The entire group was gathered inside of the Avenger headquarters. Not only that, but still images of several individuals started to fly around the holograms. Those they had lost in the Decimation. Starting with Erik Selvig, then going to Maria Hill, T'Challa, Scott Lang, Stephen Strange, Connie, and many more, even some faces of gems appeared there, like Pearl, Bismuth or Lapis.

''It's been 23 days since Thanos came to Earth." James Rhode spoke up.

''World governments are in pieces. The parts that are still working are trying to take a census..." Natasha added.

Garnet and Amethyst let out a sigh once Steven's image came up, having no idea what they're going to say to Greg the next time they'll see him.

"And it looks like he did... he did exactly what he said he was gonna do. Thanos wiped out fifty percent, of all living creatures." Black Widow continued explaining to Danvers what happened, as Tony stared to the lone image of Peter Parker staring at him, "He wiped out... fifty percent... of all living creatures."

''Where is he now? Where?" Tony asked, as he sat at a table, getting blood for healing, letting out a shaky breath.

''We don't know. He just opened a portal and walked through.'' Steve answered.

"We all tried to hold him back as long as we could, but he just walked through all of us like nothing." Sh'ira added, shaking her head.

"What's wrong with him?' Tony asked, pointing at sullen-looking Thor, sitting on a bench, seemingly deep in thought.

''Oh, he's pissed." Rocket stated, "He thinks he failed. Which of course he did, but you know there's a lot of that's going around, ain't there?"

Tony blinked, as if he had only just now noticed Rocket, "Honestly, until this exact second, I thought you were a Build-A-Bear.''

''Maybe I am." Rocket said back.

''We've been hunting Thanos for three weeks now. Deep Space scans, and satellites, we even used Homeworld's best technology and we got nothing." Garnet said, going back to the original topic.

"He just disappeared without a trace." Amethyst added.

 ''Tony, you fought him.'' Captain America said to Tony.

Tony looked puzzled, "Who told you that? I didn't fight him. No, he wiped my face with a planet while the Bleecker Street Magician gave away the store. That's what happened. There was no fight." He pointed at Jasper and Peridot, "If you need confirmation, you can ask these two."

Jasper and Peridot just stared at the floor in response, not saying anything, but it was enough for everyone to understand.

''Okay." Steve simply said, having no idea what to say about it.

''He's unbeatable." Tony stated.

''Did he give you any clues, any coordinates, anything?" Steve wanted to know.

Tony snorted. ''Pfft! I saw this coming a few years back. 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. As in past tense. That trumps what you need. It's too late buddy. Sorry. You know what I need?'' Stark said, standing up from the seat. He pushed things off the table with a clatter got better footing. Everyone winced at the noise, "I need to shave. And I believe I remember telling all youse...''

Tony lunged for Steve. Rhodes quickly came in front of him, trying to stop him, as he shouted, "Hey, hey, hey!"

"Tony, calm down. You're not in the condition to start fights!" Peridot told Tony to calm down.

"She's right. You should just sit back down." Jasper added.

''Alive and otherwise what we needed was a suit of armor around the world! Remember that? Whether it impacted our precious freedoms or not- that's what we needed!'' Tony continued his rant, not listening to neither of them.

"Well, that didn't work out, did it?" Steve pointed out.

"I said, "we'd lose". You said, "We'll do that together too." And guess what, Cap? We lost. And you weren't there. But that's what we do, right? Our best work after the fact? We're the Avengers, we're the Avengers. Not the Prevengers.'' Tony breathlessly stated.

''Okay." Rhodes said, his hands on Tony's shoulder.

''Right?'' Tony said, looking over at War Machine.

''You made your point. Just sit down" Rhodey stated.

"Okay...'' Tony simply said.

"Okay?" Rhodes raised his brow.

''Nah, nah. Here's my point. You know what?" Tony continued.

"Tony, you're sick." Rhodes said, concerned.

''She's great, by the way..." Tony said, everyone knew he was referring to Danvers.

''Sit down. Sit." Rhodes still tried to calm him down, without any effect.

"We need you. You're new blood. Bunch of tired old mules!" Tony stated as he walked up right up to Steve's face, his voice hushing down to a venomous whisper, " I got nothing for you, Cap! I got no coordinates, no clues, no strategies, no options. Zero. Zip. Nada. No trust. Liar."

Steve looked affected by Tony's words. The old friends just gazed at each other. After a moment, Tony riped  his Arc Reactor from his chest and shoved it into Steve's hand, as he said, "Here, take this. You find him, and you put that on. You hide.''

It was just a moment before Tony fell on the ground. Steve was immediately by his side, as everyone started to gather around them.

"Tony!" Rogers called out.

