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𝑹 𝑼 𝑵 𝑵 𝑰 𝑵 𝑮  𝑰 𝑵  𝑭 𝑬 𝑨 𝑹
❝ 𝚍𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚜𝚑𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚌𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚕𝚊𝚗𝚍 ❞

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ENDGAME PART 1

ㅤ𝐏𝐇𝐎𝐁𝐎𝐒 𝐆𝐑𝐎𝐀𝐍𝐄𝐃, his eyebrows furrowing as his senses slowly crept up to him. He could feel his head pounding as he tried to figure out why he was lying on his back. He groaned again, and suddenly, he felt a smaller hand grasp his own.

"Phobos," a female voice, which he immediately recognized as his sister's, spoke. "Wake up."

As he regained his senses, he slowly blinked his eyes open. Taking a few more tentative blinks as his eyes tried to adjust to the bright light overhead, he croaked out, "W-what...what happened?"

A sigh escaped Adrestia's lips as she watched her older brother struggle to awaken his body. She frowned at his question, observing how he finally noticed the bandaged wrapped around his torso.

"W-what is this?" The God of Fear had never looked as weak as he did at this moment, trying to picture what caused this wound on him. "Bucky...where's...what's going on?"

"Phobos..." Adrestia trailed off, hesitant to explain to Phobos what happened. She knew all too well how her brother reacts to certain news, and watching how much he struggled to put the pieces together put her on edge. "Let me help you sit up first."

The god clenched his jaw as he pushed himself up, feeling the slight sting of his injuries. "Did Apollo heal me?" He looked around and realized his was in the infirmary up in Olympus, the window next to his bed provided him with fresh air and the wonderous views the place offered.

"He did the best he could," Adrestia answered. "A lot of people were injured and..." She paused as she watched her brother's eyes widen as his memories all came flooding back. She saw his hands begin to shake­­—in anger or fear, she wasn't sure—but she could feel her fear beginning to surface. Then, smoke began to slowly pour out of his hands, his eyes turning back. "Phobos!"

"H-he took him from me!" Items in the room began to shake at the sheer force of uncontrolled power that's rolling out from the god.

"Phobos, please!" Adrestia pleaded in desperation. "Please, stop!" In an attempt to stop him, she did the one thing no one's supposed to do while he's raging; she grabbed his hand. Almost immediately, her eyes rolled to the back of her head.

At his sister's touch, Phobos snapped out of his trance, eyes going back to normal and smoke rolling back in him fast. But the sight of his convulsing sister made his heart drop. "Adrestia! No, no, no...Adrestia!" He grabbed her shoulders in desperation. "No...I-I'm sorry...please!"

The noise drew Apollo to Phobos' bed, and immediately gasped and pulled Adrestia to his arms. Kneeling on the ground to steady the two of them, his hands began glowing gold as he placed them above the goddess' forehead. He tried to ignore Phobos' apologies to his sister, focusing on healing her as fast as he could before the damage becomes too severe to be undone. A minute later, the goddess slumped into him.

Apollo stood with Adrestia in his arms, and turned to see Phobos' tear-stained cheeks. "You need to be careful, Phobos. Some things can't be fixed, and your sister almost died."

"I know..." Phobos was dejected, replying to the god with a hoarse voice. "I'm sorry."

"I understand," Apollo tried to smile to reassure him, but it came out as a grimace. He then placed Adrestia to a bed. "Do you remember what happened? Before the..." Apollo closed his eyes and clenched his jaw, before releasing it and reopening his eyes, "the snap?"

Phobos gripped at his sheets as he tried to reel in his anger. "I-I was in the forest, near where Thanos appeared. The Avengers and I all tried to keep him from getting to Vision, and the mind stone. And we...we were losing. Thor came bursting through and I thought that we'd defeated him but..." A single tear fell. "The last thing I remembered was Bucky turning to dust."

"Well, you pretty much covered what happened while the rest of us were fighting all those Outriders," Apollo chuckled bitterly. "It was going well for the rest of us, you know? Then everything just...stilled. We felt his presence, all of us. A shiver went up our spines and the silence...it was deafening.

"Most of us continued fighting despite that. I was next to Artemis, we were fighting back to back, and we haven't done that in millennia. But then she turned to dust." Apollo's gaze hardened. "I knew very well, better than most of you, what was going to happen. But despite that, watching most of the people I considered my family turn to dust..." the Sun God sighed. "Dust shall cover all the land, just like the prophecy said."

"Who else...?"

