a/n: well folks here we are...the end of the iw arc :o i'm still working on the endgame arc but i've got some of it done and ready to go ! i wrote a lot of this during a sudden hyperfocus burst a few weeks ago (i have a potentially undiagnosed adhd thing going on jsdfnb) but i'm trying to get back into the groove to see this story through c:

Steve arrives at the forest just in time to watch the alien stab Vision straight through with the bladed end of his staff, just like yesterday. The alien looks down at Vision, sneering.

"I thought you were formidable, machine. But you're dying, like any man." He yanks the blade out quickly and Vision collapses. He bends over Vision and sets the blade up against the Mind Stone in his forehead, ready to finish the removal.

Seeing his chance, Steve tackles the alien and holds him as they roll several feet away from Vision. When they stop, he pushes the alien away and jumps to his feet, turning back to Vision, who's still on the ground.

"Get outta here!" he yells. Behind him, the alien recovers, and swings his staff at Steve. He blocks it with his shield. "Vision, go!"

He and the alien exchange several more blows, Steve blocking the staff with his shield every time. He finally knocks the staff out of his hands completely, but the victory is short-lived, as the alien throws Steve back onto the forest floor.

Before he can recover, the alien pins him and wraps his hand around Steve's throat. Steve can't break out of his grasp despite his strength.

Suddenly, a blade appears in the alien's chest from behind. The blade lifts the alien up off Steve, revealing Vision bearing it. Vision tosses the blade and the alien's body aside, breathing heavily. Just as he starts to collapse again, Steve stands and catches him.

"I thought I told you to go," he says.

Vision just blinks. "We don't trade lives, Captain."

Natasha and Wanda finally reach the woods behind the base, locating Steve and Vision pretty quickly. The ground rumbles again as the ships that unleashed the swarm of aliens start to retreat. Natasha stops to watch them.

Wanda practically throws herself to the ground where Vision is sitting, meeting him with an aggressive hug. "Vis, are you okay?"

Steve moves to stand beside Natasha, looking up with her. "They're leaving?"

"We killed their leaders," Natasha theorizes, crossing her arms. "Something doesn't feel right."

"Maggie and the others left the bunker to help Shuri and Vision," Steve says. That pulls Natasha's eyes off the sky quickly. "They're okay, but a little banged up. I ran into them on the way here. They were going back down to the bunker when I saw them."

Natasha exhales loudly. "Good." She turns to Vision and Wanda. "We need to get him back in the lab with Shuri while we have a chance to breathe."

Vision suddenly flinches in pain in Wanda's arms. Wanda holds him more tightly. "What? What is it?"

The wind around them picks up. Vision curls his fingers around Wanda's wrist, his eyes wide.

"He's here," Vision whispers, voice quivering.

Steve and Natasha meet each other's eyes with a silent nod. "Everyone, on my position," Steve says into his comms. "We have incoming."

Within a minute, Sam, Okoye, and T'Challa respond to his call, gathering around them. Hulk joins them shortly after. Several yards away, blue-black clouds appear just several feet off the ground.

"What the hell?" Natasha asks.

Wanda quickly stands in front of Vision, gathering her red magic between her hands.

From the clouds emerges a tall figure with purple skin. Natasha quickly identifies the Infinity Stones on the newcomer's hand, all placed on a gauntlet.

At the sight, Hulk grunts quickly, looking between his teammates and the clouds. Natasha can practically hear Bruce in Hulk's voice: That's him.

"Eyes up," Steve says, solemn. Natasha can practically hear his heart beating erratically, certain it's mirroring her own. He holds up his shield, and starts to move in. "Stay sharp."

Hulk moves in front of the group, launching himself at Thanos first. Thanos easily stops him in his tracks with blue energy, sending him flying out of the forest and sailing above the base. Such a distance will no doubt turn the Hulk back into Bruce.

Thanos turns his attention to Steve, knocking him back with purple energy before he can even get close.

