“So you don’t think he succeeded there,” says Dr. Banner softly. “I suppose Wanda might have survived long enough to destroy the Mind Stone, and with the remains of Earth floating around in space it would’ve been harder for Thanos to find where they’d been and do his time-turning trick. So the casualties would’ve merely been in the billions, instead of…”
“We don’t know that,” Captain Rogers says crossly as they open the door and step in. “If he did it at a different moment in time, with billions of people dead already, the gauntlet would’ve selected different people to kill. We don’t have it confirmed this didn’t happen. Besides, you people couldn’t have known this would result from you saving the world, and even if you had…”
“Shit.” Rocket’s too quiet gasp of it silenced them immediately, especially when they see which one of Robin’s drawings he’s spotted. The one of Tony Stark on the surface of an alien planet, kneeling over a disintegrating Spider-Man, while near him a blue-skinned woman stood in shock.
“That’s Nebula.” The raccoon’s voice is shaking. “And those are your two pals…but where are the others?” He’s run up to it, then the picture taped to the wall next to it. “Where are the others?” He’s now frantically turning from drawing to drawing, obviously seeing in none of them any of the people he’s looking for. “They can’t be all dead, we couldn’t have been that unlucky-where are they? Where are they? Where are they? They can’t be all dead!!” He’s close to yelling now.
Then he slams himself against the wall, and Captain Rogers runs to restrain him, Dr. Banner following. He’s getting louder and louder, drowning out their words to him.
Agent 13 stays with Bobbi, also surveying the drawings, saying, “You say she drew all of these on the trip back here after Agent Johnson defeated General Talbot?”
“Most of them. She put them in a folder; I don’t she let anyone see them until she presented them to me right after walking in, saying I had to have them because I was the only one of us who was going to survive. She even showed me a drawing of my boyfriend’s death.”
(Lance didn’t react well when he first saw that, obviously. But when the time came, he just turned to her the way the picture had shown, a sad, “I love you, Bobbi” his final words.)
Bobbi’s spent the last month sorting the drawings out, trying to guess at the chronology and put them up in order. She’s only left the safehouse to find and guide Inhuman and other refugees in and out; there are none here right now. She sent photos of them back to Daisy, who contacted her a week ago saying the Avengers wanted to see them. They might just make more sense of them than she can.
“Those at that end,” she points, “have probably happened already; I’ve moved ones over there I’ve been able to confirm. Robin tended more towards seeing things involving people she either knew or was going to meet, so there’s a lot of S.H.I.E.L.D. stuff in here, but I think each of you guys shows up at least once. There’s one here I especially think you’ll want to see.” And she leads them to one of the pictures, the one of Tony Stark what was obviously a spaceship, with the stars outside the large window behind him.
“Bruce?” Agent 13 calls over to the two men. “You’re the one of us who’s seen spaceships. Can you come have a look at this?”
“It’s mostly the other guy who saw them, and there’s a lot I don’t remember,” Dr. Banner says, but he comes over. Rocket is now firmly in Rogers’ grip, and his shouts have given way to loud, devastated sobs, though he’s still choking out, “They can’t be, they just can’t…”
He carefully studies the drawing as Agent 13 takes her phone out and starts taking photos. After a minute or so, he shakes his head. “I don’t like this at all. I mean, I suppose you can take only so much from this kind of drawing, but looking at this?” He points to a contraption in one of the corners. “If that’s what I think it is, it’s broken, and that means he’s probably stranded. And that thing he’s doing with the helmet is definitely sending a message, and when that the signal from it’s only going to go so far and register on frequencies only we’d be checking-that’s a last resort kind of thing. If Pepper doesn’t pull off a miracle with that suit…”
“Pepper’s trying to make a suit?” Bobbi asks, thinking now of the things about S.H.I.E.L.D. she originally wasn’t planning to mention, and how much she might now tell them.
He nods. “Been trying to since Thanos’ ship first carted him off. I wrote down everything I know for her. But the truth is, to make a spaceworthy one, she needs stuff only Tony could provide her with. Or maybe the Wakandans, but, well, they certainly won’t now, and nor should they, quite frankly.”
Or, Bobbi thinks, Leo Fitzsimmons, recently deceased, or Leo Fitz, status and location currently unknown. Or, just maybe, a Jemma Fitzsimmons who will stop at nothing to find him.
“Listen,” she says. “There’s only so much I’m willing to tell you without consulting with the new director, but there is reason to believe S.H.I.E.L.D. would be very happy to see someone take an Iron Man suit with all its sensors and ability to gather data into space right now, and they might even have developed what she needs. I can try to contact them again, though I can’t make any promises.”
She looks anxiously at Steve; she’s pretty sure he’ll never fully trust S.H.I.E.L.D. again. But he nods, “If you can get us help, I think we’d all appreciate that.”