I Can't Help It - Steve Rogers

Chapter 72

"Here take this. You find him, you put that on, you hide" Tony tells Steve as he pulls his reactor from his chest and places it in Steve's hand. His breathing becomes heavier and he suddenly falls to his knees. "Tony" Steve says concerned as everyone steps forward to help. "I'm fine" Tony wakes them all off. "Let me..." he starts but collapses to the floor.

Tony is treated in the infirmary and Pepper sits beside him worriedly. Rhodey leaves the room to find Carol, Nat, Steve and Rachel waiting outside. "Bruce gave him a sedative. He's gonna probably be out for the rest of the day" Rhodey tells them all and Steve looks down at his feet. Rachel rests a hand on his back, knowing that everything Tony said in there got to him. It got to her too. "You guys take care of him. I'll bring him a Xorrian elixir when I come back" Carol says before she starts to leave the room. "Where are you going?" Rachel questions. "To kill Thanos" she answers, very monotoned. Steve, Rachel and Nat look at each other in shock before following Carol out.

"Hey. You know, we usually work as a team here and uh, between you and I, morale's a little fragile" Nat tells Carol and Rhodey follows behind them, leaning against the doorway. "We realise up there is more your territory but this is our fight too" Steve argues almost pleadingly. "You even know where he is?" Rhodey questions. "I know people who might" she answers simply, refusing to give them any further information. "Don't bother. I can tell you where Thanos is" the blue woman, Nebula interrupted and everyone looks at her hopefully.

"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? And his answer was always the same. To the Garden" Nebula explains to the group. "That's cute. Thanos has a retirement plan" Rhodey comments and Rachel finds herself smiling slightly at the joke. "So, where is he?" Steve asks, determined to stay on topic. "When Thanos snapped his fingers, Earth became ground zero for a power surge of ridiculously cosmic proportion. No one's ever seen anything like it. Until two days ago... on this planet" Rocket explains as he shows the power surges on Earth and this other planet.

"Thanos is there" Nebula confirms. "He used the stones again" Nat states as she watches the power surge on this other planet. "Hey, hey, hey. We'd be going in short handed you know?" Bruce reminds everyone. "Look, he's still got the stones, so-" Rhodey starts. "So let's get them. Use them to bring everyone back" Carol interrupts. "Just like that?" Bruce questions in disbelief. "Yeah, just like that" Steve answers determined. "Even if there's a small chance we can undo this. I mean, we owe it to everyone who's not in this room to try" Nat argues, hopeful of the chance get the rest of their family back. "If we do this, how do we know it's gonna end any differently than it did before?" Bruce asks, clearly being logical about this plan. "Because before you didn't have me" Carol answers, causing Rachel to roll her eyes, taking notice of her cocky tone.

"Hey new girl? Everybody in this room is about that superhero life. And if you don't mind my asking, where have you been all this time?" Rhodey asks her, not accepting her cocky tone either. "There are a lot of other planets in the universe. And unfortunately, they didn't have you guys" she answers and Rhodey glances at everyone, seemingly unimpressed by her response. Thor suddenly stands and marches towards Carol and stops in front of her before summoning his axe. She doesn't flinch at all as the axe flies past her head and grins at Thor. "I like this one" he nods to the rest of the group.

"Let's go get this son of a bitch" Steve states sternly as he looks to everyone in the room. Rachel says 'language' in her head as a small smile appears on her face. Steve glances at her and sees her smile, knowing why she's smiling and smiles back as everyone exits the room and suits up.

---

Everyone sits in the ship on their way to The Garden. "Okay, who here hasn't been to space?" Rocket asks as he turns to look at everyone. Steve, Rachel, Nat and Rhodey raise their hands and Thor and Carol chuckle at them. "You better not throw up on my ship" Rocket replies. "Approaching jump in 3, 2, 1" Nebula counts down and the ship surges forwards at rapid speed. Steve grips his arm rest tightly and everyone watches the mix of beautiful colours travel past them in a blur. They arrive at The Garden and Carol flies out and heads down for recon.

Nat glances up for the tablet she's using to see Steve staring at his compass, the photo of Rachel he had placed inside. She can't help herself but grin, happy to know her best friend has someone who cares and loves her. "This is gonna work Steve" Nat assures him, drawing Rachel's attention to the conversation. "I know it will. Cause I don't know what I'm gonna do if it doesn't" Steve replies as he places the compass back in his belt. Rachel wraps an arm around his waist, knowing this loss has hit him harder than he's letting on and that he really needs this win. She wants this to work too, she's lost her friends and her family to the snap and she wants them back. Steve wraps an arm around her and they both hug each other tightly.

"No satellites. No ships, No armies. No ground defences of any kind. It's just him" Carol informs them as she approaches the ship. "And that's enough" Nebula states, ready to attack a defenceless Thanos along with everyone else.