Chapter 87

When Tony started to cough, Maggie pulled his arm over her shoulder and walked with him back to the med bay, following Pepper because she could barely see through her tear-stained vision.

In the med bay Bruce scanned and started to treat Tony, his whole expression pinched with concern. All Avengers medical staff had vanished or gone to search for family, so Bruce was all they had.

Maggie watched silently, still hiccuping and shuddering from her steady stream of tears. She felt wrung out and raw. She couldn't string a thought together. Half an hour in, as Bruce pushed a new bag of nutrients through Tony's drip, Pepper came over to wrap her arm around Maggie.

"He came back," Pepper murmured. She sounded as if she was still trying to convince herself it was true.

Maggie wiped under her eyes and winced as she irritated her inflamed skin. "I don't know what I'd have done if he didn't."

Pepper's arm tightened around her.

An hour later, when the sun had crept over the horizon and morning light bathed the empty lawns, Rhodey stuck his head in through the med bay door.

"We're going to debrief in the common room if, uh…" his eyes swept across the room, taking in Tony sitting pensive and silent in a wheelchair with a drip in his arm while Bruce checked his blood tests, to Pepper holding Maggie, to Maggie's red-rimmed eyes. "If you're up for it."

Tony's head jumped up. "Now?"

"Yeah, now." Rhodey's brow pinched as he looked at his friend. Bruce's main diagnosis had been malnutrition following a nasty infection, meaning Tony had lost a staggering amount of weight and his organs had bordered on shutting down. Maggie had caught a glimpse of the nasty scar on his abdomen and her own insides had twisted painfully. He'd be alright now though, with rest and a steady diet. He sat in a dressing gown, his arc reactor glowing on his bare chest and a dark pair of glasses on his face.

Tony's eyes darkened. "Let's go."

Maggie straightened. "Tony-"

"No, I've been floating in space for three weeks with no idea what's been going on. I need to know."

"We lost," Maggie said, more spark to her words than she'd been capable of these last few weeks. "What else do you need to know?" The hollow space in her chest throbbed.

Tony met her eyes. "I want to know where Thanos is." His arms were skin and bone, but he still managed to curl his hand into a fist. "Now wheel me in there or I'm walking."

Maggie sighed and strode over to set her hands on the back of his wheelchair. On their way out, Pepper cleared her throat.

"I… I'm going to stay here." Her voice was small, and she looked exhausted.

Tony's expression flickered but he nodded. Maggie raised her eyebrows at Bruce, and he nodded: he'd stay with Pepper.

Gut churning, Maggie pushed her brother out of the room after Rhodey.

The others were all waiting in the common room when they arrived: Steve, Natasha, Rhodey, Rocket, and the woman named Carol. Thor sat in the courtyard outside the common room, glaring at the ground.

Maggie resolutely avoided all of their faces and the floating holographic diagram as she wheeled Tony in and gave him a good spot by the table. He nodded his thanks to her, his expression warming for a moment, before storm clouds rolled back over his face.

"Alright, let's hear it," he muttered.

Maggie circled and backed away a little. When she looked up her eyes instantly fell on one of the holographic faces projected over the main table and a small, hurt noise bubbled up her throat and escaped her lips before she could stop it. Tony and Natasha looked up, but no one else noticed.

Bucky. His grim face floated in the middle of the room, his eyes still clear and piercing even in a black-and-white photo. His hair and beard were shorter, so it had probably been taken during his capture in Germany, but he was there and Maggie hadn't been ready for it. The last time she'd seen his face had been when he'd charged at Thanos, defiance writ across his face and his weapon held high. Maggie had been concerned when Thanos swept him aside, but she'd been mostly focused on Thanos himself – she hadn't thought that would be the last… the last time…

Before her eyes, the picture of Bucky's face faded away. She blinked, eyes watering, and saw other holographic screens displaying a roulette of faces: Sam. Dr Strange. Wanda. Scott Lang.

Rhodey cleared his throat. "It's been twenty three days since Thanos came to Earth." He opened his mouth, closed it, and turned to Natasha.

"World governments are in pieces," she continued, her jaw firm and her eyes sharp. "The parts that are still working are trying to take a census." To her right, Maggie saw Tony cover his eyes again. Her gaze flicked up and saw Peter's holographic face floating in the air. Peter's face faded into Shuri's. Natasha continued: "And it looks like he did… he did exactly what he said he was going to do. Thanos wiped out…" Natasha paused, and Maggie waited for her to say the number that they all knew but no one had yet voiced – "fifty percent. Of all living creatures." Maggie's chest ached.

