Infinity

Chapter 150

October 2019

Nat's POV

It was exactly one year ago today, that the world changed forever. Everyone's been gone for a year, and we've given up on trying to undo it. Steve and I tried brainstorming ideas for a couple of months after killing Thanos, but it was no use. There was no undoing this. Since then, I've thrown myself into my work and trying to help keep the universe safe. One of the documents I found in Marlie's file was a project for a deep space communications system. It was genius. I could now communicate with everyone from anywhere in the universe. Not that there were many to communicate with.

After setting up the communications system I was able to reach out to Carol, Rocket, and Nebula. We decided that we would work together to keep everyone safe and help others adjust to our new reality. While they were out in space, Rhodey was working here on earth. Everyone else left to their own lives.

Bruce vanished into one of his labs, saying that he needed to work things out with the Hulk, Tony was ignoring my calls, and Steve moved out of the compound, but continued to visit at least once a week. It was lonely living in the huge compound alone, but I managed.

One of the things I busied myself with was trying to track down Clint. After her hung up on me, I looked for him. He lost his entire family, and I knew he was hurting. A couple of months into my search I found him. Or more like I found what he had become. Clint had taken on the persona Ronin. He'd been all over the world tracking down gangs and trafficking organizations and killing everyone involved. They were all horrible people, but I was more concerned with the fact that my friend, in his grief, had lost sight of who he was. It was frustrating to know what he had become and being unable to help him.

Everything had changed so much this past year. The borders between countries had become nearly nonexistent. There were no longer homeless people all over the big cities. Crime rates had gone down significantly. The economy of the world had grown exponentially. Yet even with all this good, there was a sense of deep loss. No one was the same. It was like the entire world was stuck by this one event and unable to move forward. Everywhere I went I could feel the loss and not just the loss of people. It was the loss of joy. Joy and happiness had completely vanished from the world. There was also a huge spike in mental health problems. Suicide rates and depression was at an all-time high. Yes, there were some good things that had come out of this, but none of it was worth the price we all had to pay.

Today was going to be a difficult day. With it being a year ago, most businesses had closed down for the day to allow people a chance to grieve and remember those that they had lost. Most of the governments had also organized a memorial. People could send in the names of the people they lost, and the names would be engraved in stone. Every major city of the world was doing this. Today was the breaking of ground on the New York memorial. They had turned it into a huge dedication service that would include speeches and a candlelight vigil.

I had received an invitation to attend as well as all of the remaining team members. They wanted us there to provide some hope and reassurance to the people, but I wasn't sure if I could do it. The guilt of it all still weighed heavily on me and how could I give others hope when I had lost mine.

For some reason as I worked, I couldn't get Marlie's original message out of my head. I haven't done anything she told me to do. I've lost my hope, closed myself off, and haven't seen or spoken to Tony since he left the compound. She asked me to look out for her family and I haven't even tried beyond the rare phone call to Tony, which he always ignores. Maybe today would be a good day to change that since I actually have an excuse to see him.

Resolved, I grabbed my car keys and start the forty-five-minute drive. I pulled into the long driveway and parked the car right outside the beautiful cabin. Looking up at the house I couldn't help but think back to Tony and Marlie's other homes. Their Malibu home was a typical mansion with huge and extravagant rooms and decorations. Their next home was the first one Marlie had any say in choosing and it showed. It was still a mansion, but it was smaller and had a homier feel to it. Then they moved to this cabin, and it had a similar feel to it. It was very cozy, and anyone could see that it was a family home. There were toys strewn across the yard from the twins and I could see that Tony had at least made an effort to keep Marlie's flower garden alive this year.