"Aside from Artemis, both your parents were dusted, as well as Poseidon, Dionysus, Hera..." Apollo, who was known by all as someone bright and bubbly, looked dull and lifeless for the first time. His once-bright eyes only showing his pain. "Deimos also perished, Phobos."

Phobos choked back a sob. But he couldn't stop his tears from falling. "But...the prophecy...they will come back. They have to."

"Of course, they'll be back," Apollo reassured. "But when is the question even I have no answer to. All we have to do now is wait."

The God of Fear nodded, and tried to relax into his bed. "When can I leave?"

"Where will you be going?" Apollo interjected.

"I'll have to meet with the Avengers, I need to know what happened to them; I need to know if they're safe."

Apollo frowned. "They are. Well, as safe as they can be in this situation." He crossed his arms. "It's been twenty-two days since the snap, and yes, you've been asleep for twenty-two days, and I doubt that most of it's because of your injury." He gave a pointed look to Phobos. "But, last I heard--"

"Last you heard?"

"No one has stepped out of Olympus since the snap," Apollo sighed, "and frankly, I don't blame them. After healing all the mortals I could heal, I pretty much hurled every living Olympian back here. You were the last one to wake, since you had the most severe injury, but the rest of the council is up, but they're still, in a way, in shambles. No one's recovered, not really. Even Athena, strongest person in the council...she hasn't spoken."

"Well, I'm going to be the first to step out then," Phobos pushed himself up and out of his bed, groaning as he stood on his feet after not using them for so long.

"You're not fully healed," Apollo disagreed. "The wound on your side...it went straight through your torso. Entered one side and exited in another. You weren't even healing properly the first few days."

"I don't care," Phobos began walking on shaky legs, and changed his attire to a comfortable pair of sweatpants and hoodie. It's not his ideal style, but he had to be comfortable. "I'm healed enough."

Apollo sighed. "Fine. I'll take care of Adrestia while you're gone."

Phobos turned to his unconscious sister. "Tell her I'm sorry."

"She already knows."

Reappearing just outside the Avengers compound after getting directions form Hermes, he stood right in front of their front door, and turned to look at their security camera. He watched as it turned to him, before the doors opened.

There, he was met with the sight of a bearded Steve Rogers, who immediately pulled him into a hug. He didn't hesitate to return it. He knew who that hug was for.

"I'm sorry," Steve whispered into his ear.

Phobos tightened his grip. "I'm sorry too." Then he released him, patting him on the back before facing Natasha, Thor, and the rest of the surviving Avengers. Despite Phobos being not one for hugs, he gave each and every one of them one, even the raccoon.

Then, they all walked towards the main room, where all of them would hang out the most. He sat on one of the chairs, and all heads turned to face him expectantly.

He let out a sigh. "My name's Phobos, God of Fear. I know some of you, but the rest, I haven't been introduced to. I, uh, just woke up, actually. I was in a coma, apparently."

Thor frowned. "God of Fear? You're God?"

"Yeah," Phobos smirked a little. "I'm Greek."

The God of Thunder made a face of acceptance. "I'm Thor, God of Thunder. I'm Asgardian. Nice to meet you."

"Likewise."

The rest all came and introduced themselves, with Rhodey who announced that his brain can't keep up with the amount of gods just popping left and right, before Phobos went and asked Steve to talk alone. So, he and the Captain went to find a private place for the two of them to talk.

Phobos sat down again, right across from Steve, before speaking. "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"I..." Phobos pondered whether or not telling him of the prophecy will do him any good right at this moment. He wouldn't want to give him any false hope. Worst case scenario, Steve won't forgive him from not telling anybody sooner. "Just...I feel like I could've done something more."

"We all did," Steve gave him a sad smile.

"Every single time I close my eyes, I see..." Phobos looked down. "I see Bucky. He turned away from me for one second. Called out your name and suddenly..."

The Captain clenched his jaw. "I would give everything to get him back. To get everyone back. I just feel so helpless at this point because I don't know what to do."

Phobos leaned back and crossed his arms, still debating if he should recite the prophecy. But he felt, in his gut, that he shouldn't. "I...I have a feeling that we'll be able to find a way to bring them back. If he was able to use the stones to do what he did, who's to say that the stones won't be able to reverse it?"

That's when a shimmer of hope reappeared in Steve's eyes.