For a few moments, silence filled the Avengers common room. Maggie wasn't sure what else there was to say to that. They'd spent all this time counting, quantifying… what did it matter? They were pretending to have control over a situation that was already over.

"Where is he now?" Tony spoke up, breaking the silence. He looked to Steve. "Where?"

Steve looked up. "We don't know." He looked away again and shook his head. "He just… opened a portal and walked through."

Tony leaned back in his chair and let out an aggravated breath. He looked around, chewing his lip, until he spotted Thor. "What's wrong with him?"

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

Maggie let out a sad, tired breath. She'd barely spoken to Rocket since they first encountered each other on the battlefield, but they'd silently commiserated in their own way. Between them, they'd hoped to get seven people back from space. They only got two.

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

"Maybe I am," Rocket drawled.

Steve cut in. "We've been hunting Thanos for three weeks now. Deep space scans, satellites, and we've got nothing." He hesitated, and then looked at Tony. "Tony, you fought him-"

"Who told you that?" Tony said, pulling a face. "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, because – because he beat me."

"Okay," Steve said appeasingly. "Did he give you any clues – any coordinates, anything?"

Tony rolled his eyes and blew a raspberry as he fired off a sarcastic salute. Maggie's heart sank. She and Tony had barely spoken about what had happened, but it was obvious now that he felt the same crushing, overwhelming sense of failure that she did. And his response to that was anger.

"I saw this coming a few years back," Tony said, sounding deceptively casual. "I had a vision, I didn't want to believe it. Thought I was dreaming." He sank back in his wheelchair, looking away.

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

"And I needed you," Tony cut him off. He tilted his chin back, looking for all the world as if he was squaring up for a fight even though he was in a wheelchair. "As in past tense, that trumps what you need – it's too late buddy. Sorry."

He didn't sound sorry. Maggie's eyes flicked to Steve, saw the pain on his face, and flicked away.

Tony leaned down to peer into the bowl of cereal Rhodey had laid out for him, his breathing coming fast. "You know what I need?" He jerked, and Maggie thought he was falling, but he'd lashed out and knocked the bowl over, sending it and the spoon clattering across the table. He shot to his feet. "I need a shave. A-and I believe I remember telling… all of you…" his words turned into mumbles as he turned to the drip Bruce had put in his arm, and Maggie's chest clenched again. But she couldn't move. Rhodey stepped forward, calling Tony's name to placate him, but Tony didn't listen.

Tony ripped the drip out and continued: "Alive or otherwise, that what we needed" – he was shouting now – "was a suit of armor around the world, remember that? Whether it impacted our precious freedoms or not. That's what we needed." His eyes were burning and his teeth exposed as he shouted at Steve, shaking with the effort of it. Maggie watched, unable to move. She just felt… hollow. Scooped out, empty. No room for anger.

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

"I said we'd lose," Tony shot back. "You said 'we'll do that together too'. Well guess what Cap, we lost. And you weren't there." Maggie saw it in Steve's face: he stopped arguing, and the sadness took over. He'd accepted Tony's judgement and shouldered it as truth.

Tony took a shuddering breath. "But that's what we do, right? Our best work after the fact? We're the Avengers, we're the Avengers?" Rhodey stepped in and gripped Tony's arm, softly calling his name. For a moment Tony didn't take his eyes off Steve, but then he turned on Rhodey. "Not the pre-vengers, right?"

"Okay," Rhodey nodded. "You made your point, just sit down-"

"Okay, no, no-" Tony raised a finger and kept talking over Rhodey's heavy suggestions for him to sit down. Maggie didn't see the point in trying to stop him, but she edged closer all the same. The blood had drained from Tony's face.

Tony continued, pointing at Carol: "Here's my point, y'know she's great right now. We need you, you're new blood." He freed himself from Rhodey and rounded on Steve again, malice twisting his face. "Bunch of tired old mules, I got nothing" – Tony jabbed a finger at Steve, his face so much angrier than Maggie had ever seen it – "for you Cap, I got no coordinates, no clues, not strategies, no options, zero, zip, nada. No trust, liar," Tony hissed. And then as if that didn't make his feelings perfectly clear he reached up and ripped his arc reactor off his chest.

Maggie had stepped behind him, so she didn't see his face when he dropped the reactor in Steve's hand and said: "Here, take this. You find him, you put that on…" his breath came in short, sharp gasps. "You hide."

And then he dropped. Maggie caught him before he hit the ground, her arms tight around his chest and her strength keeping him up.

"Tony!" Rhodey cried.

