Sue tried her best to listen to the rundown. But with Tony sat next to her with an IV drip in his arm, it made it difficult to keep her eyes on the hologram. The team barely gave the Stark a moment of peace when he stepped off the spacecraft and into the compound. There was a flurry of Bruce running to get Tony hooked onto anything that would help his severe malnutrition, before he was whisked into the living area for a meeting. Sue wanted to intervene to at least give him a day's rest, but Tony himself rejected her proposal.
'I've spent the last month in space. I want to know what's been happening on Earth,' he fought and gestured for Sue to guide him to their next destination.
He had the mind to ask Sue to grab him his glasses and some new clothes, which he needed help changing into. It allowed the woman to see the toll his time in space took on his body. She almost didn't recognise him, and it hurt her to think about what she had spent the last month doing. While Tony was dying for a hot meal and some warmth in the cold depths of space, she was pushing away Steve's freshly made cuisine while moping in her bedsheets. But she had to remember what she had lost. Not giving credit where credit was due was a toxic trait of Susan Storm's, and she had to learn to fight against it. But when it cropped up into her chest at the sight of Tony's bony figure and thin face, she couldn't stop the guilt from building inside of her.
'It's been twenty-three days since Thanos came to Earth,' Rhodey stood with the hologram next to him. A list of all the casualties that occurred from the blip showed along with their faces. It put into perspective the nearly four billion people that were gone, along with half the Earth's ecosystem.
The team was numb to it at this point. The ones they had lost were small in comparison to the half of the universe's disappearance. Tony was yet to see the full extent, as he only saw a handful of people disintegrate into specs of dust. However, with one being Peter Parker, it's effect wasn't without pain. But seeing the countless names in the list of people who were no more, he saw the true horror that was now the new normal.
'World governments are in pieces,' Natasha continued with a heavy heart. '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.'
Sue held Tony's thin fingers from her place in the armchair. He was sat in a chair that was separate from the sofas, as he needed to be upright in order to be comfortable. The clear liquid that ran down the IV tube and into his veins was hung in a bag next to him. With his shirt sat open, now too big for his small frame, Tony did his best to focus on the situation at hand. He couldn't let the thought of Morgan or anything else hinder him just yet. He had time to mourn, but if there was a plan, he had to have a hand in it.
'Where is he now?' Tony looked to Steve.
'We don't know,' the Rogers gave a pathetic shrug of his shoulders. 'He just opened a portal and walked through.'
'When it happened...' Sue spoke up with her eyes staring down at her hand that held Tony's. The team's heads swivelled around to her in surprise. They hadn't heard many words from the Storm in the past few weeks, so it was strange to hear her voice. Although shaky and croaky, Susan continued as she looked to meet Tony's sad stare.
'Everything just stopped. Thanos was gone and we had nothing,' she blinked her bloodshot eyes with a clear of her throat.
Tony nearly teared up. He had seen Sue upset before, but nothing could have prepared him for this. She had attempted to clip up her hair to hide the birds nest that it was, but he could see the indented lines that extended from her tear ducts to the middle of her cheeks. Through the tint of his glasses, he could see that her plump lips were frayed with dead skin, and her cheekbones were more prominent than usual. What little words she did speak lacked the hum of her strong personality. Susan Storm was a shell of her former self, and Tony didn't like it. But he knew that losing Johnny and Morgan had taken a toll on her, as it would to anyone. It upset him to know that he wasn't there for her, but was grateful that he had survive for her sake. If he had stayed dead like everyone thought he would, there was no guarantee that Susan wouldn't crumble for good.
To keep what little composure he had, Tony looked away and caught sight of the person in the room who was yet to say a word. Thor Odinson sat on his own in the corner of the living space. His mighty shoulders were hunched, and his eyes were far off, the thoughts swelling in his head and deafening his ears to the team's discussion.
'What's wrong with him?' Tony asked.
'Oh, he's pissed,' Rocket piped up for the first time. 'He thinks he failed. Which of course he did, but you know, there's a lot of that's going around, ain't there?'
