Peter
As Peter Parker swung away towards his doom that held the embodiment of the Mad Titan, Rose Waters could do nothing but stare at the pure idiocy of the boy. What gave him the right to even think that he held a chance against the purple giant? Why was he even trying when the cruel reality was that all he was doing was marching towards his doom? Why was he being so, clearly stupid?
Because he's a hero, Rose, that's what heroes do.
At the thought, Rose Waters immediately shook her head, determined not to believe it. A hero should understand when a fight can't be won and should save their energy for another day. A hero should be smart and selfless and brave and strong and... and...
Rose Waters lost her train of thought as she saw Gamora slashing Thanos in the knee, only for him to grab her by her red tinted locks before hurling her towards a tree. Then, without hesitation, he grabbed Nebula and began to literally tear her body apart when Scarlet Witch held his hands back as Iron Man landed a single punch against his back. At the realization at how outnumbered the Mad Titan was, he immediately slammed the ground with his gauntlet, hurling everyone backwards at least a hundred meters right when SpiderMan came swinging in, landing a single blow of his webbing on Thanos' gauntlet when he simply grabbed his head and hurled the self-proclaimed hero across a field before he made his way closer to Doctor Strange, who took his fighting stance.
Being the coward she was, Rose Waters tore her eyes away from the battle field and let out a sob. Her feelings were contradicting one another, on one hand, she desperately wanted to help the Avengers but on the other, betraying Thanos felt wrong on a million different levels. She felt like she was having an identity crisis, like her world was falling apart at its seams.
Someone let out a scream, forcing Rose Waters to look back to the field to see Thanos grabbing the wizards' necklace before releasing it, his hand seared with it's prints. At his downfall, Captain America hit him in the knee with his shield, forcing the Titan to buckle it when Peter Quill hit him in the back with his gun, forcing him to fall. Within seconds, Black Widow had sent a fury of jabs at his jaw and Black Panther had hurled a boatload of vibranium his way, forcing his other knee to fall as Doctor Strange forced a portal to open above his head, letting Mantis fall through and for her hands to clutch his sleep before screaming at him to sleep.
At the words, The Mad Titan's eyes turned hazy as Gamora ran up to Thanos' face and yelled something almost inaudible to Rose as a small team of Avengers began to start yanking his glove off with another set was holding him down at all angles.
Everything was happening so quickly that it made Rose Waters feel light headed at the sight of her Master being taken down by nothing more than... than mortals. Than humans. It felt impossible to believe with her bare eyes that she couldn't even comprehend the fact. She couldn't comprehend anything as every single moment with her savior flashed before her eyes.
Picking her up, throwing her down, begging, so, so desperately for his affection and love. On her knees for him, and only him, because he was the only thing that she loved. He was the only thing she had. He destroyed her and made her into the lady standing on a building, like a coward, doing nothing more than watching the entire scene unfold before her when the Black Dwarf rammed through the crowd of people, his large, bulky build more than enough to shake Mantis off of him and wreak havoc upon the entire team as Thanos snapped his glove back and gave the world the nastiest glare that Rose Waters had ever witnessed.
And she witnessed a lot.
Without another word being said, The Mad Titan let out a scream and punched the ground with his gauntlet, forcing the Earth to break apart as Rose Waters' eyes widened. The Power Stone did hold the power to destroy planets but... but that wasn't how Thanos did things. He left the resources to survive, he only killed the people for a better life not... not destroy worlds. That was Galactus' territory.
With frantic footsteps, almost everyone started to run away from the giant crater that Thanos was creating in his fury. Almost everyone but the Avengers of course, who only foolishly launched at him at full speed only to be turned into mere, abstract shapes with the help of the reality stone.
Rose Waters stumbled backwards and, in a moment of pure desperation, tried to will herself to teleport to her base on that asteroid near Mars. But she wasn't able to and only managed to get across the room against a wall, the amount of energy she threw into that alone already enough to make her light headed. She couldn't do it, no matter how hard she tried, it was hopeless and now she was going to die on her home planet as it exploded into bits. How fitting.
However, the crater didn't eat up all the land, only everything within a three kilometer radius. Within seconds, the once beautiful, lush green landscape had turned into ash as Thanos walked up a puddle of red mud and, with a wave of his hand, revealed Doctor Strange who immediately spit up blood. Despite the fact that he had turned into liquid during Thanos' rage, he was still horribly hurt.
"The stone." Thanos said, his voice small and barely audible as Doctor Strange only shook his head.
"Never." He replied, his response only infuriating the Mad Titan.
"THE STONE!" He yelled again, this time loud enough for even Rose Waters to hear as she scrambled to the edge of the balcony as Thanos waved a hand to reveal a pile of blocks to turn into nobody other than Peter Parker. And then, the purple giant spoke once more. "The Stone and he might just live."
At the words, Rose Waters heartbeat spiked as she let out a cry when Thanos clenched his fist, letting all of the broken Avengers come back to life, Tony Stark being the first to talk. But even he was broken, his voice hoarse and empty.
"Do it, Strange." Tony Stark whispered, his voice desperate as Thanos only clenched his fist, forcing Peter Parker to scream. "I SAID DO IT, STRANGE! PLEASE!" Tony Stark screamed as Rose Waters let out a gasp of air, tears streaming down her face as she desperately shook her head over and over again.
No. No. No. No. Why was it happening all over again? Rose Waters wondered as she grabbed her hair and let out a scream. She could see Wind yelling at her, calling her a monster and for a moment, Rose Waters couldn't differ memories from reality. For a minute, she couldn't even breathe.
