Somewhere Deep In Space | 22 Days After The Blip

A man held a small metal chip in his hand before flicking it across the table. The woman across from him quickly held up her fist as the metal fell against the floor.

"You don't need to do that," The man told her, "Because uh, you're just holding the position."

The woman grunted as she picked up the metal and held it against the table before flicking it towards him.

The metal landed a few inches away from his hands, "That was close."

She grabbed the metal piece once more before trying again. This time, the metal landed in between his hands.

"That's a goal. We are now one apiece."

The woman held her hands against the table, "I would like to try again."

The metal went back and forth between them until it landed once more between his hands, "We're tied up. Feel the tension? It's fun," He told her before flicking the metal back at her.

The metal landed across the table, "That was terrible. Now you have a chance to win."

The woman grabbed the metal before flicking it. It landed between his hands.

"And you've won. Congratulations," He told her as he held out his hand, "Fair game."

The woman slowly grabbed his hand before shaking it.

"You have fun?" He asked.

"It was fun."

Two Hours Later

The man held his helmet in his right hand as his left pressed a small button inside it. The metal clicked before the sounds of whirring appeared.

"This thing on?" He asked no one in particular as the helmet beeped.

"Hey, Miss. Potts. Pep," He sighed deeply as he leaned against the cool metal wall behind him, "If you find this recording, don't post it on social media. It's gonna be a real tearjerker. I don't know if you're ever gonna see these. I don't even know if you're still... Oh, God, I hope so."

He paused as he leaned his head against the wall, "Today's day 21? No, uh, 22. You know if it wasn't for the existential terror of staring into the literal void of space, I'd say I'm feeling a little better today. Infections run its course thanks to the Blue Meanie back there. Oh, you'd love her. Very practical. Only a tiny bit sadistic. Kinda like Mia."

"So the fuel cells were cracked during battle and we figured out a way to reverse the ion charge and bought ourselves about 48 hours of flight time. Uh, but it's now dead in the water. Thousand light years away from the nearest 7-Eleven. Oxygen will run out tomorrow morning and that'll be it."

"Pep, I know I said no more surprises but I gotta say I was really hoping to pull off one last one. But it looks like- Well, you know what it looks like. Don't feel bad about this. I mean, actually, if you grovel for a couple weeks and then move on with enormous guilt..."

He trailed off as he held his head in his hands, "I should probably lie down for a minute. Go rest my eyes. Please know when I drift off, it'll be like every night lately. I'm fine. Totally fine. I dream about you. Because it's always you."

He pressed the button on the helmet once more, shutting it down entirely before putting his jacket on. He groaned softly before laying down, using his arm as a pillow.

He closed his eyes and layed silently for a few hours.

A few hours later, the woman walked towards him. She slowly kneeled down in front of him and placed her fingers on his neck.

His pulse was slow, barely there even.

She sighed before picking up his body and setting it in a chair in what used to be the cockpit.

His eyes moved in his sleep. She breathed out sadly before walking away.

He stayed like that for three more hours until a bright yellow light appeared outside the ship. A boom could be heard in the distance.

He weakly opened his eyes. It took a few tries but when he did he saw a bright yellow light.

For a moment he thought he had died until the light dimmed and a woman appeared. Her body glowed with power, eyes glowing gold until they appeared a soft blue as she stared down at him.

Avenger's Compound | One Day Later

Both Klaus and Elijah were in Mia's large bathroom as they slowly shaved their faces.

In the other room, Kol was sitting on a comfortable arm chair as he looked through one of Mia's old photo books.

On the bed, layed Rebekah who cuddled with one of the stuffed animals Peter had given Mia a week after they first met.

They hadn't left the room since they got there. It was their only sense of peace.

Before they met Mia, she and Tony had lived in this compound. It wasn't until the Avengers formed that they moved into the tower. Since the tower had been blown up during the battle between Tony and Thanos's children, everyone was staying there.

Luckily for them, most of Mia's stuff had already been moved to the compound due to a decision for them all to live there instead.

The tower was crowded and the Avengers had walked in on them far too many times. Besides, it was a nice idea for them to live on their own.

Natasha and Steve took care of them. They knew Mia would want it. Every day they brought them fresh blood bags and practically forced them to drink.

