HEROES | T. ODINSON 1

44.

After a woman named Carol Danvers, who we quickly learned went by the alias Captain Marvel, came barging into the mostly deserted Avengers compound like she owned the place while demanding to know the whereabouts of the late Nick Fury, we immediately clung to the desperate idea that we still had a shot at finding Tony and the others, if they were even still alive. It was a long shot, putting our faith into a new face, but her strength and knowledge of the universe offered us that which we thought we'd lost indefinitely; the willpower to keep searching. The fear that she would return to us empty handed played a large part in our belief in her capabilities, but whatever plan we could hold onto, we accepted with open arms.

I think I can speak for all of us when I say we were surprised to ascertain it took her less than two days to return to New York. She found Tony Stark and a cyborg assassin woman named Nebula aboard a humongous space craft and brought the two of them safely back to us. It was a bittersweet welcome home, because the sole return of Tony Stark meant the others who had been with him when he departed earth had become part of the fifty per cent of people who had vanished after the Snap.

After the return, everyone including Tony himself slowly went their own separate ways. I wish I could say Thor and I got our happy ending. I didn't think there could be such a thing anymore, at least not in a universe ripped forcefully in half, but I suppose I had faith in the beginning, all of us did. Faith in our ability to make things work out because we deserved them to, but I quickly learned the hard way that things never work out the way you want them to and karma clearly doesn't exist, for if it did, we would have found peace long ago.

Whatever was left of my world crumbled completely when Tony confirmed indeed my biggest fear by returning to us with nobody on his ship except Nebula. Stephen was gone, really gone along with so many other good people, and even though deep down I already knew this, hearing it from an eyewitness who saw him disappear with his own eyes created a reality for me that I never wished to be a part of. I remember falling to the ground sobbing, Natasha by my side while Thor stood behind me, his eyes light blue and thunder booming in the sky far above us. I hated Nebula for being alive and instead of him, despised her for something she had no control over. Pepper told me I was grieving when I nearly punched her for speaking to me, but it took me a long time to realize I was taking my anger and frustration out on her.

Some of us didn't give up the search for Thanos while we mourned the loss of our loved ones. When Nebula revealed to us the location of where she thought he would be located, the tiny slither of hope we still had practically turned into a certainty, because after all, Thanos was the key to reversing this mess and tracking him down could perhaps bring us one step closer to possibly undoing what his heinous actions had caused.

The planet he inhabited was truly beautiful. With air and water free from toxins and gas caused by exhaust fumes, organisms thrived under the planet's beaming sun. Thanos however, was alone; no family to watch the sunrise with every morning or pick fresh fruit with, no protection from people like us, nobody to talk to except himself. I wonder whether he had even the slightest clue we would come for him eventually, but perhaps he had already accepted his fate, for he didn't put up much of a fight when we tried to take the gauntlet from him for once and for all.