"I'm fine. I...'' Stark began before falling into a heap, unconscious

-----

Tony was dragged to the medical bay by Rhodes and Rogers and they put him on a bed to let him rest after everything he's been through in the recent weeks. Bruce had given him a sedative as Pepper Potts was sitting by his side, never leaving him alone.

"How is he doing?" Peridot asked him, as Rhodey walked out of the room, closing the door softly behind him.

"Bruce gave him a sedative. He's gonna probably be out for the rest of the day." Rhodes explained.

It was when Carol Danvers finally spoke up, "You guys take care of him. And I'll bring him a Xorrian Elixir when I come back.''

"Where are you going?" Natasha asked her.

"To kill Thanos." Danvers simply replied, walking away from them.

Steve and Natasha shared a quick look with each other, wondering if she was serious or not, before following her, as Romanoff spoke up to her, "Hey, you know, we usually work as a team here, and between you and I, morale's a little fragile."

''We realize up there is more your territory, but this is our fight too." Rogers added.

"Besides." Garnet said as they glanced over at her, "I'm certain that going after him alone is pretty much a suicide to you."

"That's right. Listen, I want him dead as much as everyone else here does, but you shouldn't underestimate the power of all of the Infinity Stones." Azurite agreed with the fusion.

''You even know where he is?" Rhodes then asked Captain Marvel.

"I know people who might." Danvers answered.

"It would be actually quite nice if they knew, because we weren't able to track him down even with the help of Homeworld's best technology." Shi'ra stated.

''Don't bother. I can tell you where Thanos is." Everyone turned to the source of the voice and saw Nebula who was standing in the back since she arrived in here. Every eye was on the cyborg as she walked over to the table, sliding away the hologram of Earth, and tapping in the coordinates of a new planet, and suddenly a completely new planet came into their view, "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 complete?". His answer was always the same: "To the Garden."

"That's cute. Thanos has a retirement plan." Rhodes stated, sarcastically.

"Everyone has one, I guess." Amethyst stated.

''So where is he?" Captain America asked.

''When Thanos snapped his fingers..." Rocket began as he hopped on the table, gesturing towards this new planet, "Earth became ground zero for a power surge of ridiculously cosmic proportions. No one's ever seen anything like it... Until two days ago." A massive shockwave appeared on that new planet, "On this planet." 

''Thanos is there." Nebula stated.

"And he used the stones again." Peridot observed. Thanos used the stones again so he still had them, but why did he had to use them again? That was the question that now wondered her.

''Hey, hey, hey. We'd be going in short-handed, you know." Banner protested.

''Look, he's still got the stones, so It's worth a try." Jasper stated.

''So let's get him... Use them to bring everyone back.'' Danvers stated.

Rhodes asked, "Just like that?"

Steve nodded, staring in the same hologram everyone else was, "Yeah, just like that."

"As long as he has the stones, I'm in." Azurite stated with Shi'ra nodding her head in agreement. If this was their chance to bring everyone back, then they had to try.

Natasha moved her head from one end of the table to the other as she stated, "Even if there's a small chance that we can undo this... I mean we owe it to everyone who's not in this room to try.''

Looking to so confident as everyone else was about this plan, Bruce Banner said, "If we do this, how do we know it's gonna end any differently than it did before?"

''Because before, you didn't have me." Carol Danvers was the one to answer.

"Hey, new girl, everyone here is about that superhero life. And if you don't mind my asking, where the hell have you been all this time?" Rhodes asked her, holding his hand out.

''There are a lot of other planets in the universe." Danvers stated, "And unfortunately, they didn't have you guys."

Thor, who has been eating a snack all this time, lousily pushed his chair out and stood up and walked over to Carol. She looked behind at him. He held his hand up, and catched Stormbreaker as it flies over to him, missing Carol by inches. But she didn't even flinch. She instead just sent a quick smile at the God of Thunder that turned into a smirk.

Thor smiled at her, "I like this one."

Steve stared at the hologram, at the planet that was simply called "The Garden". The only place where Thanos and all six Infinity Stones were hiding. He clenched his fists, looking to everyone, and said.

"Let's go get this son of a bitch."

----

Everyone were gathered in the the Guardians' ship that was repaired by Rocket, Peridot, Shi'ra, Nebula and Azurite and ready to take them to Thanos' current location. Steve sat in one of the few seats, wearing his suit from the Winter Soldier situation four years ago. Natasha, Rhodes, Garnet and Jasper took the last seats, James was in his War Machine armor. Jasper was readying herself for another confrotation with the Mad Titan, even though her helmet was destroyed, she hoped that they were going to defeat him this time. She felt someone's hand on her shoulder as she turned to the person who owned it and saw Garnet, the fusion and the orange gem sharing a quick nod with each other. Amethyst, Azurite and Shi'ra all surrounded nearby seats and held on tightly to each one. Banner, Peridot and Nebula took the very front seats while Carol and Rocket took the main pilot chairs.

