-Preface- The price of victory
Mick stood alone in the back of the small country style church in Boston. It was hard to be here, much harder than he thought it would be. Phillip James Coulson had passed away, this time for the last time. That alone was a strange thought, but the wild ride it had been since Nick Fury had Coulson revived wasn't one Mick would ever regret going on. It gave him more time with the man who stepped into the fathering mentor he needed. It put him on a team with a family that was strong enough to handle anything the world could throw at them. Strong enough to stop the world from ending. At least, in a sense.
It was true SHIELD stopped the world from being torn apart by Glenn Talbot in his gravitonium induced psychosis, but that wasn't the only threat the world faced. Glenn Talbot had tried to warn them about a mad titan named Thanos. Unfortunately, leaving Talbot to stop Thanos destroyed the world due to his lust for power, which was a future none of them wanted to endure again. On the flipped side of the coin, Thanos defeated the Avengers, managed to gather powerful artifacts known as Infinity Stones, and used them to wipe out half of the universe with a simple snap of his fingers. The people that vanished weren't picked in any manner either. It was completely random. There were newborns left without parents, elders losing their entire family at the end of their lives, newborns vanished from their mothers hands. It was pure chaos.
No one knew for sure who all was missing, versus who had vanished. Mack and Yo-yo had been running themselves ragged trying to compile that list while also attending meetings with the fractured US government. Today was honestly the first time they had all been together in a few months.
"She's going to need you up there Webby," Mack said as he patted Mick's shoulders.
"I know," Mick grimaced. "I just thought going through this a second time wouldn't hurt this bad."
"How weird is it to say that?" Yo-Yo asked as she smiled sympathetically.
"So weird," Mick wiped a tear from his face as he chuckled.
"Is everyone else here?" Mack asked as Mick nodded.
"I don't think May left," Mick said.
"I'm sure she's taking it worse than the rest of us," Yo-Yo said as Mick shrugged.
"It's really hard when you lose your world," Mack stated as Mick thought back to Mack's struggle to leave the Framework because of his daughter, and his own reluctance because of Sam.
"It's been a while, eh mate?" Lance Hunter walked in with Bobbi Morse behind him. "Sorry it's never under better circumstances."
"How's Daisy holding up?" Bobbi asked as Mack and Yo-Yo started to seek out a seat.
"It's been rough," Mick said as he started toward the front.
The eulogy was touching, there wasn't a dry eye in the room. To make things a little more difficult, Mack, Mick, Fitz, and Lance were the bearers. Watching everyone place their lily on Coulson's casket was heart wrenching. It was their final goodbye. It was hard to say who was hurting worse, although May was much less receptive to conversation than everyone else. After everything was over, Mick watched May stand by the grave silently. Everyone knew why, her love for Coulson was on a much different level. It had to be killing her inside to have been there as he took his last breath. It had to be torment knowing that we could've saved him if the circumstances had been different. "I'm going to talk to her," Daisy said as Mick nodded. "I'll catch up with you guys at the hotel."
"May," Daisy said softly as May tensed up and brushed her cheeks. "You don't have to be a lone wolf. We're all here for you."
"I know," May said, her voice raspy. She then cleared her throat before looking at Daisy trying hard to force her emotionless expression to hide her intense pain. "I knew it wouldn't be long, and it didn't matter how much I tried to tell myself it couldn't be longer, it wasn't enough time."
"It still bothers me that he wouldn't let us save him," Daisy placed her arm around May as they stared at the grave.
"He wanted to go out on his own terms," May sighed. "And this time, he did. Peacefully."
"May, I'm so sorry," Daisy said as May shook her head with a soft smile.
"Don't be," May wiped a tear from her eyes. "It's what he wanted." May then shook her head, wiped her face, and took in a deep breath. "What are you guys doing about this disappearance phenomenon?"
"We're still trying to piece it all together," Daisy shrugged. "All we know for sure; it was caused by Thanos. Mack has us with Natasha and Rodgers investigating everyone's claims, and it's bad. There's so much loss."
"Anyone we know?" May asked.
"A few people that Mack knew from his STARS days, Patten Brent. Jerren Bennet turned up on the list recently, I don't know if Mick knows about that yet," Daisy said as May shook her head and frowned.
"So there wasn't an order to it?" May asked as Daisy shook her head. "Are Fitz and Simmons working on reversing it?"
"They just got to come back from the EU yesterday," Daisy said as May nodded, unsurprised by that. "The EU has been on lockdown since immigrants began pouring in from countries that lost their entire established government thanks to the snap."
"I'm glad news travels slow in Tahiti," May said as Daisy nodded in agreement. "Phil would've never rested if he knew what was going on in the rest of the world."
"You're right about that," Daisy smirked. "It's still weird hearing his first name."
"Then don't use it," May smirked. "Do you still need a pilot?"
"You sure you want back aboard our crazy train," Daisy asked as May smiled at her.
"Phil would want me to keep an eye on you kids," May teased as she looked back at the grave with a hint of resolve.
"We'd be glad to have you back," Daisy smiled as she looked fondly at the grave.
Chapter 1: Picking up the Pieces
Walking through the streets of DC felt like walking through a third world country. There was chaos abounding. Windows were shattered in what was once nice apartment complexes, doors barely hanging on their hinges. Mangled cars from collisions, when their drivers vanished. Other cars had their rear windows smashed, seemingly abandoned leaving children trapped inside their car seats. Worse yet were the planes that crashed into neighborhoods due to the lack of pilots. Not even Hollywood with all of it's cataclysm movies could prepare for this sight. Nothing had been spared from this terrible nightmare, as images like this spun across the media as people struggled to cope with their new found lives.
