When The War Dies Down

Chapter 19

*Wakanda*

They had lost. Everyone had.

Bucky was the first, and he had ran to Rhodey in fear. His gun had dropped and it landed with a thunk.

Sam was next, yelling before his voice faded into the air.

Groot said his line and was gone, just before Rocket could reach him.

T'Challa faded before their eyes, looking at Shuri. Then she faded, just the same.
Hope ran over to a tree, and then she was gone. Poof. Nothing.

Wanda had faded without a sound, her ashes laying dead on Vison's body.

"We lost." Steve said, breathing heavily.

Nobody knew where Peter, Tony, or the other guardians were.
- -

*A week later*

Rocket was depressed, relying on Earth's liquor to drown his sorrows. Steve was part of a support group, but knowing he could've tried harder didn't help his preaching. Natasha didn't say anything, but was helping people get back up. Clint was trying to find ways to reverse what had happened. He had snapped at Bruce once, claiming he wasn't helping the cause. Thor had nearly took off the archer's head.

The barrier was clear, even though the old teammates had fought together. There was still a line that they didn't even have the energy to cross anymore; especially Bruce, Thor, and Rhodey. They didn't hang out with the rogues unless explicitly needed, all still uncomfortable around them, and were seen multiple times escaping down to the labs, just them, a trio grieving. None of them went into Tony's lab. They all watched it though, expected for Tony, Peter, or anyone to be sitting there shooing away Dum-e and tapping on holograms, with a ocean of blue floating around them. But it didn't happen. They weren't there, and that was the pressing reality of it all.

"It's weird." Thor said one night, a glass of liquor in his hand and Stormbreaker casually on the table next to him.

"Without them?" Rhodey asked, understanding the depth Thor was trying to get at.

"Without him. Without Peter. Without Loki."

Rhodey gave out a forced laugh. "I haven't been away from Tones since I was seventeen. Even when I was deployed, he gave me tech so we could talk."

"Tony and I always came down here Monday nights to mess around and try to teach Dum-e, Butterfingers, and U how to play volleyball. They still don't know how to." Bruce said, playing numbly with a pen.

Rhodey recalled a conversation he had with Tony shortly after Peter was born.

"One day, there's going to be a one way mission and you're not going to make it Tones. You can't keep putting yourself head first into danger."

"That's why I have you. If anything was to happen, you're what Peter has. I'm trusting you to be his godfather."

"And I aim to do that if that ever was to happen. Tones, please don't make it happen."

What if Peter was on a foreign planet alone, with no way back to earth? He would die without water, and no other planet in the galaxy had enough resources to sustain life.

"What happens if one of them is alone, in the middle of space?" Rhodey asked, voicing the thoughts that plagued him at night.

"We save them." Thor replied simply. "And if they aren't, we avenge them, that's what we do."

"Steve and them, they're trying to find Thanos. They'll fail without Tony." Bruce sighed, he didn't have any hope of them succeeding.

"Is there any hints to where that grape is?"