"I'm fine," Tony huffed, still breathing hard as he slumped in Maggie's arms. He smacked her arm halfheartedly as if he really thought he could stand on his own. His heartbeat fluttered under her palms. "Let me-" And then he fainted dead away.

Maggie didn't look at the ring of concerned Avengers (and Carol) with their hands held out as if she was about to drop Tony. Stunned silence filled the room.

Steve stepped forward hesitantly. "Is he-"

But Maggie just hoisted Tony higher in her grip, reached down to scoop up his legs, and then carried him out of the room. Rhodey ran after her, reaching over to check Tony's vitals, and after a few silent exchanged glances the others turned to follow.

With Tony resting limp and light in her arms, Maggie strode back through the facility to the med bay.

Maggie stood at the very edge of the small treatment room where Tony lay, as Rhodey did a last check over of his vitals. Bruce had basically reiterated his initial diagnosis (Tony was recovering from a nasty infection, malnutrition, and a great deal of shock) before giving him a sedative and retreating to the lab.

And now Rhodey gave his friend one last check over, his brow pinched with concern. Pepper sat wordless beside Tony's bed, her tired eyes resting on his face. Maggie watched them all from the far corner. Tony looked healthier now he was asleep, although maybe that was just because she couldn't see the angry, desperate look in his eyes any more.

Rhodey set down his glasses with a sigh and turned to walk out of the treatment room. As he left, Maggie heard him update Steve, Natasha, and Carol, who waited outside.

Maggie looked from the door to Tony's sleeping form, and hesitated.

"Go."

Maggie blinked and looked over to Pepper. The other woman's eyes were warm as she held Tony's limp hand, and when their eyes met she nodded to the door. "I'll look after him."

After another moment of hesitation Maggie nodded once and strode after Rhodey.

She walked out of the treatment room just as Steve turned to Carol's retreating form and asked: "Where are you going?"

The strange woman didn't break her stride or even look over her shoulder as she replied coolly: "To kill Thanos."

Natasha and Steve shared a bewildered glance. Maggie met Rhodey's eyes and quirked a brow. He just shrugged. And then they all hurried after Carol.

They caught up to her in the small workspace just outside the common room.

"Hey," Natasha called, and Carol turned with a neutrally curious face. "You know, we usually work as a team here, and between you and I morale's a little fragile."

Rhodey leaned against the doorway, watching, and Maggie slipped into the room behind Steve. She spotted the blue cyborg alien who had arrived with Tony standing in the shadows at the other end of the room, but only because it was a place where she might normally have chosen to stand. She didn't think the others had noticed her yet.

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

"You even know where he is?" Rhodey asked.

"I know people who might."

"Don't bother," called the blue alien, and they all looked up. "I can tell you where Thanos is."

Maggie's heart flipped. She'd spent weeks helping the others search for any sign of Thanos, so the idea that they might actually be able to find him… she barely fought off a shudder as she remembered his calm eyes boring into hers.

Rhodey cleared his throat. "Alright, let's call a meeting in the common room with everyone. Sound good?" It was pretty clear his question was aimed straight at Carol.

Luckily she looked over, met Rhodey's eyes, and shrugged. "Alright."

'Everyone,' as it turned out, meant Maggie, Steve, Natasha, Rhodey, Bruce, Carol, the blue alien (who Maggie soon learned was called Nebula), Rocket, and a silent and sullen Thor.

Once they'd gathered in the common room, standing in a ring around the main table, Rhodey gestured for Nebula to explain. She stood at the edge of the room with her back pressed against the dark wood wall as if seeking reassurance from it. Maggie felt a flicker of recognition.

Nebula began to explain. She described what she had been to Thanos, how he had made her and talked about his 'great plan' with her. Nebula spoke in a low whisper, as if still frightened of the memories, but her rigid metal face and pitch black eyes betrayed no emotion.

She continued: "I'd ask 'where would we go when this plan was complete?' And his answer was always the same." Nebula pushed off the wall and paced over to place her palms on the wooden table. She looked down. "'To the garden.'"

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

"So where is he?" Steve prompted.

Rocket started up the holographic overlay (Maggie had showed him how to use the interface weeks ago), revealing an image of the Earth.

Maggie cleared her throat. "We've been concentrating on energy readings."

Rocket continued for her: "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 we got a near-identical reading on the scanners two days ago," Maggie said. Rocket had jury-rigged a set of scanners two weeks ago from various Avengers and Stark Industries machines, and she and Bruce had helped him to quantify the readings.