'Honestly, until this exact second, I literally thought you were a Build-A-Bear,' Tony eyed the racoon that hitched his lip up at his words. Sue tried to smile. The return of the Stark's witt should have made her laugh, but it didn't.
'Maybe I am.'
'We've been hunting Thanos for three weeks now,' Steve forced the conversation back to its original topic. 'Deep Space scans, and satellites, and we got nothing. Tony, you fought him-'
'Who told you that?' Tony whipped his head back to Steve with wide eyes. '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.'
'Okay-'
'He's unbeatable.'
Steve paused for a moment. He knew that Tony was bruised from his encounter with Thanos, but they had no leads. They needed something.
'Did he give you any clues?' Steve tried again. 'Any coordinates? Anything?'
'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.'
'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 pushed himself up from his seat and swiped his hands across a table as he stood. Sue jumped up and was surprised at both of their strengths to be able to be up on their feet so quickly. She put her hands under his arm to steady him and the IV stand's wheels squeaked along with Tony as he swayed. But his expression didn't falter and he stood with a face of fury. With the clatter of the table's contents hitting the floor, the team winced and watched the painful actions of a broken man.
'I need to shave. And I believe I remember telling all youse-'
'Tony-' Rhodey stepped beside Sue to help, but Tony pushed him away. Sue thought he would do the same to her, but all he did was forcefully rip the IV out of his arm.
'Alive and otherwise what we needed was a suit of armour 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?'
'Steve!' Sue couldn't help but gasp and glare at the man who knew that Tony wasn't in the best headspace.
'I said, 'we'd lose'. You said, 'We'll do that together too.',' Tony stared up at Steve with his voice void of any jokes. 'And guess what, Cap? We lost. 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.'
'You've made your point,' Sue tried to intervene again and started helping Tony back to his chair. 'Just sit down, please.'
'Okay...'
'Okay?'
'Nah, nah,' he shook his head in a new flare of rage. 'Here's my point. You know what?'
Sue resisted a sigh in frustration. Tony pulled out of her grasp and headed for Steve, shocking everyone with his speed. The IV stand was left lonesome next to the chair and Sue stood beside Rhodey, the two unsure of the Stark's next move. But when Tony's voice lowered into a harsh whisper and Steve's face twisted into a guilty one, they knew it wasn't going to be good.
'We need you. You're new blood,' he pointed to the woman who had brought him back to Earth. 'Bunch of tired old mules! I got nothing for you, Cap! I got no coordinates, no clues, no strategies, no options. Zero. Zip. Nada. No trust. Liar!'
Sue let out a yelp when Tony reached up to his chest and ripped off the powerhouse that held his suit. His eyes pierced through Steve as he shoved the piece into his hand.
'Here, take this. You find him, and you put that on. You hide.'
'Tony!'
His knees gave way and Sue lurched forward to catch him. Her hands successfully pressed against his back, and she lowered him down safely. His brittle bones would likely suffer from a fall, so Sue was glad she made it in time to protect his head at the very least. But with Sue's own strength dwindling, she winced at the ache in her arms from keeping Tony upright. The team gathered around, Steve being one of the first to crouch down and try to help his friend.
'I-I'm fine,' Tony's head swayed. 'I...'
His head fell back onto Sue's shoulder and his body gave into a much-needed sleep. His muscles that worked hard to give him one last hurray relaxed, and Sue saw his eyes close behind his glasses. She took the liberty of pulling them off his face and puting them aside, folded. Sue glanced up to the team who wore pitiful looks.
Everyone was uncomfortable with Tony's outburst, the most being Steve. He was the first to put an arm over his shoulder and to lift the Stark up. Bruce went to help, but the super solider didn't want or need any. He didn't comment on his friend's words as they hurt him more than he let on. But he settled Tony into a room that was equipped with a bed and FRIDAY's surveillance, before leaving wordlessly. Sue passed him in the doorway and went to thank him, but he was gone before she could get a word out. She chose to leave it for now and headed into the room where Tony rested.
Even if there was no plan, Sue was just glad to have someone.