...I don't know what to say. I just saw Avengers: Infinity War a few days ago and let's just say, I'm a mess. But I think pretty much we all are after that ending.

This story is more of a way for me to stay sane until the next Avengers movie (along with reading tons of other fanfiction about it), so it's more of a drabble kind of thing, but I might add more bits and pieces in the future. We'll see.

It's all been leading to this. To this one pivotal moment.

Thanos feels the blade cut through him as the God of Thunder thrusts his axe further into his chest. The Asgardian's eyes are filled to the brim with emotion: Pain. Sorrow. Anger. But most of all, triumph. Triumph over that the villain has finally been defeated. That he has avenged his fallen people. His fallen family.

This is for you, brother.

In this one moment, everything is as it should be. The Avengers have won. Good has once again defeated evil and peace will once more be restored.

That is, until the Titan smiles. A grim, hard expression, filling every part of him with gut-wrenching dread. Then, seven laboured words.

"You should have aimed for the head."

He doesn't have time to register, doesn't have to react, before the gauntlet-clad hand lifts, the stones glinting in the light, the fingers coming to meet. The single gesture meaning the end of half the universe.

Snap.

:::

There's light surrounding him. That's the only way to describe it. The tall forests of Wakanda are gone. So is the battlefield. It's only him and this vast world of light. The gauntlet is no longer on his hand, but he can't get the energy the to care. For the first time in forever, he feels… calm. At peace.

"Did you do it?" a small voice asks suddenly. A voice he knows only too well.

As he turns around Gamora's eyes meet his. The little girl stands on the elevated platform, the one where they had met all those years ago on Zen-Whoberi. Where he had first decided to take her under his care. When she had first become his daughter. A time when she was still unaware, untrained and oh so innocent.

A time when she was alive.

He pushes the thought momentarily away. "I did," he answers instead.

"What did it cost?"

The memories are unstoppable now. They flood his mind, overwhelmingly clear.

Pain.

Death.

Destruction.

Sorrow.

All events which he doesn't really care about: they were all for the greater good. What is the deaths of half the universe compared to its fate if all had lived? Balance has been restored now, he can feel it. Even though it might take time to realise it, he did this to save them.

And he had succeeded in doing so. He had won.

But all the same, he had lost. Because what is there left for him now?

He knew beforehand that collecting the infinity stones wasn't going to be easy, but he believed that it was a price well worth paying. Now he isn't so sure.

Because the price had been his daughter.

The only being he had ever truly loved.

And so he replies.

"Everything."