pirateangelbaby: (Determined)
Thor Odinson, God of Thunder, King of Asgard ([personal profile] pirateangelbaby) wrote2019-05-15 09:22 pm

[ENDGAME SPOILERS] Half of a Whole

Three weeks after half the universe turned to dust, several things happen all at once.

Nick Fury's transmitter abruptly stops its broadcast, not because the battery has died, but because its intended recipient has finally arrived. Carol Danvers has flown from one end of space to the next to find them, bringing news of worlds in chaos across the galaxy and seeking an explanation - seeking Fury, who they cannot give to her, his body Vanished along with half of the Earth.

Rocket gives her the transmitter frequency for the Benatar, desperate for news on his missing team. She leaves, and returns a day later with a crippled spaceship on her shoulders, its engines dead and life support failed completely. Rocket is among those who run to greet its arrival, beady little eyes desperate to catch even a glimpse of his family, but the only one he knows who emerges is Nebula, sorrow in her black eyes as she takes his small hand in hers.

She's not alone, however. The other occupant of the ship is Tony Stark, looking much worse for wear, half wasted away from injury and starvation, and so upset that he works himself into collapse only hours after landing. Tony confirms what the Nexus has already hinted to Natasha: Peter is gone, along with Rocket's family and the Sorcerer Supreme. The Man of Iron may be too weak and too emotionally shattered to be of much help but Nebula quietly confirms that she's fit for duty. Whatever horrible alterations have been made to her body, at the very least starvation doesn't seem to work for her quite the way it does for humans. When she and Rocket fill the other in on what each has missed, she immediately volunteers to sign on with him.

The mission is to find and kill Thanos. Where else in the universe would she choose to be?

And it turns out she knows a great deal indeed about his plans for after accomplishing his mission. An unremarkable world only a few jumps from Earth, uninhabited by any civilization, that Nebula calls the Garden. And once Rocket restores power to the Benatar, the ship's scanners tell a startling tale - the energy wave of the snap in Wakanda has been sighted again, on that very same world that Thanos has intended to call his home.

Confirmation that he is there, and so are the stones.

For weeks, Thor's battle-fire has been banked in his heart, smothered beneath the heaviness of blame and grief, but now it begins to smolder again as he calls Stormbreaker to his hand, and goes to find his new-forged arm, stronger than the last. This, then, is his chance for redemption. His chance to undo what has been done, and bring back the trillions of lives he'd failed to save. One way or another, either Thanos will die today, or Thor will meet a warrior's death trying.

As he looks around the room, he sees that same sentiment reflected in the eyes of those who still remain. "Let's go get this son of a bitch," Steve declares, and Thor feels cold determination settle into his stomach.

After three long weeks of waiting, finally, they can act.
juststeverogers: (Turn)

[personal profile] juststeverogers 2019-06-20 09:57 pm (UTC)(link)
"I didn't look like this when I first found the Nexus."

Steve's spoken to Thor over the years about how he was changed, different now. Thor's seen proof of it first hand over the time they've spent fighting alongside one another. Staying with each other during the brief time they called the tower Home. He's talking about the sickly waif of a man they show in the museums. As if it was by effort and not freak chance Steve ended up looking the way he does now. Capable of so much more than he ever used to be.

"If the Avengers hadn't been needed, I wouldn't have stayed back home for long." How could he? What exactly would have been there for him? Certainly not the team he has come to love as his own family. He probably wouldn't have met most of them even. "I'd have tried to find a way back to the Nexus a lot sooner. Maybe started over here, or maybe uprooted entirely and moved in to someone else's world. Someplace where they could use me."

It's easy to say now--knowing what he does-- that he would have stayed. That he would have done good however he could and been happy leading a semi-normal life. Steve knows it as sure as he does his own heartbeat that he wouldn't have wanted to do that. If he'd been forced to, stuck there with no hope of going back to the Nexus, then he would have adjusted.

He'd have made do.

"I knew soldiers here. I knew there were people I could help. I'd have tried to come back."
juststeverogers: (Hearing ghosts)

[personal profile] juststeverogers 2019-06-21 01:53 am (UTC)(link)
"You're doing what you think is right."

