It was dark out when the Benatar touched down outside the Avengers facility.

The lights were on, meaning the others were there. He wasn't sure if he was prepared to see the team, especially not Steve. He hadn't seen him since the bunker, and he was not in the condition to deal with all of that.

Tony didn't want to see anyone, because they all adored Peter in one way or another, he'd have to tear the hope that Peter was still alive away from them.

All of them.

Nebula guided Tony down the ramp, he made sure he kept his eyes locked on the stairs because he feared to see who was waiting to greet him.

At the bottom of the stairs, he felt a strong hand press against his shoulder.

It was Steve, and he didn't look any different. Still the same guy who bloodied Tony to a pulp.

Tony stumbled down the last couple of stairs as Steve clung onto him tightly, Tony looked back up to Nebula, before turning away, he wrapped a reluctant hand around Steve's arm.

"Couldn't stop him." Tony coughed out, not sure of what else he could say without breaking.

"Neither could I." Steve sighed while he guided Tony along the field.

Tony stopped in his tracks, pulling on Steve's arm. He had just realised that he was back on earth. Somewhere he never thought he'd be again.

"I lost the kid." He choked, he watched the colour fade from Steve's cheeks and the light disappear from his eyes. He knew that Steve was one of the many to adore Peter. Luke explained how he knew Peter and Steve was able to put the pieces on who he was, that small kid he met on the Helicarrier came a long way to protect the world he loved.

Steve sighed, "Tony, we lost."

"Is, uh...?" Tony heard movement across the grass, a shadow cast over him. He melted at the sight of his fiancée - safe and alive. She was still alive. Horrifyingly that meant, when the dust settled on her relief to see Tony.

"Oh, my God!" Pepper exclaimed as he locked herself around him, "Oh, my God!"

Tony closed his eyes as he tightened his grip, pulling his arm away from Steve's grasp, "It's okay." They parted, and he pressed a kiss against her cheek.

Natasha stood, Peter's Aunt Nat, who would go to the end of the universe for Peter.

Panic etched across her face, as she scanned the ship, searching for hope. She cried out, something in Russian that Tony couldn't understand, but he could tell that she knew. He'd never seen her so broken before, so human. She'd been trained, engineered into the perfect assassin, but Peter, he warmed his way into her life, breaking through her cold exterior to see who was underneath. Now, she'd lost him, and she had no idea what to do, but break.

She turned quickly, and bolted into the arms of Rhodey; he clumsily caught her, but stood strong, wrapping his arms protectively around her back, as she sobbed on his shoulder.

Luke blinked away tears at now seeing his last friend is now confirmed dead, "Oh, Pete."

-

Tony sat in a wheelchair in one of the communal lounges. He was attached to a drip, and he hid behind his signature sunglasses. The team were dotted across the room, and holographic images of those who dusted were flickering around. Tony knew he'd been asked here to discuss Thanos, but to him, it felt like a discount group therapy session, that he did not want to be apart of.

"It's been twenty-three days since Thanos came to Earth." Rhodey started.

The image of Strange popped up in front of Tony, he looked away, still ashamed that the man had sacrificed the time stone, for his life.

"World governments are in pieces," Natasha said, her voice rough. It had been a long night, for all of them, "The parts that are still working are trying to take a census."

The picture of Scott Lang hovering in front of Tony switched to Phil Coulson. Natasha picked up on this and froze for a second as tears filled her eyes when she saw a photo of Peter that was taken from his S.H.I.E.L.D. file. Tony looked at the picture, as soon as it switched off, he pushed his sunglasses up his nose and turned away.

"And it looks like he did..." Natasha continued, "He did exactly what he said he was gonna do. Thanos wiped out fifty percent, of all living creatures."

"Where is he now?" Tony asked, looking up to Steve, "Where?"

"We don't know." Steve answered, his arms crossed against his chest, "He just opened a portal and walked through."

Tony wheeled forward, his caught a glimpse of Thor, sat in the room next to them, with his chin dipped to his chest, "What's wrong with him?"