Rocket nodded and flicked the hologram, sending it skittering through galaxy systems until it came to a hologram of an unfamiliar planet. "On this planet."

Nebula looked up. "Thanos is there."

Natasha leaned in, her eyes sharpening. "He used the Stones again." At the change in atmosphere that came over the room, Maggie felt an uncomfortable prickle down her spine. After a moment she identified it as fear – she was afraid of Thanos.

"Hey, hey," Bruce cut in, waving a hand. "We'd be going in shorthanded, y'know?"

Rhodey nodded. "Look, he's still got the Stones, so-"

"So let's get 'em," Carol cut in with a look like hope on her face. She glanced at Rhodey. "And use them, to get everyone back."

And just those words were an electric volt shot straight through Maggie's veins, a burst of hope in her chest that threatened to suffocate her. "We can do that?" she managed to get out.

Carol met her eyes. "Yes."

"Just like that," Bruce said doubtfully.

"Yeah." Maggie glanced over at Steve, who was staring down at the holographic planet as if he could see Thanos walking around on it. "Just like that." He looked up and met Carol's eyes, and they nodded at each other.

"Even if there's a small chance that we can undo this," Natasha continued, "then we owe it to everyone who's not in this room to try."

Maggie straightened, prickles dancing up and down her spine. After three weeks of numbness it was almost too much, but the idea of just snapping her fingers and getting them all back, getting Bucky back… she wanted it so badly it made her gut churn. She realized Steve was looking at her, and she met his eyes and saw her own determination reflected there.

"If we do this," Bruce argued, "How do we know it's going to end any differently than it did before?"

"Because before you didn't have me."

Everyone turned to look at Carol, who stood with her hands on her hips and a casually confident expression. Maggie had never spent much of her life waiting for a hero to come and save the day, but today she wanted so badly for Carol to be that for her.

Rhodey rolled his eyes. "Hey, new girl, everybody in this room is about that superhero life." Carol shot him an exasperated look. "And if you don't mind my asking, where the hell have you been all this time?"

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

Avengers around the room exchanged glances at that. Maggie realized her heart was pounding, thumping against her chest as if coming back to life.

She was distracted from her hope when a chair creaked, and she looked up to see Thor rise from his seat and stride across the room to Carol, still chewing a mouthful of bread. He hadn't said a word since the battle in Wakanda and they'd left him mostly alone, so to see him striding into the middle of the conversation was a shock. He halted right in front of Carol, and raised a hand beside her head. Seconds later his axe flew into his hand and – Carol didn't flinch.

Thor rested his hands on the top of his axe and peered into Carol's face. After a moment, he nodded and looked up. "I like this one."

Carol smiled.

Maggie tore her eyes away from the strange interaction to see Steve staring hard at the holographic planet again. She could feel threads weaving the people in the room together, could feel them all teetering on the edge of a decision, daring to hope. But she knew who the one to tip them over that edge would be.

Steve took a breath and looked up. "Let's go get this son of a bitch."

The room burst into action.

Everyone dashed around the facility grabbing weapons and uniforms before they converged on the lawns to board the Guardians' spaceship.

Maggie caught up to Carol outside the common room and matched her strides down the corridor. She peered at the blonde woman, assessing. She was shorter than Maggie, but Maggie knew better than to think that had any bearing on her strength – she'd seen the strange energy that Carol could summon, and beyond that there was something in her bearing that screamed dangerous.

"What did you say your name was?" Maggie prompted.

"Carol Danvers." Carol kept walking.

"And you're human?"

"More or less." Carol eyed her. "And you are?"

"Maggie."

Carol's head cocked. "Maggie Stark, right? I remember hearing about you in the news when you were born."

Maggie eyed her right back. "So you're older than you look."

"That's right."

"You don't look very surprised that I'm alive."

"Should I be?"

Maggie frowned. "So apparently you weren't on earth in 1991."

A smile flickered at Carol's mouth. "Right again."

A few moments of silence passed as they walked side by side through the facility.

Maggie took a breath. "You really think we can just… undo what Thanos did?" The hope tasted painful on her tongue, razor sharp.

Carol stopped walking and turned to face her fully. "I do, Maggie Stark." She jerked her chin. "Go get ready."

Maggie eyed Carol's self-assured confidence for a moment longer, drawing strength from it, before she nodded and turned to get ready for battle.

She stopped at the med bay on her way out to the facility lawns. Pepper still sat by Tony's side, though she seemed halfway to nodding off. She looked up with wide eyes when Maggie walked in, and jumped to her feet.

"You're going somewhere," she said, taking in the new, buzzing energy in Maggie's stance.

