Always Fight | Bucky Barnes |

21

"Incoming craft in the atmosphere"

At the sound of FRIDAY's automated voice echoing through the all-too empty halls of the Avengers compound, my heart lurches into my throat. All at the same moment, whoever remains snaps to their feet, our gazes whipping towards the screen that lights up in the conference room. Sure enough, a space craft is breaking through Earth's atmosphere and approaching the compound at a swift pace.

"Is it-" Pepper, who we had called a few days prior and informed of Carol Danvers' search, manages out, her voice on the verge of breaking. Steve shares a glance with Natasha before turning back to Pepper.

"There's only one way to find out" he responds, looking around the room at our ragtag group of misfit heroes.

As everyone begins to jog out of the conference room and we make our collective way to the front doors, I falter behind and cast a glance upstairs in the direction of DJ's room. At this time of night, she's still fast asleep. An awful feeling in my stomach tells me that it should stay that way. I know I should be hopeful that Carol might've found Tony and Peter, but I can't help the gut feeling that something isn't going to go the way we think it will.

I glance back forward and tail up the group who collects outside. Just as I shove my way through the front doors and into the misty, dark night illuminated weakly by the half moon, a bright, burning light that doesn't belong catches my attention and draws my gaze upwards.

There, in the middle of the front lawn of the Compound, is Carol Danvers guiding down a massive, almost otherworldly spaceship on her shoulders. From her skin radiates the light that had captured my attention, and it slowly fizzles out as she sets the ship down and steps aside.

Then the hatch opens, and Tony walks out assisted by a blue woman I've never seen before.

My breath catches in my throat as Steve sprints froward to help Tony wobble down the stairs. Immediate tears gather in my eyes and I can't seem to scrap together something to say at his feeble appearance. He's lost a considerable amount of weight and looks weaker than I've ever seen him. I finally spur my feet into gear and sprint forward to his other side, both Steve and I supporting him.

"Tony," I breathe in greeting, my eyes raking over his robed appearance. As we walk, he shakes his head and looks over at Steve.

"I couldn't stop him" He whispers, and in the broken, defeated knell of his voice, I know that this war we've been through took something out of Tony Stark.

"Neither could we" Steve responds.

"Peter?" I ask, making Tony halt in his step. When he looks over at me, my heart drops to the ground. Tears well in his dark eyes and he stutters out a response I'll never forget.

"I-I lost the kid" Tony manages out, and I know immediately that he means Peter was one of however many Thanos managed to snap from existence. A piece of my heart cracks, and if this were told to me a year ago, I would have broken down and cried. The tears that collect in my gaze don't fall, though, and the pain is dull-tipped. I've been through so much heartache in the past few weeks that even hearing this doesn't hurt as much as I know it should.

We are all getting much too familiar with defeat, with loss.

"No, Tony. We lost" Steve tries to assure, but Tony's mind seems to have moved on because he looks back to Steve with dreading eyes.

"Is, uh..."

Before he can ask about Pepper, she comes sprinting up.

"Tony!" she cries, and immediately a spark of life flares in the billionaire. He pulls from our supportive grasp and falls into Pepper's embrace. As they mumble to each other, my gaze is drawn to the blue woman I saw leaving the ship with Tony.