ONCE TONY had been checked over in the med bay, they all regrouped back inside the compound. All of them were scattered around the room looking at a table that had a hologram coming from the middle, displaying the faces of those who were lost the day Thanos snapped.

"It's been two months, since Thanos came down to earth." Rhodey was the first to break the silence.

"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 gonna do, Thanos wiped out fifty percent of all living creatures." Natasha sighed.

Carson looked up from his spot at the table, turning his attention towards the holograms of peoples faces. His eyes came to a stop as he noticed the picture of a certain redheaded girl.

Wanda Maximoff. Status: deceased.

He swallowed thickly and instantly averted his eyes somewhere else. It was only a picture, yet he couldn't seem to bring himself to look at it, to look at her.

Carson didn't realise how tense he had got until the sound of something snapping caught his attention. He looked over at his hands, letting out a breath when he saw a now very much broken pen in his hand.

He dropped the pen and looked down at the table, avoiding the multiple sets of eyes he could feel on him. With a small sigh, he lifted up his head and looked around at everyone with a blank expression as if nothing happened.

"Are those images really necessary right now?" Carson said blandly.

The rest of the team looked around, their gazes flicking between each other, Carson and the images. Once they caught on to what was bothering him, Steve grabbed the remote and flicked it onto something else.

"Sorry about that." Steve apologised.

Tony wiped his hand over his face. "Where is he now? Where?"

"We don't know." Steve answered. "He just opened a portal and walked through."

Tony scoffed and wheeled himself closer to the table, as he was still in the wheelchair Rhodey brought in for him. His attention was brought to the side and he looked over at Thor who was starting down at his hands.

The god had been the same as Carson, barely saying a word to anyone for the past two months.

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

Rocket glanced over at Thor then turned back to Tony. "Oh, he's pissed. Thinks he failed. Which, of course, he did... but there's a lot of that going around, ain't there?" The racoon moved his gaze over to Carson as he said his last sentence.

Tony raised a brow at the small jab that racoon took at Carson. "Honestly, until this exact second, I thought you were a Build-A-Bear."

Although Carson didn't move his eyes from the floor, a soft chuckle still managed to leave his lips at Tony's comment. Natasha seemed to notice and couldn't help but smile too, it had been months since she'd heard that laugh.

"Maybe I am." Rocket shrugged.

"We've been hunting Thanos for weeks on end now. Deep space scans, satellites, Carson has been doing a lot of work too but... we've got nothing." Steve folded his arms, looking down in defeat. "Tony, you fought him—"

"Who told you that?" Tony cut him off. "I didn't fight him. No, he wiped my face with a planet while the Bleecker Street magician gave away the store. That's what happened. There was no fight 'cause he's not beatable."

"Okay, okay." Steve said quietly, not wanting Tony to have an outburst or get too worked up. "Did he give you any clues, any co-ordinates, anything?"

"Uh..." Tony pointed to his head and sputtered. "I saw this coming a few years back. I had a vision. I didn't wanna believe it, thought I was dreaming."

Steve stood up from his spot against the table. "Tony, I'm gonna need you to focus."

"And I needed you." Tony responded. "As in past tense. That trumps what you need. It's too late, buddy."

Carson picked up his head and looked towards Tony after hearing the change in his tone.

"You know what I need?" Tony pushed out his hands and knocked over a glass and bowl as he stood up. "I need a shave."

Carson sighed and slowly stood up, starting to make his way over to Tony's side just in case.

Tony started to rip out the IV that was in his arm. "And I believe I remember telling all of you..."

"Hey, hey." Carson tried to calm him down.

"... alive and 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!"

Steve cleared his throat. "Well, that didn't work out, did it?"

Carson glared at Steve and shook his head. Now was not the time for him and Tony to be arguing. Not when Tony was in a state like this.

"I said we'd lose. You said We'll do that together, too. And guess what Cap?" Tony narrowed his eyes at the super-soldier. "We lost. And you weren't there."

"Get Pepper, now." Carson whispered to Rhodey. The man nodded and quickly left to room.

"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?"

Tony started to stumble a little with how worked up he was getting. Carson stepped forwards and held onto his shoulders to keep him upright.

"Am I right?" Tony asked Carson. "Right?"

"Look, you've made your point." Carson told him quietly. "Just sit down."

"No, no, no." Tony disagreed and tried to walk towards Steve but Carson stopped him and kept him in place. "Here's my point, you know what?"

"Tony." Carson told him sternly. "You're sick, so get your ass in the damn chair and sit down."

Tony tapped Carson's shoulder and pointed for him to look at Carol who was stood in the corner of the room, still not having said anything.

"She's great, by the way." He told Carson. "We need her, she's new blood."

Carson rolled his eyes and gave Carol an apologetic look. Not that she seemed to care too much anyway considering all she did was look at Carson without saying a word.

As Carson was distracted, Tony took this as his chance to move. He pushed himself out of Carson's grip and stormed over to Steve.

"I got nothing for you, Cap." He pointed at him. "I got no co-ordinates... no clues, no strategies, no options. Zero. Zip. Nada. No trust, liar." Tony ripped his own arc reactor from his chest and harshly shoved it in Steve's hand. "Here, take this. You find him, you put that on... you hide."

Tony took a few steps back, his eyes starting to flutter open and closed as his legs grew weaker. He dropped to the floor and everyone instantly rushed to his side.

"Shit, Tony!" Carson tried to help him up but the older man just brushed him off.

"I'm fine, I'm fine..." Tony gave Carson a small smile. "Let me..."

But before he could finish his sentence, Tony completely collapsed and passed out on the floor.

