Rogue: Annihilation (An Avengers Sequel)

8. We're Still A Team

The alien's spaceship was gone, and we were all still standing in the empty train station looking up at the sky, trying to figure out what had just happened.

After a few seconds, Steve turned to me. He was more bearded than the last time I saw him. He'd obviously perfected the 'nomad' look. "Wanna tell us why we're here?"

I raised an eyebrow, forcefully pressing a hand against my probable broken rib. "Shouldn't I be asking you that? Because, in case you've forgotten, you guys weren't even supposed to be together, let alone here."

"You're welcome," Sam said sarcastically, walking over to Wanda and Vision, who was still slumped on the ground.

"Thank you," I called over to him belatedly. "But seriously... what are you two doing here?"

"Banner called," Steve informed me. "He thought you might need help protecting Vision and Wanda from aliens." He raised an eyebrow, as his face took on a look of disbelief. "I didn't know he was being literal."

I crossed my arms, feeling glass crunch under my feet. "He wasn't supposed to call you," I said, internally cursing the scientist. "I'm just here to help Vision, you guys should go before you get in too deep."

Steve frowned. "Banner also said something about 'Infinity Stones' and that the fate of the world is at stake. I was hoping you could fill in the blanks. After all, we did come all this way."

"You shouldn't have," I persisted. I felt guilty enough for the events that led to his death, and for being the reason that the team had to leave New York. I couldn't be responsible for what would happen if Thanos got his hands on them.

"We're still a team," Steve insisted. For some reason, his tone put me at ease. We were a team. Hadn't I been saying just hours ago that I missed them?

I sighed, crossing my arms. "Let me just preface this by saying that I only know what I've heard from other people. You should talk to Banner, or Wong. Or Strange, if he ever comes back from space."

"Wait, 'Strange' is a person?" Sam asked, struggling to keep the smile from his face.

I nodded. "Trust me, a man with a doctorate in being weird is the least confusing thing I've dealt with today," I told them, looking up at Steve. "I really didn't want to drag you guys into this."

"You didn't," he reminded me.

"If Ross finds you-"

"I'm done taking orders from the government," he said determinedly, his voice so serious it was almost scary. "We're here to help, whether you like it or not. We should at least know what we're helping with."

I nodded, unable to fault his logic. After all, we needed all the help we could get. "The Stone that powers Vision, the 'Mind' Stone," I started, pointing at the glowing yellow rock in Vision's head. "There are five more just like it. And Thanos, who I assume is an alien, wants to use them to wipe out half the universe."

Wanda walked over to us, her arms tightly crossed in a defensive stance. "What are you talking about?"

"Thanos," I repeated, wondering how many times I'd said the name of a man that didn't exist to me 24 hours ago. "He's been tracking the Stones and sending his 'children' all over the universe to retrieve them for him. He already has the Power Stone, and he took the tesseract from Loki... after killing him."

Steve's eyes widened at the news of Loki's demise. "What about Thor?"

"Status unknown," I answered, almost robotically. If I thought about Thor as a mythical creature, rather than our friend and fellow Avenger, the situation was easier to deal with. "We fought some of them in New York. They came looking for the Stone that Strange had. They took him, but I have no idea if they got the Stone."

Steve nodded. "Where's Stark?"

I took a breath, trying to make this sound as realistic as possible whilst also hiding any fears that I had about my roommate's (or more-than-roommate's) current situation. With what we were about to face, there was no time for fear. "He's in space protecting a wizard and a teenage spider-boy from one of Thanos's alien children." Sam gave Steve a look, and I shrugged. "I know how it sounds, but that's what happened. We were attacked by two aliens earlier because Strange protects/keeps the Time Stone. He would rather let them take him than give it up."

"The Time Stone?" Steve repeated, a confused look on his face. "Like-?"

"Like literally turning back time. A pocket-sized glowing green time machine, if that makes it easier to understand," I finished his sentence. "Though I've never actually seen it in use."

"Thanos has two Stones," Wanda said, bringing us back on topic. "The Time Stone is in space, so we can assume that he'll have it... if he doesn't already." She bit her lip, looking back at Vision. "If he gets the other two, does that mean that he's going to come down to Earth to take Vision's?"

I put my head in my hands, allowing darkness to envelope me for a second, before coming back to the real world. "It's a possibility. According to Banner, Thanos is behind Loki's attack on New York. If he's been searching for the Stones since then, and his 'children' couldn't take the Stone from us, I guess he's exhausted all other options. We have to assume that he has a plan."

Wanda nodded determinedly. "Then we need to hide Vision," she said. "Thanos can't take what he can't find."

I shook my head. "He tracked you guys to Scotland, finding the Stones isn't a problem for him."

"Then what do we do?" she asked, raking a hand through her hair as she tried not to show how worried she was about Vision's fate. "How do we know that he hasn't already killed Stark and the Strange guy and taken the Time Stone?"

"He hasn't," I said firmly. Steve gave me a look that I chose to ignore the meaning of. "Stark and Strange are not dead, okay? Strange was willing to do whatever it took to protect the Stone. And Stark..." I trailed off, wondering if his choice to go to space would be one of the worst choices he'd ever made. "Stark is fine. Even if he has to come back to Earth without Strange, he's coming back to Earth. He has to."

Wanda and Steve looked at each other, silently agreeing not to comment on my obvious anxieties.

"What's the next step?" Steve asked, changing the subject, much to my happiness. It was just like Captain America to work out our next steps methodically rather than just winging it. I was more the 'winging it' kind of person.

"New York," I answered immediately. Wanda gave me a horrified look. "We need to get back to Banner, regroup, and work out how to stop Thanos from implementing his plan."

"You said we couldn't go back to New York," Wanda reminded me, sounding exactly like Jessica had. "I can't go to jail... especially if Vision is in danger."

"No one's going to jail," I told her defiantly.

Sam raised an eyebrow at me mockingly, pointing downwards. "Your ankle bracelet is flashing red."

I groaned, looking down at the bracelet. For a few glorious moments, I had completely forgotten that I still had to deal with Thaddeus Ross whenever I got back to the Compound.

"This Thanos thing isn't an Avengers-only mission," I told them, in the same faux-confident voice that I planned to use whenever Ross confronted me. "The whole world, the universe, is at stake. Ross and the rest of the government aren't the scariest thing we have to deal with anymore." I sighed. "And if Ross wants to fight me on this, he can. But one of my house arrest conditions was that I was allowed to save the world. And even if he doesn't believe me... beating Thanos is saving the world."

They all looked at each other, thinking about my speech. Immediately, everyone understood that Thanos was our biggest threat, the only thing standing between life and death.

"Okay," Steve nodded. "Let's go home."

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What will happen when the team get back to New York?

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