"I hate seeing this," Mack said as he shook his head.
"It's almost as bad as the Lighthouse," Yo-yo stated as Daisy grunted. "I staid almost."
"At least we can try to rebuild here," Jemma said.
"One problem with that," Mick started. "No one knows how to start. It was easy when it was just one place, you start cleaning up the impacted area and rebuild it. How do we do that when some countries don't even exist anymore?"
"That's what we're meeting with these guys for," Mack stated firmly. "I think if SHIELD joins with the Avengers, then maybe the world will trust us enough to start picking up the pieces."
"What if they don't trust the Avengers either?" May asked to Mack's dismay.
"Then we work on our own until we get global clearance," Mack replied as May nodded.
"At least you have a plan," she stated.
They entered the Capitol Building, as security guards flocked toward them. Mack flashed his SHIELD badge, and immediately things began to change. The guards didn't act hostile at all, they showed Mack tremendous respect. They led the team through several halls before they entered the huge auditorium where several government representatives sat, with about as many empty seats around them. In the center of the room sat two very familiar faces; Natasha Romanoff, who had dyed her hair blonde and cut it, and Steve Rodgers. Mr. Rodgers stood up, shaking Mack's hand first, then working his way down the line, ending with Mick. "Thank you from coming out here," he stated as Natasha stood.
"Sorry about your loss," Natasha said looking directly at May.
"If we would've known," Steve started.
"Don't," May stated harshly. "We've all lost people we cared about recently. No point in bringing that up now."
"Right," Steve said with a nod.
"It's been a while," Natasha smirked at Mick. "You're all grown up now."
"And you're blonde," Mick said with a grin as Daisy stared at him curiously.
"Not to cut your little gathering short, but we do have some very important matters to sort out," Nicholas Greenwich, a senator from New Jersey stated.
"You're right," Steve nodded as he urged the team to sit at the table in front of himself and Natasha. He then cleared hiss throat as the room fell silent. "Let's open this meeting up with a moment of silence for those who can't be here." Steve could be heard praying under his breath, surprising Mick with his faith in this given moment. With another clearing of his throat Steve grabbed the mic. "The world is struggling. Everyone is hurting in ways we can't even imagine. They don't have anyone to turn to. No one can just swoop in and put it back the way it was a few weeks ago. We promised to protect the world, and we failed. Plain and simple, we failed. Our promise as Avengers was to avenge the world if anything ever happened, but we don't even know how to go about that."
"We've spoken to a few different governments; No one knows how to handle this global crisis. The Wakanda's have offered to assist in any way they can, once they reestablish order due to the loss of their royal family. The European Union is currently dealing with a power struggle as most of their countries leaders vanished, leaving a serious power vacuum in their wake. Terrorist organizations have moved in to capitalize on the demoralized people," Natasha took over. "We've deployed STARS to try to fend off as much violence as we can."
"That's why we brought these guys here," Steve took over again, pointing at the SHIELD team. "I was surprised when I saw their efforts in the Battle of Chicago, especially after the problems we've had with SHIELD in the past. I think with their recent efforts they've earned at seat as an officially backed government entity."
"It's true, SHIELD did aid in the Chicago incident," Mary Bayfield, a senator from Illinois stated. "But, it could be said that they caused this indecent as well."
"How do you figure?" Yo-yo snapped.
"General Hale, and General Talbot were your people," Daisy barked.
"Were they not also HYDRA agents?" Pat Bernard, a senator from Colorado, asked. "And wasn't HYDRA born from SHIELD?"
"With all due respect, HYDRA was around long before SHIELD was," Steve stepped in.
"Even still," Mr. Bernard stated. "SHIELD has been operating against government orders to disband for a year since we lost Director Mace."
"Actually, about six of those months, we weren't," Mick stated. "Half of our team was trapped in a desolate future, while Agent Fitz and myself were being detained by the late General Hale."
"Order!" Horace Gabbard, current Speaker of the House from California, barked as he slammed the gavel down on his desk.
The rest of the hearing went about as well as anyone could've hoped. Steve continued to defend SHIELD, and promote unity until the vote came. A thin majority voted in favor of SHIELD, but it was enough that the preceding Vice President, Amelia Everette, allowed for the reinstatement of SHIELD. The team cheered after the hearing, until the addendum to the reinstatement was issued. The two Avengers were now in charge of the public face of SHIELD, and would be held accountable if anything went awry.
"It's better than nothing," Steve shrugged as they headed outside.
"You sure you want to tarnish that pretty face with this band of misfits?" Natasha teased.
"You cause more trouble than we do," Mick scoffed as both Steve and Natasha smiled.
"Just so we're clear," Steve said as he looked up at Mack and held out his hand. "We're just the public face, you're still in charge, Director Mackenzie."
"Thanks Captain Rodgers," Mack said with a smile, both shaking hands firmly. "Where should we start then?" Mack turned to his team.
"Recruiting," Daisy suggested.
"Yeah, I'm sure there's tons of people who want to join SHIELD to provide humanitarian aid, where they think we fight aliens and super villains now," Fitz moaned.
"Humanitarian aid is heroic," Jemma stated as Fitz rolled his eyes and nudged Mick.
"Not as heroic as taking down a super villain or an alien overlord," Fitz argued.
"We don't know that the Kree won't still come," Yo-yo stated as everyone glanced at her skeptically. "I'm just saying, they might end up with their chance."
"Let's hope it doesn't come to that," Steve said with a nod.
"I don't think we can handle another alien attacking us right now," Natasha shook her head.
"We'll deal with that if it happens," Mack stated. "Right now, the world needs to know we're there for them."