Project Reaper

32. Picking Up the Pieces

Hello again!

Three weeks after Asterin and Castiel had turned to dust, a phone rang. Dean and Sam looked up.

"Not mine," Sam stated.

"Or mine."

The brothers moved to look for the source of the disturbance, and found Asterin's phone.

Dean answered it, gruffly asking, "Hello?" He put it on speaker.

"So Ash is gone, then?" Natasha asked.

"Uh, yeah. Her and Cas," Sam said.

Natasha sighed, "Shit."   

"What happened?" Dean all but demanded.

"We lost. Did she tell you guys anything?"

"She mentioned something about some guy trying to wipe out half the universe."

"As I'm sure you can tell, it happened. We're trying to regroup and figure what to do." Natasha sighed. "I know this is a lot to ask of you guys, but is there any way to get you guys to New York?"

"Uh, we can get there in a few days," Sam said.

"Thank you," Nat said quietly before hanging up.

___

One long car ride later, Sam, Dean and Jack got out of the car at the Avengers Compound. Jack was staring at the building in awe. "Ash worked here?"
Dean couldn't help but smile. "I think so," He said. Dean pulled on Cas's coat before locking the car and walking to Jack and Sam, who were on the other side of the car.

A blonde woman with a familiar face exited the building, a relieved smile on her face. "Hi, boys," She said.

"Hi, Romanoff," Dean responded.

"Please, you can call me Natasha," She said, offering her hand to shake. She looked at Jack. "Now, you I don't know."

"I'm Jack," He told her, excited. "It's nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, kid." She looked back at the boys. "Shall we?"

The Winchesters followed Natasha into the compound, where they saw several other people looking at computer screens. People's faces were on the screens with names below them. Steve Rogers was watching the screens, but he turned back to see them. He nodded to Sam and Dean, seeing Cas's coat and Ash's absence. "I take it they won't be joining us?" He asked quietly. Dean could only shake his head. "I'm sorry," He apologized.

Dean squinted confusedly. "The hell are you sorry for?" He asked quietly.

"We couldn't stop him."

"It's not your fault, we all mess up these things. We caused the apocalypse one time," Dean started, quickly realizing he didn't really have a point. He cleared his throat, saying, "It doesn't really matter how badly we fuck things up, just that we try to fix it," He decided. Steve looked down briefly before nodding.

"You're right."

The monitor nearest to them began to shake. Dean reached out to steady it before realizing that the entire building was shaking. "The hell?" Dean muttered.

Everyone exited the building and looked up.

There was what appeared to be a spaceship supported by a golden glowing woman. Dean blinked in surprise and looked to Sam who shrugged as well.

The woman set the ship down and stopped glowing, revealing a woman with golden brown hair wearing a blue, red and gold jumpsuit with a golden star in the middle of the chest. Dean smirked, turning to his right to tease Ash-