair and hooked up to an IV. She felt like she failed Howard. She swore she would always protect him, and he got lost in space for 23 days and almost died.

How is that protecting him?

"We don't know, T... he just opened a portal and walked through," Katherine said, and then Tony scoffed before looking over at Thor.

"What's wrong with him?" He asked.

"Oh, he's pissed. Nikita disappeared in the snap. He thinks he failed." Rocket added in. "Which of course he did, but... you know, there's a lot of that going around, ain't there?" Rocket said.

"Honestly, until this exact second, I thought you were a Build-A-Bear," Tony said, which made Katherine laugh as she shook her head. Even though Tony had been through hell and back and almost died. He still kept up his usual sense of humor.

"Maybe I am." Rocket said.

"We've been hunting Thanos for three weeks now. Deep space scans... and satellites, and we got nothing. Tony, you fought him." Steve said, and Tony immediately looked up and shook his head.

"Who told you that?" He asked, continuing to shake his head. "I didn't fight him. No, he wiped my face with a planet... while the Bleecker Street magician gave away the stone. That's what happened. There was no fight because he's not beatable." Tony said.

"Okay, T... it's okay." Katherine said her tone softening as she noticed that he was starting to get riled up, so she walked over and sat down next to him, laying a hand on his shoulder.

"Did he give you any clues, any coordinates, anything?" Steve asked, and Katherine sighed.

"Steve..." She said shaking her head. She knew that was not something that he should probably be asking at the moment.

"Uh... I saw this coming a few years back. I had a vision, I didn't want to believe it. Thought I was dreaming." Tony said, and Steve stood up from the desk that he was leaning against.

"Tony, I'm gonna need you to focus," Steve said, and Katherine sighed. It's the first time that they've seen each other since Berlin, and Katherine already had a bad feeling this was about to go South.

"And I needed you. As in, past tense. That trumps what you need. It's too late, buddy. Sorry." Tony said, and then he took a deep breath. "You know what I need?" He asked, slamming his fist against the table. "I need a shave." He said, quickly standing up and Katherine stood up too.

The rest of the Avengers in the room, Steve, Natasha, Rhodey, all looked at him with sad eyes. They know the weight of fighting and losing to Thanos, but Katherine knew it was hitting him extra hard because he lost Peter in the process, just like they lost Christian and Nikita.

"And I remember telling all youse..." Tony trailed off as he tried to rip his IV off.

"Tony, Tony!" Rhodey said, but it was too late, he had already ripped it off as Tony continued.

"... alive and otherwise, that what we needed was a suit of armor around the world. Remember that? Whether it impacted our precious freedoms or not. That's what we needed." Tony said, slightly raising his voice.

"Well, that didn't work out, did it?" Steve said.

"I said, we'd lose. You said, 'we'll do that together, too.' And guess what, Cap? We lost. And you weren't there. But that's what we do, right? Our best work after the fact? We're the 'Avengers.' We're the 'Avengers,' not the 'Pre-vengers.' Right?" Tony said, as Katherine and Rhodey both gently grabbed him to keep him stable, and he looked at them.

"Okay, Tony... okay. You made your point, please just sit down, okay?" Katherine said to him, and Tony shook his head.

"Okay. No, no, here's my point. You know what? She's great by the way." He said, pointing over to Carol and Katherine sighed.

"Tony sit down, you're sick," Katherine said, but Tony got out of her hold and walked over to Carol.

"We need you. You're new blood. Bunch of tired old mules." Tony said and then he looked back over at Steve. "I got nothing for you, Cap. I got no coordinates... no clues, no strategies, no options. Zero. Zip. Nada. No trust, liar." Tony said, and then Katherine noticed that he ripped his centerpiece off and put it in Steve's hands.

"Here, take this. You find him, you put that on... you hide." Tony said before he fell to the ground, and Katherine immediately ran to his side as did Steve and Rhodey.

"Tony," Steve said.

"I'm fine. Let me...-" Tony cut off in the middle of his sentence.

He collapsed right there on the ground.

―

"Bruce gave him a sedative. He's gonna probably be out for the rest of the day." Rhodey spoke as he walked out of the room that Tony and Pepper were in. Katherine sighed wanting nothing more than to stay here with him, but she also wanted Thanos' head for taking her son away from her.

"You guys take care of him... and I'll bring him a Xorrian elixir when I come back," Carol said before she started to walk away.

"Where are you going?" Steve asked.

"To kill Thanos." She said, continuing to walk off. Katherine laughed a little before following her, while Steve and Natasha both gave each other a look before following behind the two women.

"Hey. You know, we usually work as a team here... and uh, between you and I, morale's a little fragile." Natasha said.

"We realize that this is more your territory, but this is our fight, too," Steve said.

"Do you even know where he is?" Katherine asked.

"I know people who might," Carol said.

"Don't bother. I can tell you where Thanos is." The group heard a new voice, and they turned around to see Nebula standing there. Katherine doesn't know much about her, but she does know that if it wasn't for Nebula, Tony wouldn't have survived in space.

"Okay, where is he?" Katherine asked.

"Thanos spent a long time trying to perfect me. And when he worked, he talked about his Great Plan. Even disassembled, I wanted to please him. I'd ask... where would we go once his plan was complete? And his answer was always the same. To the Garden." Nebula said, walking from by the wall and over to the table where she put her hands down on top.

"That's cute. Thanos has a retirement plan." Rhodey said which made Katherine crack a smile.

"So where is he?" Steve asked. Rocket pushed a button and pulled up a hologram of the Earth.

"When Thanos snapped his fingers... Earth became ground zero for a power surge of ridiculously cosmic proportions. No one's ever seen anything like it. Until two days ago... on this planet." Rocket explained as another planet came up on the hologram.

"Thanos is there." Nebula said, and Natasha leaned in close to look at the hologram.

"He used the stones again," Natasha said.

"Hey, hey, hey. We'd be going in shorthanded, you know?" Bruce said.

"Look, he's still got the stones, so..." Rhodey trailed off as Carol picked up his thought.

"So, let's get 'em. Use them to bring everybody back." Carol said.

"Just like that?" Banner asked.

"Yeah. Exactly just like that." Steve spoke up.

"Even if there's a small chance that we can undo this... I mean we owe it to everyone who's not in this room to try. If there's even a fraction of a chance that I can get my son back... what kind of mother would I be if I didn't try?" Katherine said. Steve wrapped his arm around his wife and kissed her temple.

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

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

"Hey, new girl? Everybody in this room is about that superhero life. And if you don't mind my asking, where the hell have you been all this time?" Rhodey asked. She's been helping other planets. This is the first time that Katherine has seen Carol in 23 years, and they both still look great and as young as ever.

"There are a lot of other planets in the universe. And unfortunately, they didn't have you guys." Carol said, which made everyone stop and realize her words. Then everyone noticed Thor stood up, and since he hasn't really been actively speaking or interacting with anyone, they had no idea what he was about to do.

He stood in front of Carol and reached his hand out behind her to summon for his Stormbreaker  and continued to stare at Carol while waiting for his ax to find his hand. It blew right past Carol, who didn't flinch, and into Thor's hand where he set it on the ground and continued to stare her down, and then Thor nodded.

"I like this one," Thor said, nodding his head. Steve was still looking at the hologram of the planet that Thanos was on, and he nodded his head.

"Let's go get this son of a bitch." Steve said, and Katherine laughed a little, and for old times sake, she spoke up.

"Come on, babe. Watch your language."

―

Ahh, I was so disappointed that no one told Cap language when he said that, so you know I had to add it in myself.

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xoxo.