The third Maximoff

Chapter 21

"I can't believe she is gone" you hid your face in your hands sitting beside your brother with your knees tucked to your chest.

"They all are" he added, arm gently rubbing your back as he stared blankly ahead. The compound you had moved back into began to shake and you looked up at him with fear in your eyes.

"Do you think he came back?"

"No, he couldn't have" Pietro shook his head, hoping he was right this time. You both whipped your heads around to see Natasha, Steve, Rhode, Bruce and Pepper rushing outside. With a nod from your brother you both followed them to see a large spaceship being landed by Captain Marvel who was underneath it. The ramp lowered and you watched in shock as Tony Stark had returned with an alien woman.

"Couldn't stop him." Tony tells Steve after he was handed off by the Alien woman.

"Neither could I." Steve sighed at the fact of the situation, helping Tony to walk.

"I lost the kid."

"Tony, we lost." Steve reminds deeply.

"Is, uh...?" He starts to ask, unable to get the words out in fear of the worst.

"Oh, my God! Oh, my God!" Pepper rushes over to him and hugs him tightly as he lets out a sigh of relief.

"It's okay." Tony tells her with a kiss to the cheek. You watched as Rocket sat beside the woman on the ramp and they held hands, obviously mourning the loss of their own family.

~~~

"It's been 23 days since Thanos came to Earth." Rhode started the meeting as photos of the dusted flashed on the screen. Wandas face appeared before you and your brother, both of you look down in sadness for your fallen triplet.

"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." Natashas explains what happened to everyone as you all listened intently at the current state of the word you live in.

"Where is he now? Where?" Tony asked, finally speaking since he was brought inside, sitting aside with an IV hooked into his arm.

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

"What's wrong with him?" Tony nodded over to Thor who sat in the other room on a bench looking down with anger.

"Oh, he's pissed. He thinks he failed. Which of course he did, but you know there's a lot of that's going around, ain't there?" Rocket explained with a shrug.

"Honestly, until this exact second, I literaly thought you were a Build-A-Bear." Tony looks to the Racoon in shock as it could talk.

"Maybe I am."

"We've been hunting Thanos for three weeks now. Deep Space scans, and satellites, and we got nothing. Tony, you fought him." Steve started up again on the main topic of the problem at hand, half of the universe being dusted.

"Who told you that?" Tony cuts in immediately. "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." Tony told his story from space with a harshness to his tone.

"Okay." Steve tried to calm him down.

"He's unbeatable."

"Did he give you any clues, any coordinates, anything?"

"Pfft! I saw this coming a few years back. I had a vision. I didn't wanna believe it. Thought I was dreaming." Tony reminded the group of when he create Ultron. You thought back to Wanda giving him a vision years ago before you had joined the Avengers.

"Tony, I'm gonna need you to focus." Steve stood up with sternness.

"And I needed you. As in past tense. That trumps what you need. It's too late buddy. Sorry. You know what I need?" Tony stood up, knocking things off the table which caused you to flinch back. Pietro held your hand firmly in his as you watched the fight unfold between the two. "I need to shave. And I believe I remember telling all youse -" Tony ripped out his IV.

"Tony, Tony, Tony!" Rhode tried to stop his friend from being rash.

"Alive and otherwise 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 argued.

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

"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 Prevengers."

"Okay." Rhode caught him as he almost fell over.

"Right?"

"You made your point. Just sit down." Rhode tried to force his friend down into the chair again.

"Okay..." Tony slowed.

"Okay?"

"Nah, nah. Here's my point. You know what?" Tony got started up again, still refusing to sit.

"Tony, you're sick." Rhode reminds.

"She's great, by the way." Tony pointed to Carol who gave a small nod in respect.

"Sit down. Sit."

"We need you. You're new blood. Bunch of tired old mules!" Tony forces his way over to Steve, pointing in his face as his voice got low and harsh. "I got nothing for you, Cap! I got no coordinates, no clues, no strategies, no options. Zero. Zip. Nada. No trust. Liar." His spits out the last word. Pulling off his arch reactor from his chest, he places it in Steve's hand roughly."Here, take this. You find him, and you put that on. You hide." Tony tells him before suddenly falling to the ground as his legs gave out.

"Tony!" Steve worried.

"I'm fine. I..." he suddenly fell unconscious in a heap on the floor. Natasha and the others ran to his side quickly to help.

"Let's give them a minute" Pietro lead you into the next room over with a nod from Natasha.

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Question of the day: what was your favourite part from Endgame?