And Dr. Strange wasn't even saying a word, his eyes clenched shut as Peter's screams and Tony's beggings only grew louder and louder as Captain America tried to take a punch at the Titan, only to be easily pushed away by Black Dwarf, who narrowed his eyes at the soldier and growled, waiting for someone else to try to attack his leader. His father.
And at that, Rose Waters broke down and, summoning every last droplet of energy left inside of her, she forced herself to teleport towards Thanos. But even that wasn't enough to bring her all the way there, her body crumbling down barely a kilometer away from him in the midst of the wasteland that used to be gorgeous grass. Outside of the ash, fighting was still going on, a few Avengers and Wakandans still trying to hold off the incoming intruders.
But even the sound of theirs war cries didn't mask Peter's screams, which was all Rose Waters could hear. It was all she could feel.
That, and Wind's.
"No." Rose Waters whispered, her eyes wide and full of desperation as she covered her ears, but even if she teleported herself worlds upon worlds away, Rose Waters knew that she would never stop hearing his screams. "Not again." Her voice was fragile, broken. Haunted.
With weak, trembling legs, Rose Waters forced herself to get up and stumbled towards Thanos, forcing every fiber of her being to keep moving forward even though her self-preservation skills were begging her otherwise. The liquid that Proxima Midnight had shot in her was still very present in her body and Rose's perfect vision felt blurry as she used the last bits of strength in her to let out a scream.
"STOP!" But even with all of strength, she still fell down onto her knees, completely out of breath and her head spinning, and, miraculously, Peter's screams did stop.
Which only caused pure panic to fill Rose's heart as she looked up, fearing the worst only to be ultimately relieved to see Peter's trembling chest and his hand pressing against his chest, his eyes wide as they stared at her, his mouth whispering 'no'.
"Rose." A deep, cruel voice hissed as Rose Waters struggled to get up, her hands grabbing at the ground and her blood dribbling down her chin from smacking it against the ground earlier. It was the voice that Rose Waters was all too familiar with, a voice that haunted her into her misery. "Waters."
And then, purely out of instinct, Rose Waters brought her head up and looked at Thanos in the eye, her knees scrapping the ground in such a way that made one think that she was bowing to him, begging for his forgiveness. The thought actually did dance around her mind, but she shook her head.
A coward. A coward... I will not be a coward today.
"Thanos." Rose Waters replied, and, wobbly, she brought herself to her feet and held her head up high, her eyes gleaming with tears.
"I'm happy you stayed." Thanos whispered softly before he took another step her way, his fist clenched as everyone who used to be standing was forced to their knees but him and his daughter. "It would take ever so long to hunt you down."
Rose Waters didn't say a single word in response, and, instead, she just stared at him with her large, incredibly blue eyes as he continued.
"You're not running away, I'm frankly surprised." Thanos whispered as he took another step towards his daughter, causing her to jolt in her spot, but she did not fall. "Or maybe it's just because of that little gift that Proxima sent you."
Rose Waters raised her head at the Mad Titan and slowly lowered it as he went on one knee to truly look at her in the eye, his face full of nothing but cruelty and sadistic madness. "I'm afraid of you." Rose Waters whispered and sucked in a deep breath, her voice trembling. "I've been afraid of you my entire life."
"At least you're truthful." Thanos muttered back in reply as Rose Waters took a sharp breath and continued.
"I... I don't want to kill you."
"It's arrogant for you to think you can." Thanos paused and raised his hand to ever so gently stroke her smooth cheek. His fingers were rough and full of callouses against her face that it felt like he was scrapping her skin off. "Rose Waters, did I ever tell you that you were always my favorite child?"
Rose Waters had dreamed of the day when Thanos would whisper those words to her. She dreamt it and imagined it and desperately wanted it. She needed his approval, fought for it, would kill for it, which maybe wasn't saying that much. But she needed it regardless.
She had waited for those words to grace his lips her entire life, yet, when it finally happened it all felt... underwhelming.
"The past doesn't bother me, daughter." Thanos continued before he pressed his gloved fist against the ground, forcing Tony Stark to fall face first into the ground, who was trying to sneak attack him. "I can forgive and forget, especially for you." He paused as Rose Waters started to cry, tears dribbling from her eyes. This was all she wanted, this was all she needed but she felt so wrong to accept it or reject it. She couldn't win, her moral compass and loyalty wouldn't let her.
"You're still young, you can still learn to find yourself with me. I can help you, lead you, and together we can craft a good life for us. A peaceful life without any of this." He paused and wiped a tear that was streaking its way down Rose's face, his rough hands causing her skin to turn bright red at the touch.
"But... I'm going to need your absolute loyalty. No more lies. No more hesitations."
Rose Waters opened her mouth to respond, despite not even knowing which response she would even choose to that. However, before she could, Thanos continued.
"And one more thing: I'm going to need the Space Stone."
I know, I know, it's getting pretty intense!
I, honestly, really have no clue what kind of ending this story is going to have (I'm making a lot of this up as I go lol), though I do have a good feeling onto what to do. However, if you guys want to pitch in with what you think is the most 'Rose Waters' thing to do, please, please, please leave your suggestion in the reviews! I'm definitely taking all opinions into consideration (though, who knows... I might just do the opposite, muhahaha).
TLDR: What choice do you guys think Rose is going to make?
Stay safe!
~Emily :)