Maggie nodded. "We think…" she swallowed. She didn't know whether to give hope or not. "We think we might have a shot at getting the Stones. Carol thinks we could use them to bring everyone back."

Pepper sat down heavily. "Really?" She turned to the still-unconscious Tony.

"Tony needs to stay here," Maggie said, seeing the uncertainty in Pepper's face. "Look after him, and… and I guess I'll see you when we get back." The thought of what that homecoming could look like sent jitters down her spine. She nodded at Tony. "Tell him when he wakes up?"

"Will this work?" Pepper said, her voice low. She looked up again and Maggie was alarmed to see her eyes were damp.

Maggie opened and closed her mouth a few times, before settling on the only answer she could find within herself: "It has to."

Pepper stood up again, and circled Tony's bed to pull Maggie into a hug. Maggie hugged her back tightly, and reflected that she'd barely been able to move these past few weeks and now she felt alight with energy. "Be safe," Pepper urged. "Good luck."

Maggie nodded and pulled away, then paused a moment to take in her sleeping brother's face. He lay, deep asleep, utterly unaware of the new hope scorching through the Avengers. He might wake to a world made whole again.

She darted forward to brush his hair away from his forehead. "See you on the other side, Tony."

Maggie was so preoccupied with what ifs and anxious hopes as she hurried across the Avengers Facility lawns that she almost didn't realize she was stepping onto a spaceship.

Almost.

Once she'd walked up the ramp she looked up, saw unfamiliar engineering and an alien language written on a bulkhead, and an irrepressible curl of curiosity unfurled in her mind. She proceeded to ask Rocket and Nebula a series of increasingly complicated questions until Rocket told her to "shut up and sit down, nosy". Maggie obeyed. But when she'd taken her seat at the back of the cockpit, beside Rhodey and Thor, Nebula paused on her way past.

"Your brother helped repair the engines," Nebula said in a low voice. "When we get back you can ask him about it."

She'd walked to the other end of the cockpit before Maggie could do more than blink. Huh.

Once everyone was seated, Rocket started firing up the engines and Maggie reflected that she felt, strangely, as if she were coming back to life. The lights of the cabin seemed a little brighter, her breath came easier, and she felt sharp, focused. It felt like those first few days after HYDRA, when she'd started to see the world anew. She had a mission.

With a shudder, the spaceship lifted off the facility lawns and rapidly picked up speed as it flew upwards. It was a pretty smooth ride – Maggie barely felt the g-forces pressing against her, and within a few seconds the bright blue of the sky began to fade to black as they rose out of the earth's atmosphere.

"Okay," Rocket said, and turned to glance back at them. "Who here hasn't been to space?"

Maggie dutifully raised her hand along with Steve, Natasha, and Rhodey. Rhodey grimaced and whispered "what?" and she just shrugged at him.

Rocket eyed them. "You better not throw up on my ship."

With the pressure pushing on her diaphragm and her fluttering hope sending her pulse wild, Maggie thought: no promises.

Nebula called out: "Approaching jump in three" – Maggie instinctively clutched her arm rests, and saw Natasha in front of her do the same – "two" – Maggie's heart shot into her mouth – "one."

A boom resounded as the engines kicked into overdrive, slamming Maggie's shoulders back into her seat, and her eyes shot wide open as the blackness of space around them erupted into a devastatingly beautiful light show: blues, reds, and yellows streaked around and ahead of them, and Maggie had half a second to think they said we were travelling via wormholes but they didn't say it would be so beautiful-

And then it was over. The shot through the wormhole and the lights around them became blinding before abruptly leaving them in the relative darkness of space once more.

Maggie blinked, her heart racing, and found herself looking out over an entirely new planet.

Planet 0269-S looked… well, it looked like an inhabitable planet. Maggie's eyes roved over oceans, landforms, atmosphere. And yet it was very plainly not Earth. It had a ring of space debris like Saturn, for one thing, a massive moon hanging on the horizon, and the land forms below took unfamiliar shapes. Beside Maggie, Rhodey took in a sharp breath.

Even as Maggie's hope and fear grew more present, she allowed herself to feel awe. She had traveled through space. One small step for man, she thought wryly, and then felt a kick of grief deep in her gut when she realized that thought had taken on Bucky's voice.

She took a long, slow breath. Thanos was down there somewhere. Get the Stones, get him back. Get them all back. That's the mission.

She was so busy frantically trying to get a hold over her sudden emotional instability that she barely noticed Carol unfasten her belt and head to the airlock at the bottom of the ship. She only noticed when Carol appeared outside the ship, glowing like a star.

