It was just past three weeks since Thanos embarked on his mission to destroy half of the world. Still no Carol. Still no Tony. I truly began to wonder if she would ever find him, or if she would ever come back bearing the news she came up empty.

Lately, due to not being able to fall asleep, I spent a good amount of time on the facility roof. Most nights I'd be alone, but sometimes I'd be joined by a friend. A few times Nat had come up briefly, but all the other times was Todd.

Tonight was no different. I sat, head craned up to the night sky, looking for any stars or funny shapes that they made. I wasn't sure what I was expecting to see if Carol returned. Surely she wouldn't carry Tony in her arms—she could travel through space without a ship, I doubted he could do the same.

"I hope you're craving," said Todd. In the recent times, he'd brought comfort snacks. Most of the time he would dig in. Tonight felt like a night for me to hog them all myself.

Todd took a seat beside me, laying the snack bags before us. I grabbed the first one I saw, opening it, nearly spilling the contents out in the process. I wasn't sure what grabbed my interest about pork rinds, but they tasted wonderful when I was self-loathing.

"Steve doesn't join you up here?" my best friend asked.

I shoved my hand down into the bag. "Not his thing. He knows I come to bed once I'm done here, anyway." Even if it is the early hours of the morning. "I think in the beginning he was worried I'd leave or something."

"Why?"

"The aftermath of everything...it's hitting everyone differently. Truthfully, some nights I wished I was on another planet so I didn't have to see failure all the time. But then I wouldn't know where to go, so I resign to staying here."

"I'm glad you do, I'd miss you."

"You've got other friends inside. Nat, for one."

Todd shrugged. "Sometimes I don't see her as a friend. More like my mentor."

"You can be friends with your teachers. At this point, this world has no rules."

"Oh, it still does. If it didn't, the world would be on fire. Crime would skyrocket."

"The shock would have to wear off first for everyone to come to their senses." I munched a few bits in my mouth. "I can't imagine how Pepper feels." She'd come back again earlier in the day today, and she was spending the night. Again. "I mean...her fiancé is somewhere in space. I'd like to talk to her about wedding details, but I'm afraid I'll only make her upset."

"Like you said, everyone's handling this differently."

"I feel like I made out better. I still have my husband, I've got you. Yeah, I lost some friends, but I didn't lose all of them. While she hasn't lost Tony, I'm sure she feels like she has. Just the fact of not knowing...it's got to drive her mad."

I squinted at seeing a star coming our way. It grew brighter. Wait, that's not a star...

I nudged Todd, pointing to my line of vision. The roof beneath us began to quiver. As the figures came closer, it was a ship.

Todd and I sat, mollified, as we watched the ship grow bigger as it came close to landing on facility grounds. As it descended past, Todd and I abandoned our snacks. He grabbed my hand before I ignited fire in my feet and other hand to shoot us off the roof towards the ship's landing area.

I gently lowered Todd to the grassy floor first before making my own landing. Steve, Rhodey, Bruce, and Nat seemed to have heard the commotion. I didn't see Thor, Rocket, or Pepper anywhere at the moment.

Under the ship, Carol helped it touch down to the ground. Her whole body glowed, radiated of some sort of energy. She looked back at us once the ship's landing gear was firmly in place, the glow around her vanishing.

The hatch of the ship lowered, and Tony came hobbling down with some bald woman with blue skin at his side, aiding him. For weeks, news broadcasts had called him missing. I had been waiting for the cruel day they would've declared him dead.

Steve was the first to rush to the pair, taking Tony from the woman. She wandered back to the hatch of the ship as Steve and Tony talked just out of ear shot.

I intercepted Pepper as she came running out of the facility. She and I went to the pair together.

"Oh, my God!" Pepper blubbered. "Oh, my God!" She embraced Tony.

"It's okay," said Tony.

It was hard to take a good look at Tony Stark right now. He was a few more days away from being a walking skeleton with skin. Everything looked sunken in on his face, his color was off. He's been missing for nearly a month. Carol found him.

Carol, I tried to reach her mind. Thank you.

I got no response. It didn't hurt too much, I probably freaked her out.

Once the shock of Tony's return wore off, everyone went inside the facility. As I took stride with Steve, I noticed for the first time that the beard I had come to love was gone. I had half a mind to comment on it, but I left it be. Perhaps it reminded Steve of our loss. A beard is easier to shed than guilt.

Behind us, I could hear Rocket talking to the blue woman. I got the name "Nebula" out of his words, so I assumed that was her name.

We got Tony hooked up with a blood drip to help him start to heal. We all crowded in a living room area, where holograms showed the current casualty count and faces. My stomach twisted, but compared to past times, it hurt nowhere near as bad.

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

"World governments are in pieces," said Nat. "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 fifty percent of all living creatures."

Faces were blips on the images. Faces I knew. Many that I didn't.

"Where is he now?" asked Tony. He had planted himself in a chair, to Pepper's insistence. "Where?"

"We don't know," I said.

"He just opened a portal and walked through," Steve added. That part I missed when I was unconscious.

"What's wrong with him?" Tony asked, gesturing to Thor. The god lurked nearby, sulking on a bench. I was surprised he had even decided to show up.

"Oh, he's pissed," said Rocket. "He thinks he failed. Which of course he did, but you know 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," said Steve. "Deep Space scans, and satellites, and we got nothing. Tony, you fought him."

"Who told you that?" Tony sounded surprised. "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's unbeatable."

"Did he give you any clues, any coordinates, anything?" I pressed gently.

"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," said Steve.

Tony's expression darkened. "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 rose, anything that was within arm's reach on the table was pushed away. "I need to shave. And I believe I remember telling all of you—"

"Tony, Tony, Tony!" said Rhodey, who intercepted the man as he went for Steve. I took a cautious step in front of my husband.

"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!"

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

"Is this really the time?" I groaned.

"I said, 'we'd lose'. You said, 'we'll do that together too'. And guess what, Cap? We lost," said Tony, mildly angry. I was sure if he had had more energy, his voice would be stronger. "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," I said rather crossly. "Just sit down."

"Okay..."

"Okay?" asked Rhodey.

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

"Tony, you're sick."

"She's great, by the way." Tony gestured to Carol.

"Sit down. Sit."

"We need you. You're new blood. Bunch of tired old mules!" Tony marched right up to Steve, but not as close as he would've liked. I still stood in the way. Though I stood in the path, Tony's eyes, now venomous, stared past me, at Steve. "I got nothing for you, Cap! I got no coordinates, no clues, no strategies, no options. Zero. Zip. Nada. No trust. Liar."

Tony...

I cringed as Tony ripped the reactor from his chest. He shoved it into Steve's hand.

"Here, take this. You find him, and you put that on. You hide."

"Tony!" I exclaimed as he went for the ground. The rest of our group moved in.

"I'm fine. I..."

We all rushed as Tony Stark collapsed in a heap on the floor.