Staying with his people, being here for them even if he's not at his best. If he's trying to compare himself to Steve with that line of questioning, Steve knows he sounds like a traitor. That he'd so easily abandon his own people to seek out another world. But if the Avengers didn't exist, if Steve didn't know all of the things he does now?

He wouldn't have wanted to stay. Too many friends waited left behind that threshold between worlds. If he hadn't been needed at home and was just a relic from an age gone by...

"I don't have a purpose anymore. But I can't run away now. The world is like this because of me." Because of them. "I go and I sit and I listen to people open themselves up. Talk about what my failure has done to them. Sometimes it helps them. It feels like the only penance I can give anyone, anymore."
juststeverogers: (Lost)

[personal profile] juststeverogers 2019-06-22 08:38 pm (UTC)(link)
"They call it therapy. Group therapy. Everyone shares their struggles and helps be there for each other. Some of them don't come back. Either because it isn't working for them or they're not ready to talk. Aren't ready to hear."

But no one would be in this situation if they hadn't failed. No one would be this devastated, this traumatized. Everyone who's survived Thanos has been changed. There can be no fixing that. All they can do is learn to live with it day by day. Which honestly, Steve isn't. He spends all his time listening to people talk about what they've lost. How their lives have changed because of his failure. It leaves him rooted in the spot and unable to move on.

Or unwilling.

Steve doesn't want to live in a world without the people that are gone. He doesn't want to just 'Move On'. There's even a small part of him that resents those that are, especially among his friends. It's not a fight he'll ever pick but the feelings are there all the same. Raw in their honesty as ugly as it is.

"If I can help even one person...It'll be something."
juststeverogers: (Leader (cap))

[personal profile] juststeverogers 2019-06-23 05:18 pm (UTC)(link)
"I didn't leave the complex for weeks well after you had gone. The only reason I'm upright at all is because Nat wouldn't give up on me. So I'm paying it forward." Because it's the right thing to do, yes, but more importantly to Steve because Thor is someone he cares about and is still here. Still alive.

Steve doesn't want to lose him, too.

"I'm not going to give up on you." He holds out a hand expectantly for Thor to take to help the god up to his feet. "Show me around. Please?"

That's three hundred and fourteen souls that want to see their king succeed. Who are relying on him to lead them through these horrible times. Steve can't do that for his friend, but he can sure as hell support the Asgardian.
juststeverogers: (Turn)

[personal profile] juststeverogers 2019-06-25 01:44 pm (UTC)(link)
Steve doesn't rush Thor's decision, nor does his expression change the longer it takes for the god to grasp hold of his hand. There's still the faintest surges of relief when his offer is finally taken. Steve isn't going to be staying here, won't be able to hold out day in and day out for Thor to let him in. It's a relief to be given this when he's only just arrived.

Steve hopes the look that flickers across his face at Rocket isn't too worried or concerned. None of them like their wounds being prodded. It's so very easy to step on landmines here of emotional unrest without even being aware of it. Everyone has lost so much. Rocket more than most. The soldier nods and follows Thor out the door. They won't be gone terribly long, Steve would be willing to bet.

It feels good to be out walking. Not a feel good that makes one happy by any means--Steve's not sure he even knows how to be that anymore--but it's something to do that pushes away the chance for too much introspection. It's something to focus on. Activity to keep a body so used to physical activity from aching with its disuse.

Thor's people are adapting well from everything Steve can see. There's nothing for strife among his people though some must certainly exist. They're putting the community first. It's been touching to see communities coming together in the wake of Thanos. Steve only wishes it didn't have to be because of something like this stealing everything they loved away. Those who have survived have to lean on each other to keep going. No one's strong enough alone.

"Will there be a tower there, someday?" Steve has heard of the god's passing from Thor before now. He lets his gaze wander across the strait and tries to picture it. "You could make anything you wanted out of this place, given enough time."
juststeverogers: (Profile)

[personal profile] juststeverogers 2019-06-26 11:14 pm (UTC)(link)
"Natasha wanted me to let you know that she didn't give your room away. You've got a lot to do here, and we all know it. But you'll always have a place back with us, too."

Steve would have said so even without Natasha's input, but the soldier desperately wants Thor to know he's got people on his side right now. When the world has fallen apart at their fingertips, at the very least they've still got each other. What's left, at least.

"I'll come out here as often as I can, if that's what you need."