𝗀 𝗁 𝗈 𝗌 𝗍 | | 𝗌 𝗍 𝖾 𝗏 𝖾 𝗋 𝗈 𝗀 𝖾 𝗋 𝗌

𝗌 𝖾 𝗏 𝖾 𝗇 𝗍 𝗒 － 𝖿 𝗈 𝗎 𝗋

✧ 𝟤𝟢𝟣𝟪, 𝗉𝗅𝖺𝗇𝖾𝗍 𝟢𝟤𝟧𝟫-𝖲 ✧

EVERYONE EXCEPT TONY AND PEPPER boarded the Benatar, Rocket and Nebula's ship. Marta wore her suit, seated beside her husband, eyes closed as she breathed slowly. The ship was flying through the air, and while Marta adored planes, she was terrified to be leaving Earth. "Is she okay?" Natasha asked Steve. Marta had never been so openly scared before.

        Steve looked away from the ground to check on his wife briefly. "Yeah, she's fine. She doesn't like space, she doesn't like aliens, she really doesn't like the talking animals," Steve answered quietly. "She's never gotten a real chance to get used to this time without being mind-controlled. It's a lot to take in." he explained, and Natasha nodded.

        The ship slowed down when it reached a spot above the Earth. "Okay, who here hasn't been to space?" Rocket asked, turning to look at the team.

        Natasha, Steve, Rhodey and Marta all raised their hands. "Why?" Rhoded muttered, Carol laughing lightly.

        "You better not throw up on my ship." Rocket said, and Marta opened her eyes, even more petrified.

        "Approaching jump in 3... 2... 1!" Nebula counted down. Right before she finished, Marta gripped her seat for dear life, reaching out to grasp Steve's hand tightly. Marta's eyes were wide as they went through a wormhole. Seconds later, the ship slowed into orbit above the planet Thanos was currently on.

        Carol flew out of the ship, her body glowing. "I'll head down for recon." Carol said before she flew away.

        Marta and the others stood from their seats, preparing for what was going to happen. Marta squeezed Steve's hand once before letting it go, getting her weapons ready. Steve watched with a longing look in his eyes. She was so hopeless, so sad. That wasn't her. Steve reached into his pocket and pulled out his compass. Inside was Steve's favorite picture of Marta, the one he had been looking at when he drove his plane into the ice all those years ago.

        "This is gonna work, Steve." Natasha said knowingly as Steve flipped his compas closed, instead looking at his sullen wife loading her guns.

        "I know it will," Steve said while still watching Marta. "Cause I don't know what she's going to do if it doesn't."

        Carol flew back to the ship. "No satellites, no ships, no armies, no ground defenses of any kind. It's just him." she updated the group.

        "And that's enough." Nebula said curtly.

        The team made a plan, quickly, before the ship flew down to the planet. Thanos's garden was beautiful. If Marta were to ever truly retire, she might like something like what he had. When it was time, Carol blasted through the roof, knocking into Thanos and grabbing his neck in a blinding fury. Bruce, wearing his suit, emerged from the ground and held onto the arm Thanos had used to snap his fingers. Rhodey grabbed his other arm when he flew in, and Thor made his way into the hut, using his axe to slice off Thanos's arm, the gauntlet over it.

        Steve, Marta and Natasha walked in next, Steve wearing his old suit from the year Marta came out of the ice. She reminded herself to tell him later that she liked it. Thanos groaned in pain from his arm missing as Marta stared at him, her head and face uncovered. Rocket rolled over Thanos's limb, seeing that the gauntlet was empty. "Oh no." he said, looking up.

        Steve looked down at the empty gauntlet. "Where are they?" he asked after a pause.

        Carol tightened her grip around Thanos's neck. "Answer the question!" she demanded.

        "The universe required correction. After that, the stones served no purpose, beyond temptation." Thanos said, the entire left side of his body burned from the radiation the stones emitted when he used them.

        "You murdered trillions!" Bruce shouted in anger, pushing Thanos away.

        Thanos sat up. "You should be grateful." he said, but Bruce just punched him.

        Natasha stepped up to be beside Marta, her voice shaking. "Where are the stones?" she questioned again, gripping Marta's forearm to stabilize herself.

        "Gone. Reduced to atoms." Thanos answered.

        Marta's eyes watered with angered tears. Before anyone knew it, she had raised her gun and shot a bullet into Thanos's chest, the alien groaning in the pain it caused him. Marta liked seeing him in pain. "You used them two days ago." Marta said monotonously as Steve put a hand on hers, pushing her gun back into her thigh holster where it came from.

        "I used the stones to destroy the stones. It nearly killed me. But the work is done. It always will be," Marta shot him again as everyone deflated, hopeless looks on their faces. They couldn't fix this. "I am inevitable." Thanos said, and a tear slipped down Marta's face, her gun held high.

        "We have to tear this place apart, he-he-he has to be lying." Rhodey stammered, refusing to believe they had come this far only to lose again.

        Nebula spoke up. "My father is many things. A liar is not one of them." she stepped towards Thanos slowly, who had now sat up fully.

        "Ah, thank you, daughter. Perhaps I treated you too harshly–" Thanos began. If he was going to say more, no one would ever know, because Thor sliced Thanos's head off with his axe. Some of his blood splattered on Marta's face, and as she reached to wipe it off, her tears fell faster.

        Thanos fell to the ground, dead, as Thor reeled from what he had done. "What did you do?" Rocket asked, faltering.

        Thor was broken. "I went for the head." he breathed heavily, turning and walking out of the hut. Marta stumbled backwards into Steve, her breaths coming out uneven.

        Marta used her sleeve to wipe her tears and Thanos's blood as Nebula approached her father's head, closing his eyes in a guilty mourning. It was really over. Everyone was gone, there was no getting them back. Marta turned and she was already in Steve's embrace. She cried quietly into his neck, praying that her luck would change, that the cards of her life would shift. She just prayed.

✧