It was a good distraction for the two Avengers who had lost everything.

Kol flipped through the pages, his thumb gently moving against a picture of Mia smiling brightly as she sat on Steve's shoulders.

He rubbed his chin as tears filled his eyes. He quickly set the book back down before leaning his hand against the back of the couch.

Klaus and Elijah gently set their razors down on the countertop before turning off the taps as they gently patted their faces with small towels.

They glanced over at a small mirror that stuck out from the wall and saw it shake. They frowned as distant rumbling filled their ears.

They quickly walked out of the washroom, both Kol and Rebekah following them as they ran out of the compound.

They watched as a spaceship floated above them before slowly landing as Natasha, Steve, Rhodey, Bruce and Pepper joined them.

The ship landed and a woman stared at them as her body glowed gold. A door slowly opened revealing a staircase before two people walked out.

It was Tony and a blue woman who slightly resembled Vision.

Steve ran towards them, taking Tony's weak body in his arms and helped him down the rest of the way.

"I couldn't stop him," Tony muttered.

"Neither could I."

Tony breathed deeply as he turned to face Steve, "I lost the kid."

Steve breathed out, "I lost the kid too."

Tony almost broke down at the man's words. Both of his kids were gone. Dust. Nothing but a speck floating in the air.

"Tony, we lost."

"Is, uh-" He cut himself off when Pepper ran toward him before embracing him, "Oh, good."

"Oh, my god," She muttered as she held him tightly, silent sobs racking through her body.

— — —

A hologram was pulled up in a conference room displaying pictures of the dead.

The Mikaelons eyes fell to the floor as a picture of Mia showed up.

"It's been 23 days since Thanos came to Earth," Rhodey informed Tony, who was clearly out of the loop.

"World governments are in pieces. The parts that are still working 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... 50% of all living creatures," Natasha told them, her eyes cast to the picture of Mia before it switched to a picture of Peter who had also been blipped.

"Where is he now? Where?" Tony asked.

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

Tony sighed as he glanced at Thor who sat in a separate room, "What's wrong with him?"

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

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

"Maybe I am."

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

"Who told you that? I didn't fight him. No, he wiped my face with a planet while the Bleaker Street magician gave away the store. That's what happened. There was no fight because he's not beatable."

"Okay. Did he give you any clues? Any coordinates? Anything?"

Tony sputtered as he leaned his head in the palm of his hand, "I saw this coming a few years back. I had a vision, I didn't want to 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," He paused as he pulled the IV out of his arm, "You know what I need? I need a shave. And I believe I remember telling all of you that what we needed was a suit of armour around the world. Remember that? Whether it impacted our precious freedoms or not. That's what we needed."

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

"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.' Right?"

"You made your point. Just sit down," Rhodey told him as he held up the weak man.

"No, no, no. Here's my point. You know what? She's great by the way," He said, pointing towards Carol, "And so are they," He added, pointing to the Mikaelsons, "We need them. They're new blood. Now, I got nothing for you, Cap. I got no coordinates, no clues, no strategies, no options. You know what I got? I got two dead kids. That's what I got," He told him before walking out of the room.

— — —

Bruce had given Tony a sedative not long after that. His mind was jumbled from his time with little air and little food.

"He's gonna be out for the rest of the day."

Carol, the woman who saved Tony and Nebula, stared at them, "You guys take care of him and I'll bring him a Xorrian elixir when I come back."

"Where are you going?" Steve asked before she could leave the room.

"To kill Thanos," She answered, not stopping.

The team followed her which left the Mikaelsons alone once more. Before they could say anything a phone rang.

They glanced at Kol and watched as he pulled out a phone from his pocket. It was Mia's.

They frowned, "Who is it?"

"It says unknown caller," Kol answered as his thumb hovered over the decline button.

"Answer it."

He nodded before answering the call and putting it on speaker, "Hello?"

"Kol?" The sound of Stefan Salvatore's voice spoke through the phone.

"What do you want?"

"Well, half the world just disappeared, including Elena. I need Mia to get down here and fix it."

The Mikaelsons glanced at each other with angry looks.

"Hello? Did you hear me? Elena's dead. Mia needs to get her ass here."