"I'll head down for recon," came her voice over the ship speakers, and with a flare of light she descended on the planet.

There followed a very anxious wait on the ship. After half a minute Maggie unbuckled her harness and stood up to walk around, because she couldn't handle just sitting there. After a moment, the others stood up to spread out around the ship. It was surprisingly large, with a mess area, bunks, and a whole room for the engine.

Maggie ended up at the rear of the ship, looking out through the window at the empty expanse of space. This was easier. She didn't have to think about Thanos on that planet if she wasn't looking at it.

She heard movement behind her, and looked over her shoulder to see Thor. He could hardly move quietly in the confines of a ship with his heavy dark armor and his axe. His eyes met hers for a moment before sliding past to look out into space. Maggie shuffled to give him room and he stepped up beside her.

For a few moments they just stood side by side, fully dressed for battle.

Surprisingly, Thor broke the silence. "He's down there." It sounded like a promise.

Maggie slowly nodded. "I know he is. We can beat him. Together." She took a breath. "We'll get them all back."

He nodded this time, frowning, then turned to look at her. "You're, uh…" he pointed at her. "Maggie."

She inclined her head. "You're Thor."

His fingers tightened on his axe. "It's nice to meet you, finally." His eyes flickered. "I wish it had been under better circumstances."

"Well," Maggie jerked her head over her shoulder. "Let's beat the shit out of Thanos and whoever else is waiting for us on this planet, undo the Decimation, and then I'll happily share a few drinks with you."

He shot her a fleeting grin. "Sounds good to me."

They fell into silence again, looking out at the stars, and Maggie heard the soft words of a separate conversation echo down the narrow spaceship corridors:

"This is gonna work, Steve."

"I know it will." Steve's voice was low, sad. "Because I don't know what I'm going to do if it doesn't."

Maggie didn't take her eyes off the stars but those words hit her hard. If it doesn't. That world seemed so unthinkable; that numbness she'd existed in for three weeks, the overwhelming sense of loss and defeat.

She swallowed, suddenly decided. Because they had to win now. There was no alternative. None that was worth anything, anyway. She reached up to touch the pearl pendant tucked under her armor.

"Glowing lady's back," came Rocket's drawl. Maggie and Thor exchanged a glance before rushing back to the cockpit.

Sure enough, Carol was slowly drifting toward the cockpit windshield with a quizzical look on her face. "No satellites, no ships, no armies, no ground defenses of any kind." She came level with the window, and Maggie saw a light spark in her eyes. "It's just him."

Maggie swallowed dryly.

"And that's enough," Nebula murmured.

Steve nodded. "Alright, let's move in."

Thanos might be alone, but they all knew first hand how dangerous he could be. Especially with the Stones.

So they landed the ship miles away from where Carol had said Thanos's base was, and moved silently and swiftly through the thick, humid forests. Maggie strode past alien plants and caught fleeting glimpses of strange animals, but didn't divert an iota of focus away from her mission. Bulbous tree fronds slid over her nanotech uniform and her boots pressed into the soft ground, but she didn't make a sound.

When the treeline ended and a low, thatched hut came into view, Steve held up a closed fist. Maggie halted in the shadow of the trees. The others fanned out around the hut – she saw grass rustle as Rocket ran through it, but the others were invisible. Bruce in the Hulkbuster armor and Rhodey in his armor were on the opposite side of the hut from her.

"He's inside," came Carol's voice over the comms. She floated in the cloud cover above.

Maggie watched smoke curl out of a chimney at the top of the hut, and then let her eyes track across the scene: this was a peaceful, quiet place. The hut looked out over the wide valley filled with waterfalls and crops of fruit. Sunshine streamed down on the green landscape, and bird and insect calls trilled through the air. The Garden. A flash of sunlight caught her eye, and she noticed a metal scarecrow at the front of the hut. She looked closer, and her gut clenched when she recognized it as Thanos's golden armor, hung up like a testament to his days of war. Oh no, she thought, her eyes narrowing, you don't get to decide when this is over.

"We're in position," Steve murmured into his comms.

Maggie could practically hear Carol's fists curl. "Moving in."

'Moving in' to Carol apparently meant plunging out of the sky in a beam of light like a blazing comet. She shot a massive photon blast through the roof of the hut and dove after it, sending wood splinters flying into the air.

