Requisite and Sensibility

Chapter 8 - Thanos' Demise

"While you guys take care of Tony, I'll be gone. And I'll bring him a Xorrian Elixir when I come back." Megan and Natasha stood together, arms crossed. "Where are you going?" "To kill Thanos." Megan looked over at Natasha with a "please, as if" look. "Hey, you know, we usually work as a team here, and between you and I, morale's a little fragile." Megan grunted, "We realize up there is more your territory, but this is our fight too. That asshole killed my children and the love of my life, I think I deserve to get to bash his head in."

"You even know where he is?" Rhodey spoke quietly. "I know people who might." Nebula, nearby, shook her head, "Don't bother. I can tell you where Thanos is. 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?". His answer was always the same: To the Garden." "That's cute, Thanos has a retirement plan." Megan looked over irritably at Rhodey and then glanced at Nebula, murderous rage glinting in her eyes, "So where is he?"

"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." Rocket showed a holographic image of a planet with a shockwave through it, "On this planet." "Thanos is there." Nebula confirmed. "He used the stones again." Natasha spoke in a whisper. "Hey, hey, hey. We'd be going in short-handed, you know." "Look, he's still got the stones, so..." Rhodey looked over at Bruce and raised a brow. "So let's get him... Use them to bring everyone back." Carol spoke.

"Just like that?" Rhodey asked and Megan nodded with purpose, her authority clear in her voice, "Yeah, just like that." She looked over at Carol and shared a knowing look. "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." Natasha spoke, her voice catching as she thought of Alex, Bucky and Steve. "If we do this, how do we know it's gonna end any differently than it did before?" Bruce shook his head, his skepticism showed through his tone and it affected everyone. " Because before, you didn't have me." Megan snorted, shaking her head.

Rhodey scoffed looking over at Carol, "Hey, new girl, everyone here is about that superhero life. And if you don't mind my asking, where the hell have you been all this time?" Carol looked over at Megan and smiled, "There are a lot of other planets in the universe. And unfortunately, they didn't have you guys. Megan knows." Megan nodded slightly and Thor stood up, walking to stand behind Carol as she spun to meet his eyes. Thor held out his hand and Stormbringer flew in beside Carol, whipping her hair. She smiled slowly, "I like this one." Thor said smiling. Megan nodded seriously, hope flourishing in her for the first time in many days, "Let's go get this son of a bitch."

***

The severed hand of Thanos with the gauntlet still on it was empty, no stones. Megan blinked, she moved forwards and kicked Thanos's chest, sending him flying backwards into his kitchen. She didn't need anyone's help at the moment as she grabbed Thanos' collar and held it in her small fist, standing on Thanos' thighs as she stared into his beady eyes. "Where are they?" Megan yelled and Thanos remained quiet, smiling up at her. Carol pushed past the others and climbed on top of Thanos, holding him a chokehold, "Answer the question!" "The universe required correction. After that, the stones served no purpose, beyond temptation."

"You murdered trillions!" Bruce spoke and Megan held Thanos's other hand with her own, her skin glowing hot white as she burned his purple skin, his screams echoing in the small home. "You should be grateful!" Thanos spoke through clenched teeth and Megan punched him, sending him tumbling over as his head hit his counter. "Where. Are. The. Stones?" Natasha asked and Thanos smiled at her, "Gone. Reduced to atoms." "You used them two days ago!" Bruce inquired and Thanos shrugged as best he could with the two most powerful women in the universe holding him down. " I used the stones to destroy the stones. It nearly killed me. But the work is done. It always will be."

He looked into Megan's eyes as he spoke, "I... am... inevitable." Megan pushed off Carol and jumped on Thanos' back, her legs choking him as his eyes bulged and he slapped at Megan's thighs to get her off of him. "YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE." She yelled and she used her bare fingers to dig out his eyes as he screamed, she jumped down and looked at him, "He's lying... I'll torture him into telling us the truth." "My father is many things. A liar is not one of them." "Ah, thank you, daughter. Perhaps I treated you too harshly." Thor growled and used Strombringer to cut off Thano's head, his severed purple testicle of a head rolling away.

"What... What did you do?" Rocket asked, horrified as he looked up at Thor. The god simply shrugged, "I went for the head."

***

Megan sighed at home, scrubbing the dirt from under her fingernails as well, Thanos' dried blood was staining her hands as she strived to get every inch of it off of her. She sobbed quietly by herself, in her own solitude. Looking up into the mirror, she focused on her naked body, a tattoo on her ribs, "We may not be perfect, but the safest hands are still our own." She looked directly below that, "You start running, they'll never let you stop. You stand up, push back. Can't say no forever right?" Below that was a lone heart with Steve's initials on them. She held back the painful sob trying to escape from her throat, "I tried to push back, Steve, but he said no."

***

"Papa?" Wade glanced back at his five-year old, her eyes brighter, her curly, black hair shinier. "Yeah baby?" "I miss Dad." Wade nodded, he tried to hold back his tears for his daughter's sake, "I know honey, I miss Dad too." Vanessa slowly walked up to him, plopping herself down in his lap, "You know you don't have to hide your tears from me. All the grownups do that, they're all holding back their real emotions for us, kids... we're smarter, we can see through it." Wade sighed, letting his tears roll down his cheeks as he hugged his daughter closer to his chest.

"I can hear Aunt Nat wailing at night, I can hear Uncle Rhodey sobbing softly, I can hear Friday mumbling to herself, "I could've done more". I can hear Uncle Thor waking up, screaming and apologizing to Uncle Loki who isn't here. I can hear Uncle Bruce throwing up violently. Most of all, I can hear Aunt Meg throwing things in her room, I can hear her painful wretches and sobs, I can hear her talking to her kids and Uncle Steve and Buck, trying to tell them one last time that she loved them."

Wade blinked and looked down at his daughter, "You hear all that?" Vanessa nodded slowly, as if a hundred years of wisdom were bestowed on her, "The world's a scary place, not because of ghosts and monsters, but because of the demons that live in us and haunt us, make humans the real monsters." Wade bit his lip, "That's a lot of knowledge for a normal five year old." Vanessa shrugged, "Let's face it, I'm the kid of Avengers, I was never a normal child and I will never be one."