"Mia's dead, Stefan," Rebekah spoke in a cracked voice as she stared out the window.

"Dead?"

"Yeah, dead. Thanos killed her in front of us. So, please for your own sake and future, never call this number again," Klaus told him before hanging up the call.

As the line went silent Kol breathed out, "You should have killed him when you had the chance."

The hybrid nodded, "I won't make that mistake again."

"... I can tell you where Thanos is," They heard Nebula say across the room. They quickly sped back into the room.

"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 we would go once his plan was complete. And his answer was always the same. 'To the Garden.'"

Rhodey sighed, "That's cute. Thanos has a retirement plan."

"So where is he?" Asked Elijah.

Rocket jumped up on the table before pulling up a hologram which displayed planet Earth, "When Thanos snapped his fingers, Earth became ground zero for a power surge of ridiculously cosmic proportions. No one's ever seen anything like it. Until two days ago."

The hologram switched to a different planet, "On this planet."

Nebula looked at it, "Thanos is there."

"He used the stones again," Natasha perceived as she took a closer look.

"Hey, hey, hey. We'd be going in there short-handed, you know?" Bruce spoke up.

"Look, he's still got the stones, so-"

"So let's get them," Carol cut him off, "And use them to bring everyone back."

"Just like that?"

Steve nodded, "Yeah. Just like that."

Natasha sighed, "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."

"If we do this, how do we know it's going to end differently than it did before?"

"Because before you didn't have me."

"Hey, new girl? Everybody in this room is about that superhero life. And if you don't mind my asking, where the hell have you been all this time?" Rhodey asked.

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

Thor then stood up from the table and walked before standing in front of Carol. He held out his hand and made his axe appear. Carol didn't even flinch.

He stared at her for a moment before nodding, "I like this one."

Steve stared down at the hologram, "Let's go get this son of a bitch."

— — —

"Okay, who here hasn't been to space?" Rocket asked as he flew their spaceship out of the atmosphere.

Everyone in the room, except Thor, Carol and Nebula raised their hands.

"You better not throw up on my ship."

"Approaching jump in three... two... one."

They held their seats tightly as the ship moved between spaces in the universe. It slowed down not even a second later and Carol stood up before leaving the ship.

She flew in the air in front, "I'll head down for re-con," She told them through her earpiece before she disappeared.

Natasha glanced over at the Mikaelsons and Steve who all held the same look in their eyes, "This is gonna work."

Steve nodded, "I know it will. Cause I don't know what I'm gonna do if it doesn't."

Carol then flew back up, "No satellites. No ships. No armies. No ground defence of any kind. It's just him."

"And that's enough."

— — —

They landed a couple miles away from a small shack in the middle of a field full of exotic other-worldly flowers.

Carol was the first to attack. She blasted him with her powers before flying through the large hole in the wall.

She jumped on his shoulders and held his neck tightly in her arms while she kicked his hand which still had the gauntlet on it.

The floor shattered as Bruce showed up in his Hulkbuster suit. He quickly grabbed onto Thanos's hand before Rhodey grabbed onto his other hand.

They collectively held him down while Thor cut off his arm.

Thanos screamed in pain as the rest of the team, including the Mikaelsons, walked inside the house.

Rocket grabbed the gauntlet only to see something was missing, "Oh no."

They glanced down at the gauntlet before looking at Thanos, "Where are they?"

Carol held his neck tighter, "Answer the question."

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

"You murdered trillions!" Bruce yelled before pushing him across the room.

"You should be grateful!"

"Where are the stones?" Rebekah asked, shaking slightly.

"Gone. Reduced to atoms."

"You used them two days ago!"

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

"We have to tear this place apart. He has to be lying," Rhodey told them, his voice shaking.

"My father is many things. A liar is not one of them," Nebula told them as she stared at Thanos.

"Ah. Thank you, daughter. Perhaps I treated you too harshl-"

Before he could finish his sentence, Thor swung his axe and cut Thanos's head off.

"What?" Bruce muttered.

"What did you do?" Rocket asked as he stared at Thor.

"I went for the head," The god answered before walking out.

Natasha gripped onto her green vest as she stared down at Thanos's decapitated head. Her sister was gone and there was nothing she could do to bring her back.