Thanos's corpse lay in the middle of the scorched earth. His purple blood had congealed, gleaming dully beneath the setting sun. No one approached the body. Everyone kept their distance, as though afraid of touching something, as though in awe of something, as though... waiting for something.
Supported by Su Ying, Lin Xiao turned away from the center of the battlefield. His steps were still unsteady, but he held his back straight. He headed toward the temporary medical camp, toward Bruce Banner and Tony Stark, toward the people who needed him and the things he needed to do.
Behind him, Captain America and Thor remained where they stood, looking at Thanos's corpse.
"What... should we do with him?" Thor asked hoarsely.
Captain America was silent for a long time.
"Leave him here for now," he finally said. "Until... until we've figured things out."
Until they figured out what this victory really meant.
Until they figured out what the tyrant's death really represented.
Until they figured out what... came next.
The sun sank, stretching everyone's shadows long across the ground. The shadows tangled together until no one could tell whose was whose, like the marks this war had left, seared deep into the land and into every heart.
Farther away, Doctor Strange and Wong stood outside the medical tent. They looked at the unconscious Bruce Banner inside, at the Infinity Gauntlet on his right hand, its luster gone, and at the Six Infinity Stones, now dull and stone-like.
Doctor Strange's brow was deeply furrowed.
He raised a hand and traced a complex magic circle in the air. Its light fell across his face, revealing the deep worry in his eyes.
"Something's wrong," Doctor Strange murmured, too quietly for anyone but Wong to hear. "The fluctuations in spacetime... haven't settled down. They're