Maggie didn't see much of what she did next, because as soon as Carol entered the hut Maggie leaped into the air and wheeled overhead. Her job was to fly the perimeter until they got Thanos under control, to make sure there were no hidden defenses or traps. She heard the rumble as the Hulkbuster armor burst into the hut from underground, and watched Rhodey fly in through the roof to help restrain the roaring Titan. She only caught glimpses, but she heard the roar when Thor plowed straight through the wall and cut off Thanos's arm.

Maggie wheeled once more, trying to focus on looking outward though every fiber of her wanted to plunge down and put the universe back together. Luckily, she only had to wait a few more moments. Steve strode out from his position and gave the signal for phase two, so with a shaky sigh Maggie dropped out of the sky and landed at the front entrance of the hut just as Steve, Nat, and Rocket climbed the stairs. The rickety wood creaked under their boots.

Maggie stepped inside and her heart leaped: Thanos knelt on the ground, seeming so much smaller and dirtier than when he'd last stood over her in Wakanda. In the glow of Carol's powers, Maggie realized that half of Thanos's face was charred and pockmarked. Carol had an arm around his neck, the Hulkbuster armor held his shoulder down, and Rhodey had his other arm pinned. Thor stood a few feet away, his burning eyes fixed on Thanos's pained face.

Thanos looked up when they entered and Maggie saw his eyes flick from her, to Natasha, to Steve.

Murderer.

Her clenched fists shook. She didn't think she'd ever hated anyone in this cold, glittering way that she hated Thanos.

Rocket didn't stop to shoot a death glare Thanos's way, so he was the first to reach the gauntlet. Maggie heard the thunk as he rolled it over, and she turned to look.

"Oh no," Rocket murmured.

Maggie stared, but her mind couldn't quite make itself understand what she was seeing.

The gauntlet was empty. Each intricately carved groove was an empty void, darkness where there should be glowing life. Beside Maggie, Steve and Natasha shared a glance.

"Where did he put them?" she said, but it came out as the barest hint of a whisper that no one but Steve and Natasha could hear.

Luckily, Steve voiced it a little louder: "Where are they?"

Thanos grunted in reply, and Carol tightened her arm around his neck. "Answer the question," she growled. Her fist glowed.

Maggie looked around the rest of the little hut, as if she'd see the Stones glowing in a box somewhere. She felt that sickened half-realization again, like when she'd been running through the forest in Wakanda. She knew, but she wasn't ready to know yet. It was a truth too large for a single moment.

As her eyes darted around the hut they fell on Thor's face, and she saw the light in his eyes gutter.

"The universe required correction," Thanos said, grunting. "After that, the Stones served no purpose." His eyes met Steve's and he snarled. "Beyond temptation."

Maggie felt her throat close up.

"You murdered trillions!" Bruce shouted, and shoved Thanos to the ground. Maggie stepped back, startled at the sudden burst of violence.

But then Thanos got an elbow under himself and growled "You should be grateful!" and she unconsciously stepped forward again. Rage burned through her, without her even realizing it was there.

Bruce punched Thanos in the face.

Maggie looked into Thanos's charred, scowling face. She wanted to kill him. No – she wanted him to suffer. She'd never had that instinct before, but she wanted it more than oxygen right now. She wanted Thanos to feel the pain of a universe ripped in half, she wanted him to understand: this world wasn't a mercy. This was torture. She wanted him to see what he'd done. But he glared up at Bruce, his remaining fist curling, and Maggie knew that he would never understand.

"Where are the Stones," Natasha asked, her voice so carefully controlled even though she looked on the verge of breaking apart.

"Gone," he replied. "Reduced to atoms."

Maggie heard Natasha's faint gasp, but she couldn't look. She couldn't… she couldn't take this. This wasn't fair. She felt numbness seep into the cracks of her broken soul, and embraced it. Because otherwise she'd scream or fall to the ground and she couldn't do that right now.

"You used them two days ago!" Bruce accused.

Thanos pushed upwards, his eyes glinting. "I used the Stones to destroy the Stones. It nearly… killed me."

"No," Maggie mumbled. No one heard.

"But the work is done," Thanos continued, a titan even when he lay half-dead and filthy on the ground. "It always will be." Always, always. Always gone. Maggie's head spun. Thanos sat up and looked at them with burning eyes. "I am inevitable."

Rhodey shook his head, his eyes wild. "We have to tear this place apart, he-he has to be lying."

"My father is many things," said Nebula, who'd been hiding in the shadows until now, "a liar is not one of them."

"Ah, thank you daughter," Thanos said. His eyes changed, becoming calculating where before they'd been filled with rage. Nebula bowed her head, as if she couldn't stand to look him in the eye. "Perhaps I treated you too harshly-"

From stillness to fury, Thor launched forward and swung his axe. Maggie flinched back and her heart stuttered at the sound of Thanos's head tumbling to the floor.