The God of Fear opted to stay the night at the facility, his mind still reeling over the fact that he's the only who knows for certain that the others will return. He feels guilty, because everyone's experiencing the same loss as him, but is lacking in the drive needed to bring everyone back. But at the same time, he knows that a few of them, once they find out, would only see his knowledge as betrayal, as irrational as that may be.

He shook his negative thoughts away, and tried to go on the rest of the day with a more neutral outlook in life. Earlier this afternoon, he tried to talk Steve out from shaving his beard.

"You look better with it on," he argued.

"Yeah, but I feel like--"

"No, don't shave it off."

He still shaved it off, and Phobos grumbled right outside the bathroom. "You're making a big mistake."

As Phobos leaned on a wall, a rumble was suddenly heard, and a freshly-shaved Steve walked out. The god frowned at the sight, before sharing a look with him, and the two jogged outside to find a ship being carried by a glowing woman who lands it.

Steve rushed forward as the ship's door opens and out walked a blue-skinned woman supporting a weak and exhausted Tony Stark down the ramp. Phobos watched from the sides as the two interacted, before Pepper, a woman Phobos easily warmed up to, walked up and hugged the man, looking close to tears.

Fast forward, and everyone was back to the main room, with holographic pictures of all the dusted Avengers on full display. Phobos couldn't help but stare at Bucky's image, before turning his attention to Rhodey who spoke.

"It's been twenty-three days since Thanos came to Earth," Rhodey announced. Phobos watched all the Avengers' faces, all of them holding back emotion. He couldn't help but stare at a weakened Tony a second longer than the rest.

"World governments are...in pieces," Natasha continued, "The parts that still work are trying to take a census 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."

A silence swept over the team, before Tony spoke up. "Where is he now?"

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

Tony thought for a moment before turning his attention to Thor. "What's wrong with him?"

"He's pissed," it was Rocket who answered this time, capturing Tony's attention. "Thinks he failed. Which, of course, he did. But there's a lot of that going around, ain't there?"

"Honestly, until this exact second, I thought you were a Build-a-Bear."

"Maybe I am."

"We've been hunting Thanos for three weeks now," Steve turned the attention back to him. "Deep space scans, and satellites and we got nothing...Tony, you fought him--"

"Who told you that? I didn't fight him," Tony cut him off. Phobos narrowed his eyes at the scene, his back straightening as tension between the two built. "No, he wiped my face with a planet, while the Bleecker Street magician gave away the stone. That's what happened, there's no fight."

"Okay, did he give away any clues? Any coordinates? Anything?"

Tony scoffed. "I saw this coming a few years back." This got Phobos' attention. "I had a vision, I didn't wanna believe it. Thought I was dreaming."

"Tony, I'm gonna need you to focus--"

"And I needed you. As in past tense. That trumps what you need. It's too late, buddy. Sorry. You know what I need?" Tony then stood up, knocking over a bowl that startled a few people. "I need to shave." Rhodey was trying to calm his best friend down, but to no avail. "And I believe I remember telling all of you, alive and otherwise, that 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."

"Well that didn't work out, didn't it?" Steve just added fuel to the fire, and Phobos was having a hard time trying not to roll his eyes at the scene.

"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, not the Pre-vengers, right?"

"Okay, you made your point, just sit down, okay?" Rhodey tried to console, but Tony kept on going.

"Okay. No, no, here's my—you know, she's great, by the way," he pointed to Carol, who looked at him questioningly, "We need you, you're new blood." Then he walked towards Steve as he raged. "A bunch of tired old mills—I got nothing for you, Cap. Nothing. Got no coordinates, no clues, no strategies, no options, zero, zip, nada. No trust. Liar." Then he ripped out his arc reactor and forcefully places it onto Steve's palm. "Here, take this. You find him and you put that on. You hide." Then Tony collapses, and everyone reaches out to help him but he pushes them away. "I'm fine." That's when he actually lost consciousness.

"Tony!"

Eventually, the poor man's moved onto a bed. It was Rhodey who spoke right after checking up on his best friend's condition. Phobos stood right next to Steve and Natasha, keeping an eye on Carol, while the rest went off in their own places.

"Bruce gave him a sedative," he announced, "he's gonna probably be out for the rest of the day."

"You guys take care of him," Carol suddenly spoke up, beginning to walk out, "and I'll give him a Xorrian elixir when I come back."

"Where are you going?" Steve asked.

"To kill Thanos."

Phobos let out a scoff in disbelief with a grin etched on his face as he watched her retreating figure. "I like her."

author's note: to envision phobos and deimos' abilities better, i based them off of alec volturi.