Girl Erased

Becoming Dust 2

We ride the rest of the way not talking to eachother. Nat and Steve still seem a little upset with me after everything we have and haven't been through in the past couple of years. I keep my hands on the now blood-soaked towel that's protecting my wound and I feel Peter slide his arm into the crook of my elbow. I look over at him and just rest my head on his shoulder.

We land and Steve walks over to wake Peter and check on my wound because I was falling asleep too. Steve helps me limp into the building which isn't too far away because Tony built a landing pad in the backyard.

"Nice beard, by the way," I say, making fun of the new addition to Steve's face. He just glances down and rolls his eyes at me.

When we walk in, I immediately feel Vision and it feels like it's draining me. We get to Bruce's lab and I basically collapse into the chair.

"Can you pass me the cloths and suture kit," I say to Steve, running out of breath

"The what...?" He asks, looking around the counter

"Um, there should be sterile cloths in that box," He grabs them and passes them to me quickly. I take the towel off my side and pull my shirt up to see where the alien shot me.

"The suture... it's... it should be like a sewing kit in one of the cabinets."

I wipe off all of the extra blood and it feels so nice because the blood has congealed on my skin. He finds the suture kit and holds it out for me to grab, cringing at my scar.

"Shouldn't you know all of this?" I ask Steve as I set up my station, "You get in fights all the time."

"That's the perk of speed healing."

"Ah, that's right. Roger that, super soldier."

After I make a mess with the bloody wipes, I grab the needle and thread and start sewing. Fortunately, the scar really isn't that bad, all of the blood and bruising were after I practically rolled down the stairs. Once I finish I'm able to stand up and clean up my mess. I take a deep breath and look at Steve. We're both exhausted and done with everything. I grab some gauze and wrap my torso before leaving the lab to find the rest of the group. I pick up some water in the kitchen because I can hear them next door in the office. I walk in and get an instant migraine and watch Vision reach for the stone in his head.

"I assume you're feeling that too?" He asks

"Is it the stone again?"

"It's as if it's speaking to me."

"I can feel it too. What is it saying?"

"I don't... I don't know. But something... Tell me what you feel." He says, inviting me to read him. I walk up and rest my hand on the stone.

"I don't feel anything." I turn to my side and see Nat giving me a look of pity. I look back at Vision and lean my forehead into his and I feel Peter's hand on my back and everyone worrying about us.

Rhodey walks into the room to find all of us seated around the table.

"Well. You guys, really look like crap. Must've been a rough couple of years." He says

"Yeah, well, the hotels weren't exactly five-star." Sam jokes

"Uh, I think you look great." Bruce chirps, walking in with Rhodey, "Yeah, I'm back."

"Hi, Bruce," Nat says, smiling at him.

"Nat." He responds.

I look over at Steve with a confused look on my face. Is this a thing? What did I miss??

"So, what are you guys doing here?" Rhodes asks, sitting down.

I make eye contact with Bruce and accidentally read his mind. "Thanos," I say, quietly connecting things.

"Who is Thanos?" Steve asks

"An alien with a plan of universal extinction. He's already killed Thor, Loki, and more than half of the Asgardian people."Bruce explains

"What the hell does that mean? Universal extinction?" Nat asks

"He plans to collect all 6 Infinity stones and eliminate half of the population, universally."

"Infinity stones?" Sam questions

"Do...would he still have...?" I stutter, asking Steve about the papers I used to have from my research on the stones. I rush over to one of Tony's filing cabinets and start shuffling through. The whole room is silent and no one even knows what to think of this situation.

"Where's Clint?" Bruce asks while I'm searching, noticing that the room is lacking some Avengers.

"After the whole Accords situation, he and Scott took a deal. It was too tough on their families." Nat says

"Who's Scott?"

"Ant-Man" Steve pipes up, still watching me filing through every document Tony has held on to.

"There's an Ant-Man and a Spider-Man," Bruce asks rhetorically and Peter looks up.

"Aha! Yes!" I shout, finding my couple of printed documents and note sheets.

"What?"