"Oh, he's pissed." Rocket says as Tony turned, stunned to see a literal talking Racoon sat on the ground next to Luke.

"He thinks he failed. Which of course he did." Luke adds.

"Yeah, but you know there's a lot of that's going around, ain't there?" Rocket adds.

Tony held out his hand, "Honestly, until this exact second, I thought you were a Build-A-Bear."

Rocket shrugged, "Maybe I am."

"We've been hunting Thanos for three weeks now." Steve cut back in, "Deep Space scans, and satellites, and we got nothing. Tony, you fought him."

"Who told you that?" Tony asks. "I didn't fight him." He snapped, he tilted his head to his shoulder, "No, he wiped my face with a planet while the Bleecker Street Magician gave away the store. That's what happened."

"Okay." Steve sighed, almost disappointedly. Part of Tony wished he had the strength to punch him.

"There was no fight. He's unbeatable." Tony finished.

"Did he give you any clues, any coordinates, anything?" Steve asked.

"Pfft!" Tony blew a raspberry as he saluted, he pointed up to Rhodey, "I saw this coming a few years back." He'd never admitted this to the team before, but after everything, it was time they were faced with their painful reality, "I had a vision. I didn't wanna believe it. Thought I was dreaming."

"Tony, I'm gonna need you to focus." Steve told him.

"And I needed you." Tony hissed, "As in past tense. That trumps what you need. It's too late, Cap. Sorry." He moved forward, and slammed the plate in front of him with a closed fist, "You know what I need?" He barked as he stood up, "I need a shave." He let out a swallow breath.

"Hey, I believe I remember telling all you..." He ripped his cannula out as Rhodey chanted his name, attempting to get him to stop, but Tony knew that no one could blame him for this. "Alive and otherwise what we needed was a suit of armour around the world." He cried as he moved his hand around haphazardly, "Remember that? Whether it impacted our precious freedoms or not. That's what we needed!"

"Well, that didn't work out, did it?" Same old Steve, he always had an answer for everything.

"I said, we'd lose." Tony reminded him, "And you said, We'll do that together too." He mocked his voice as he sneered, "And guess what, Cap? We lost. And you weren't there. And not only that, but we let down a lot more people who were children mind you. Fighting our battles." He stumbled back, Rhodey reached over, grabbing his arms, "But that's what we do, right? Our best work after the fact? We're the Avengers, we're the Avengers!" He spat, he tapped Rhodey's shoulder, "Not the Pre-vengers."

"Okay," Rhodey said softly, but assertively as he tried to get Tony to calm down.

"Right?"

"You made your point." Rhodey pushed on his shoulders, "Just sit down."

"Okay..."

Rhodey kept his hands on him, "Okay?"

"Nah, nah. Here's my point." Tony scrambled to break free, he had no ill will toward Rhodey, only Steve, "You know what?"

"Tony, you're sick."

Tony pointed over to Carol, the hero who saved his life, "She's great, by the way."

"Sit down. Sit." Rhodey pleaded.

"We need you. You're new blood." Tony told Carol, Peter would have adored her that was for sure. She had a cold exterior, so Peter would have gotten along with her instantly, and vice versa, even Fury joked about that to Coulson over the years. "We're a bunch of tired old mules!"

He escaped Rhodey's hold and stormed over to Steve with an accusing finger pointed at his face, he stopped when they were nose-to-nose.

"I got nothing for you, Cap!" He screamed, he let out a strained breath, and he quieted his voice to a harsh whisper, "I got no coordinates, no clues, no strategies, no options." He held out his hands, "Zero. Zip. Nada." He spat, "No trust. Liar."

He reached his hand up, and tore off his nanotech suit arc reactor from his chest, and he slapped it into Steve's palm, "Here, take this. You find him, and you put that on. You hide."

Black dots swam in his eyes and he collapsed down to his knees. "Tony!" Steve exclaimed, panicked as he reached out to grab him.

"I'm fine." Tony choked out breathlessly, "I..."

The darkness took over, before Tony had a chance to fight it.

-

They move him into the medical room and Rhodey says he's gonna be fine.