Terrible stillness followed. Maggie stood rooted to the spot in the doorway, with the sunlight at her back and shadows before her. Her eyes were wide open but unfocused, though she could see the expanding darkness as blue blood pooled on the floor.

"What…" Rocket stared at Thor. "What did you do?"

Thor looked down at Thanos's fallen body. "I went for the head." He took one last lingering look at Thanos before he turned away. He strode past Maggie without looking at her and walked out into the sunshine.

Inside the hut, no one moved. No one spoke.

And Maggie… didn't know what to do. She closed her eyes as if to block out the truth.

What do we do now? Up until this exact second she'd had a mission; a purpose, a hope, however small. And then that hope had grown large and so vitally important, but… they'd failed. Again.

With the hope stripped away, Maggie was left with this: a universe empty of half of all life, with no way of returning the dead.

The work is done. It always will be.

Maggie felt the heat of her anger suddenly cool as she realized that this was the world she lived in now: a world broken in two. A world without Bucky.

Malfunction.

That was old programming, she dimly noted, deep within her where she could never quite erase it all. She opened her eyes, wet lashes clinging together, and saw a group of broken, defeated people standing in a crumbling hut before a felled titan and a useless metal gauntlet.

Malfunction.

Comply with the mission.

And she realized: she had no missions anymore.

The moment Maggie walked into the room, Tony knew.

He'd woken up a few hours earlier and had something to eat and drink while Pepper told him that the others had uncovered a chance of undoing what Thanos had done. That they were already gone. It made him uneasy, being left to wait for once.

But then they heard the rumble of the spaceship returning to the facility lawns, and a minute later Maggie appeared in the doorway in her dusty Wyvern suit, her hands empty by her sides. She looked into Tony's face and he knew.

He let out a breath that felt like knives in his lungs, and squeezed Pepper's shaking hand.

"Thanos used the Stones' power to destroy them," Maggie said, her voice empty. "They're gone. Can't be used for anything, let alone bringing… let alone undoing what Thanos did." Maggie's eyes were fixed on Tony and Pepper, but she didn't seem to be seeing them. "Thor killed Thanos."

"Oh my god," Pepper's breath hitched.

Tony hunched over. Goddamn it all but he'd let himself hope again, just for a second. And now he didn't even get to kill Thanos himself. Peter, Strange, Vision, Quill, Fury, all the rest of them. Gone for good.

Tony recalled what Thanos had said after he'd stabbed him in the gut: "When I'm done, half of humanity will still be alive. I hope they remember you."

He didn't want to be remembered like this; alive, after failing half the universe.

As Tony floundered in the sudden awful future yawning around them, out of the corner of his eye he saw Maggie's blank mask crack, and she turned to leave.

"Maggie," he croaked. "Maggie, stay."

For a moment she hesitated, and Tony's stomach plummeted. But then she turned and came to sit on the edge of Tony's bed, smudging the clean sheets with dirt and ash and who knew what else. Tony laid out his hand. She took it, though her hands were still enclosed in her black clawed gauntlets. On Maggie's other side, Pepper reached out to put a hand on her shoulder.

Maggie stared down at Tony's callused fingers wrapped around her clawed gauntlets, and Tony looked at his sister. He'd seen her scared and in pain on the Raft, afraid of him and everything around her. He'd seen her hopeless and defeated, staring out a window at the forest. He'd seen terror in her eyes as she beheld fragments of her past. He'd seen her as the Wyvern; driven, focused, a weapon.

He'd never seen her like this: empty. Whatever spark had driven her since she'd escaped HYDRA, that drive to be a person… it was gone.

The failure and overwhelming grief at the loss of a universe, Tony understood. It suffocated him, pressed into his fragile bones. But something crucial had fractured in Maggie. Maybe it was the loss of Barnes – whatever problems Tony had had with the ex-assassin, it was clear that he and Maggie had a bond that Tony didn't truly understand. He couldn't imagine that loss. Vision, too: her best friend, killed twice over while she was unable to stop it.

Tony squeezed Maggie's hand as if to hold her together, but her face showed no reaction. Her dark eyes were blank, looking neutrally down at their clasped hands, and her face held no expression.

Tony looked over at Pepper, tear-stained and exhausted, and then back to his sister. He'd been so relieved to hear that Maggie had survived the Decimation, even as guilt trailed in the wake of relief, but he hadn't realized that survival didn't mean life.

He could see it in her eyes. Maggie Stark had died.