~~ ᗢ ~~

CARSON WAITED outside of the medbay room with the others, watching through the window as Tony lay in bed completely out of it with Rhodey and Pepper at his side.

Steve gently nudged Natasha and she looked up at him in confusion, until the man pointed towards Carson who was stood a little in front of them.

They looked over at him, both of them frowning when they saw him leaning against the arm of the couch, his hand clasped around the ring that was dangling from the chain around his neck.

Carol, who was stood next to the two Avengers, seemed to notice the exchange and looked over at Carson too. Her head tilting curiously to the side as she watched him.

It only took her a few seconds to piece it together, from the way he had been all day, to the way everyone seemed cautious around him and now to top it off, the way he was looking down at the ring. She knew that he had lost someone too. Someone important to him.

And it was practically eating him alive. It was only a matter of time until he cracked.

Rhodey left the room and everyone's attention moved towards him. Carson cleared his throat and moved the necklace back underneath his shirt.

"Bruce gave him a sedative. He's gonna probably be out for the rest of the day." Rhodey informed them all.

Carol nodded and decided to speak up for the first time. "You guys take care of him... I'll bring him an Xorrian elixir when I come back."

"Where are you going?" Steve asked as Carol started to walk out of the room.

"To kill Thanos." The woman deadpanned.

Everyone looked around at each other in confusion for a few moments. Carson quirked a brow and leant up from his spot against the couch, following after her.

"Hold on a minute blondie." Carson called out to her.

Carol turned around at the name he gave her. I mean, what was he supposed to do? She hadn't said a word all day until a few seconds ago, he didn't know her name, or have any idea who she was.

"Are you talking to me?" She looked over at him.

Carson held his gaze with her for a moment. "You gonna tell me your name?"

"Carol." The blonde replied. "Carol Danvers."

Carson hummed in response and continued walking over to her. "Well then, Carol. If you're going to kill Thanos, then I'm coming with you."

Carol shook her head, a small smirk forming on her face. "What makes you think, that you could help me?"

Carson came to a stop once he got close enough, his brow raising in surprise at her boldness as he looked down at her. "And what makes you think that I can't?"

Natasha and Steve joined the two, breaking them out of their stare with one another.

Natasha was the first to speak. "You know, we usually work as a team around here... and, uh, between you and I, morale's a little fragile."

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

"Do you even know where he is?" Carson questioned.

Carol looked around at them all and shrugged. "I know people who might."

"Don't bother."

Another voice joined the conversation. Everyone turned around to see who it was, noticing Nebula stood in the doorway.

"I can tell you where Thanos is." Nebula stated.

"Great." Carson nodded. "Let's get a move on, shall we?"

~~ ᗢ ~~

THEY ALL regrouped back in one of the living rooms, all of them gathering around and listening intently as Nebula began telling her story.

"Thanos spent a long time trying to perfect me." Nebula began. "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."

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

Carson sighed and walked around the table with his hands in his pockets. "Look, I'm sorry about that, I really am. But if I wanted a sob story I would've asked for one. Just tell us exactly where this garden is." He spoke, growing impatient.

"Carson..." Natasha looked at him, a little in disbelief with how hostile he was being. He never used to be like this.

Rocket pressed a button and powered on the hologram in the middle of the table, it now displaying an image of earth.

"When Thanos snapped his fingers, Earth became ground zero for a power surge of ridiculously cosmic proportions." Rocket told them all. "No one's ever seen anything like it. Until two days ago... on this planet."

The hologram switched to a different image, now showing another planet. Carson pursed his lips together and leant on the table with his hands, looking at the image curiously.

"Thanos is there." Nebula informed.

Natasha joined Carson's side and looked at the image too. "He used the stones again."

"So, let's go." Carson shrugged. "I'll pry them from him myself."

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

Rhodey sighed. "Look, he's still got the stones, so..."

"Like he said." Carol pointed at Carson. "Let's go. We can use the stones to bring everyone back."

"Just like that?" Bruce asked, blinking a few times at how easy Carol was making this sound.

"Yeah." Carson nodded. "Just like that."

He didn't care how dangerous this might be, the risks that may be included. This was his chance at getting Wanda back. Most likely his only chance. After months of searching for a way, there finally was one.

Natasha faced Carson and nodded in agreement before looking around at everyone in the room. "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 we do this, how do we know it's not gonna end any differently than it did before?" Bruce added.

Carson huffed. "God, Banner, if you're scared then you don't have to come. Not that you'd be much use without big green anyway."

Natasha narrowed her eyes at him and punched his arm, her way of telling him to shut up. "What is with you?" She whisper-shouted at him.

Carson's jaw clenched momentarily and he opened his mouth to say something. But once he met Natasha's eyes he didn't respond, he just shrugged and looked away. Natasha shook her head and walked away from him, sitting down somewhere else.

"Because before you didn't have me." Carol stated.

"Hey, new girl." Rhodey scoffed. "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?"

Carol rolled her eyes. "There are a lot of other planets in the universe. And unfortunately, they didn't have you guys."

Thor stood up from his seat at the table and walked over to Carol, staring at her deeply. He lifted up his arm to call Stormbreaker and it flew into his hand, flying in mere inches away from touching Carol's face.

But she didn't flinch. Not one bit.

The god placed his axe against the floor and rested his hands against the top of it. After a few seconds he nodded and gave the woman an approving smile.

Thor looked over at Carson and gestured towards Carol. "I like this one."

Steve turned his attention back towards the hologram and inhaled sharply.

"Let's go get this son of a bitch."

~~ ᗢ ~~

[Not edited]