"You guys take care of him, I'll bring him an Xorrian elixir when I get back." Carol says, walking away.

"Where are you going?" Luke asks her as she walks off.

"To kill Thanos." She says as she keeps walking and they run to catch up with her.

"Hey. You know, we usually work as a team here...and, between you and I, morale's a little fragile." Natasha tells her.

"We realize up there is more your territory, but this is our fight, too." Steve jumps in.

"You even know where he is?" Rhodes asks.

"I have some people who might." Carol says.

"Don't bother." Nebula says, interrupting them all.

"I know exactly where he is." She says. "Thanos spent a long time trying to perfect me. And when he worked, he talked about his Great Plan. Even disassembled, I wanted to please him. I'd ask...where would we go once his plan was completed? His answer was always the same...to the garden." She tells them.

"That's cute. Thanos has a retirement plan." Luke says.

"So, where is he?" Steve asks her as Rocket pulls up a holographic map.

"When Thanos snapped his fingers, earth became ground zero for a power surge of ridiculously cosmic proportions." Rocket explains to them. "No ones ever seen anything like it. Until 2 days ago..." he pulls up a second planet, "on this planet." He shows another power serge.

"Thanos is there." Nebula says.

"He used the stones again." Natasha sees, but is left wondering why he would.

"Hey, Hey, Hey. We'd be going in short handed, you know?" Bruce states, trying to be the voice of reason among them. But not many of them cared.

As they debate wether or not to go, Thor gets up and walks towards Carol and calls stormbreaker towards him and she doesn't flinch. "I like this one." Thor says as they all agree to go.

"Let's go get the son of a bitch." Steve says as they get ready and head to the Milano and get ready to take off.

-

They fly out it the atmosphere into the outer atmosphere.

"Okay, Who here hasn't been to space?" Rocket asks the Avengers as they all raise their hands, except Thor. "You better not go throwing up on my ship." He tells them.

"Approaching jump in 3..2..1." Nebula says as they blast off to Titan-2.

As they come out of jump, Carol unbuckles and leaves the ship.

"I'll head down for recon." She says as she flies off.

Steve looks at a photo of Peggy in his compass and Natasha hopes this works so she can bring them all home. Peter, Coulson, Ava, everyone.

"This is going to work, Steve." Natasha promises.

"I know it is." Steve says as he faces her. "Because I don't know what I'm gonna do if it doesn't."

"No satellites. No ships. No armies. No ground defense of any kind. It's just him." Carol states as she flies back to them.

"And that's enough." Nebula says.

-

After they invade Thanos' home, Thor flies in and cuts his entire arm off, stopping him from using the stones as the rest of the Avengers walk in.

Rocket moves over to the gauntlet and flips it over to reveal the stones are missing.

"Oh, man." Rocket says as he sees they're gone.

"Where are they?" Luke asks as he holds Thanos' arm down.

"Answer the question." Carol says, tightening her grip around his neck.

"The universe required correction. After that, the stones served no purpose...beyond temptation." Thanos explains.

"You murdered trillions!" Bruce yells, as he pushes him backwards.

"You should be grateful." Thanos says as Luke punches him in the face.

He's been holding in that anger in for over a month. And he was pleased when he sees now that the Titan was actually bleeding and is missing a tooth with that punch.

"Where are the stones?" Natasha asks, praying it's not true.

"Gone. Reduced to atoms." Thanos says.

"You just used them 2 days ago!" Bruce shouts at him, angry.

"I used the stones to destroy the stones. It nearly killed me. But the work is done. It always will be. I am...inevitable." Thanos says.

"We have to tear this place apart. He has to be lying!" Rhodes says.

"No. My father is many things. My father isn't one of them." Nebula says in his defends, knowing Thanos wouldn't lie.

"Ah, thank you daughter. Perhaps I treated you too harshly." Thanos says as Thor slices his head off with one swing and the rest of the Avengers gasp in shock.

"What did you do?" Rocket asks.

"I went for the head." Thor states as he walks out of the house.

They're truly gone.

They lost.

Nobody was coming home.