p class="MsoNormal"Tony sat in complete silence as the remains of the alien spaceship flew through space. Nebula sat opposite him, expressionless and emotionless as usual, except if Tony looked closely, her eyes were full of tears, almost waiting for the correct moment for the mechanics to allow them to spill onto her purple and blue cheeks. He had watched alien after person fade to dust on Titan, and the loss of all of them created a gaping hole in his belly, filling him with grief and sorrow, and, though it was unlike Tony to wear his emotions on his face, it was evidently obvious that the losses had taken their toll./p
p class="MsoNormal""We can get them back right. I know we can we have to get them back…" Tony started to say, but the words caught in his throat and choked him. "The kid… he knew something was wrong. He was just a kid! He trusted me and I failed him… I couldn't protect him."/p
p class="MsoNormal"As Tony continued his monologue of self-depreciation, Nebula walked towards the control panel, and started the descent to earth. The home planet of the snivelling superhero came closer into view, and nebula saw the devastation first hand. People wailing in the streets clutching piles of dust, some others being supported by friends whilst some were still disintegrating, and she was disgusted by the sight, shielding Tony from the view outside, knowing that the sight would only break the man even more./p
p class="MsoNormal""Where to?" She asked tentatively, a stark contrast to her usually rage filled voice./p
p class="MsoNormal""Wankanda, that's where Banner said he would go. I wonder if he is…" Tony's voice trailed off, the sentence not needing finishing, as they both knew its ending./p
p class="MsoNormal"Wakanda was a mess. It was clear a great battle had happened there, as the broken trees and the great rocks which appeared to be spaceships still remained, though it was apparent that the actual fighting had finished long ago. When the wreck alien aircraft landed in a clearing in the woods, Tony stumbled out, and, the moment he saw Steve, collapsed into his old friend and enemy's arm, sobbing heartbrokenly at what he had witnessed./p
p class="MsoNormal""We almost had him. We did. We could have stopped it" was mumbled from one of the hero's, its origin not mattering in the moment of grief./p
p class="MsoNormal""Tell me. Where were you when we needed you most?" Steve Rogers asked quietly after the pair had disentangled from the tearful embrace. Tony looked around at the Avengers, or what was left of the group, counting the losses, and being able to count all the survivors on two hands. As Tony explain what happened on Titan, Steve and Natasha listened closely, whilst the other Avengers searched for the ashes of their lost friends, labelling the jars which contained the dust, and the time and date of their death, which was easy, as they had all died at the same time./p
p class="MsoNormal""Who did you lose then Tony" Natasha said quietly, as if fearful of the reply/p
p class="MsoNormal""The group I met – The Guardians of the Galaxy, and a man called Dr Strange" Tony replied croakily/p
p class="MsoNormal""I know them." A low strong voice replied. Tony turned and saw Thor sat besides him listening closely to his story. After a questioning eyebrow from Tony Thor continued "I met Dr Strange when I was at Earth with Loki, before Hela arrived. The Guardians are the ones who picked me up after Asgard was destroyed and Thanos had defeated my ship. Rocket was one of the guardians. It would probably be best if I broke the news." With this he disappeared off towards the strange looking raccoon, who was clutching at a mound of dust crying and repeatedly saying the words "I am Groot"./p
p class="MsoNormal""I lost the Kid too. Peter Parker, I mean Spiderman. Do you remember him?" To which all of the remaining Avengers except Dr Banner nodded. "He was just 15. I was meant to keep him safe! He could sense that something was happening, and fell into my arms saying that he didn't want to go. I told him he was going to be alright but I lied and now he is gone and his last words were I'm Sorry. He blamed it all on himself and felt like he had let me down but I had let him down" This endless stream of words erupting from Tony's lips carried on for a good 10 minutes, matching the flow of tears down his cheeks. By the end of his recount of events, all the remaining Avengers had joined him and the tears flowed openly down their faces./p
p class="MsoNormal"As Steve and the other Avengers who fought on Earth told their story, the day left and the night came in, forcing them to return to the palace in Wakanda, which once belonged to King T'Challa. This opened several fresh wounds within the group, and it took all of Natasha's strength to stop herself from collapsing on the floor of the lab after explaining to the Queen the events of the fight and the dreadful outcome. Searching around the room for anything to distract herself, she sees the table which Vision once lay upon, and the broken glass screen which Shuri was working on. "Shuri!" She said to herself, searching for either a pile of dust or a body. She found neither however, but found the curled up sleeping body of the young princess. She had suffered a nasty blow to the head after being knocked down by one of Thanos' children, but was mainly okay expect the extreme grief of learning of her brother's death. Crying and shaking uncontrollably, the two women sunk lower and lower into the floor until they fell asleep from exhaustion, holding onto each other and hoping that it would get better./p
p class="MsoNormal""There must be something we can do. Something we can do to stop him or to reverse the effects of the snap. There has to be a way. There just has to be." States Bruce, the desperation clear in his voice./p
p class="MsoNormal""There was a child, back on Asgard." Thor said, clearly unwillingly. "A child who held the most unbelievable power."span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span/p