"Who here hasn't been to space?" Rocket asked aloud.

Although somewhat hesitant, Steve, Natasha, and Rhodes all raised their hands up. Danvers looked back at them, smiling humorously to their uncertain expressions.

''Why?" Rhodes asked.

Rocket stared at the three who raised their hands, ''You better not throw up on my ship."

Nebula looked down at the control pannel and announced, "Approaching jump in 3... 2... 1!"

The ship jumped forward into a wormhole, and Steve gripped his seat's armrests, practically pushed back into the chair as his eyes reflected the lights that traveled a million miles a second. Rhodes and Romanoff were doing the same, their seats armrests as if their life depended on it.

Once they reached their Jump Point, the ship stopped just above the planet. The people within the ship took as much time as they needed to readjust themselves, observe their surroundings, and ready up for the fight ahead. A world  they knew only as "The Garden" was just ahead of them. The world where Thanos, and more importantly the gauntlet were currently staying

Carol Danvers was the first one to make her move. The vaccum on space wasn't doing anything to her as she hovered in front of the ship, "I'll head down for recon.''

As everyone watched her leave towards The Garden, they all began to prepare themselves for their hopefully the last confrotation with Thanos. Steve Rogers reached into his pocket and pulled out a very old compass. When he flipped it open, a smilling picture of Peggy Carter came into his view. His expression however, was something complete opposite, he was gazing painfully into her eyes, before closing the compass down, unable to face her.

''This is gonna work, Steve." Natasha assured him.

" I know it will." Rogers replied, pocketing the compass away, turning to Black Widow, ''Cause I don't know what I'm going to do if it doesn't.''

Rogers, however, wasn't the only one that was gazing into something that reminded him of his beloved one. Azurite was doing the same. The gem was sitting on his seat, waiting for Danvers to return and inform them if Thanos had any forces with him or not, looking at Spinel's necklace.

"We're going to bring her back, brother. I promise." He heard Shi'ra voice tell him, as his sister put her hand on his shoulder. He looked up at her, as she offered him a very small hopeful smile.

"We're going to bring all of them back." Azurite told his sister, referring to Orange Pearl, Quill, Mantis, Drax, Groot, Steven, Bismuth, Pearl and everyone else. They were going to bring them back, whatever it takes.

It was just a moment before Danvers appeared in the view of everyone in the ship, as she informed them, "No satellites, no ships, no armies, no ground defenses of any kind. It's just him."

"That's enough." Nebula stated.

On the Garden,  Thanos walked past a scarecrow made of his own armor, walking among his crops. He crouched down a bit and he picked up a fruit before putting it in a sack. He slowly made his way over to his hut. He slowly sat down on a seat and started preparing every ingredient  for his meal. A soup. While he was preparing it, he looked over at his reflection in the water. The entire left side of his face was burnt black with blisters.

Suddenly, Carol Danvers flied through the roof, knocking Thanos down, and grabbing his neck. Bruce in the Hulkbuster armor bursted from the ground, and grabbed Thanos' gauntlet arm. Thor flies in and slices off the Infinity Gauntlet. Rhodey flied into the hut, followed by Jasper and both of them grabbed Thanos by the other hand. The remaining crystal gems were the next, Garnet's own gauntlets were already on her fists, ready for whatever tricks the Mad Titan had under his sleeve, a few pieces of metal were flying behind Peridot as she was controlling them with her metal powers, and Amethyst whip was held tightly in her grip. They were followed by Azurite, Shi'ra and Rocket. The Kratai not only wielded her spear, but also her plasma caster rised up on her shoulder and aimed itself right at Thanos' forehead as Rocket had his gun aimed at him.

Captain America was the last one to walk in, with Natasha right behind him, staring murderously at Thanos. Rocket and Amethyst went over to the sliced off gauntlet, and kicked it over, as everyone saw that there were no stones in it.

"Guys..." Amethyst said, looking up from the gauntlet with horrified expression. 

"Oh no." Rocket said, looking just as horrified as Amethyst.

"Where are they?" Steve asked Thanos where were the stones, but the Titan didn't answered to his question.

''Answer the question!" Danvers snapped, holding Thanos' neck even tighter.

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

"You murdered trillions!" Banner shouted, as he punched Thanos, shoving into the floor.

"You should be grateful!" Thanos stated, looking up at the group as he received another punch from Banner. 

"Grateful!?" Azurite spoke up, his eyes dark with hate for the Mad Titan, as he came over to him and looked at him straight in the eye, not caring that everyone's eyes were on him now, "You cleansed a planet where I finally felt accepted, twenty years ago, and now you wiped up half all living beings, someone I loved faded away in my arms! Her along with many people that  I cared about are gone because of what you did and I'm supposed to be grateful for that?"

Thanos titled his head to the right, "What was the name of that planet?"

"Konoritos..." Azurite said through gritted teeth, wanting to strike him with his claws to make him wince in pain. 

"Konoritos?..." Thanos asked as Azurite nodded his head in confirmation, "I saved  this planet."

"Saved? We were all happy there, but then you came and ruined everything." Azurite pointed out, clenching his fists.

''I'm certain that you remember how everything was on that planet. Children were going to bed hungry, scrounging for scraps. It was just a matter of time before this planet would collapse. I'm the one who stopped that. Do you know what's happened since then? The children born have known nothing but full bellies and clear skies. It's a paradise." Thanos explained why in his point of view Konoritos was saved from destruction, "It was a necessary sacrifice." 

Azurite was breathing heavilly in anger, resisting the urge to do something to him or even kill him, before he felt someone's hand on his shoulder. He turned back to see Garnet, "Calm down, Azurite. He has to to tell us where the stones are." 

The male gem just nodded his head at her, knowing that she's right, before taking a few steps away from Thanos, just a moment before Natasha asked, "Where are the stones?"

"Gone... reduced to atoms..." Thanos answered.

"You're lying!" Shi'ra shouted at Thanos, not believing in anything he said, with her plasma caster still aimed right at his forehead, ready to fire at him. The Kratai wanted to do it. She wanted to end his life. She wanted to see how the blast from her plasma caster would make a burn out a huge wound in his head, but she knew there was no time for that now. At first he had to tell them where are the stones.

"That's right! We know that you used them two days ago!" Jasper added, glaring at him.

"I used the stones to destroy the stones. It nearly killed me, but the work is done. It always will be..." Thanos explained to them what happened to the stones as he sat himself a little straighter, facing everyone in his hut, "I am inevitable.''

"We have to tear this place down, he has to be lying." Rhodes said, beginning to panic.

"He's right. We need to look for the stones, they must be here somewhere." Peridot agreed with Rhodey, dropping every piece of metal that was held by her metal powers on the floor, as she started panicking as well that the stones may actually be destroyed and there was no way of bringing them back.

"My father is many things." Nebula spoke up, causing everyone to look at her, "A liar is not one of them."

Thanos glanced over at his daughter, "...Thank you daughter." Nebula looked down on the foor, as her father stated, "Perharps I treated you too harshly..."

Thor's face was filled with rage as he raised Stormbreaker, and before anyone could react or do something to stop him, he sliced the Mad Titan's head off.  Thanos' limp body collapsed on the floor as Nebula wiped out some blood that splattered on her face. Thanos' head landed right before Azurite's legs. As he stared at the lifeless eyes of the Mad Titan's head, a conversation he had with Spinel in Little Homeworld a few months ago appeared in his mind.

"I just want you to finally start coming out to the others. The only people you're talking with are me, Jasper and Shi'ra."  

"You know when I'll finally start coming out? After I'll see Thanos' head laying before my feet!" 

The male gem could feel tears forming in his eyes as he stared at Thanos' head, wondering how he hadn't run out of tears yet. Orange Pearl, Quill, Mantis, Groot, Drax... Spinel, they were all gone, and they just lost the only way to bring them back. He wanted to see the Mad Titan dead more than anything, this wish was even bigger than the wish of acceptace for what he is he had a long time ago. He wanted to see his head laying before his feet, but this isn't how he wanted it to happen.

Everyone were staring at Thor in complete silence, until it was broken by Rocket, "What did you do?" 

Thor, even though he had gotten his revenge on Thanos for everything he did to him was looking completely broken, he finally responded to Rocket's question in and a shaky and broken tone, "....I went for the head..."

The God of Thunder turned away Thanos' lifeless body and exited from the hut, into the shining sun while everyone else were having reacting to what just happened. Jasper gripped her fist in anger as she swung her fist at the nearest wall, making a huge hole in it as Natasha looked like she was seconds from breaking into tears, unlike Garnet who had already broken into tears that were streaming down her cheeks from all of her three eyes. Azurite pulled out Spinel's necklace again and looked it, knowing that there was no hope of bringing her, or anyone he cared about back, it was when he broke into tears, having no idea how many times he has cried in the last three weeks. Things weren't better with Shi'ra. The Kratai dropped her spear on the floor and walked over to her brother, embracing him tightly as they sobbed into each other shoulders.

Nebula kneeled down over her father's head and slowly moved over her hand to close his eyes.

It was over. The only hope they had to bring their friends and loved ones back was gone.

They truly lost...

https://youtu.be/rBkMsmUbLLs