T'Challa's next, leaping at Thanos with claws extended. Thanos catches him by the throat like a mouse in a trap and punches T'Challa into the ground.

Sam flies in, shooting, but Thanos reduces his wings to rubber with a blast of dark purple magic.

Natasha stops to think for a moment. There's nothing she can do that will produce a different result or hinder Thanos in any way.

It's…over.

"Wanda," Vision's whisper cuts through the silence. "It's time."

Natasha turns to the couple and can already see the desperation in Wanda's eyes as she looks back at Vision.

"No," Wanda says, turning back toward Thanos.

"They can't stop him, Wanda, but we can." Vision glances at Natasha, then grabs Wanda's wrist, pulling her back toward him. "Look at me. You have the power to destroy the stone."

"Don't."

"You must do it, Wanda, please." He brings her hand to his cheek. "We are out of time."

Wanda's shaking her head. "I can't."

"Yes, you can. You can." He holds Wanda's hand up, in front of his face. "If he gets the stone, half the universe dies."

Natasha silently watches. She knows this is the only way, but her heart cries out for any other way. She can only imagine the turmoil in Wanda's own heart right now.

"It's not fair," Vision continues as Wanda hesitates. "It shouldn't be you, but it is."

Finally, Wanda's expression starts to crack. Her lips tremble.

"It's alright," Vision says, surprisingly calm. "You could never hurt me. I just feel you."

With that, Vision releases Wanda's hand, and Natasha can see the resignation in her face—the realization that this, truly, is the only way. Wanda lifts her hand slowly, shaking, and starts gathering her magic. Within moments, she's blasting Vision's head directly.

Natasha forces herself to ignore Wanda's cries as she turns her attention back to Thanos. She may not be able to stop him, but she can at least buy Wanda and Vision some time.

Rhodey flies in, showering Thanos in bullets. Thanos simply forms a fist with the gauntlet, warping the metal of Rhodey's suit in on itself, before knocking him back into the trees.

Okoye comes up beside Natasha and nods. Together, the two start to run toward Thanos. Ahead of them, Bucky charges him, yelling while firing his gun, only for Thanos to knock him back with a flick of his wrist. Okoye throws her spear toward Thanos, nearing his heart, but Thanos stops it mid-air. He knocks it and Okoye back.

Finally, Natasha's just feet away from Thanos, but he manipulates the ground around her, trapping her in a cage of tree roots.

She watches Groot stick his hands into the ground and send roots at Thanos, only for Thanos to push them away. Natasha turns her eyes back to Wanda, who's watching everyone's failures with tears streaming down her face while she continues to blast the Mind Stone. Seeing how quickly Thanos is working through the team, Wanda turns her attention fully back on Vision and sends magic from her unused hand as well, doubling the power.

Steve managed to recover from Thanos' initial attack and approaches again, dodging Thanos' fist and managing to land a punch across Thanos' jaw. Thanos brings his gauntlet-clad hand to Steve's face, but Steve stops it with his bare hands, preventing Thanos from closing his fingers. He meets Thanos' strength equally for several moments, until Thanos brings his other fist around and straight into Steve's head, knocking him back.

Only Wanda and Vision are left.

Before Natasha can call out to Wanda to warn her, Wanda looks back and realizes this herself. She brings one hand to face Thanos and keep him at bay with her magic, blasting both him and Vision equally. Thanos shields himself with the magic from the gauntlet and slowly pushes back against Wanda's magic.

"It's alright," Vision says, calmly. Wanda turns her eyes back to his, focusing solely on him. "It's alright. I love you."

Just as Thanos is about to reach Wanda, the Mind Stone finally cracks. Vision smiles and closes his eyes, at peace.

The Mind Stone explodes.

Natasha is blinded for a moment, bracing herself against the force of the explosion. When she opens her eyes, Vision is gone. Thanos approaches Wanda, who's collapsed to the ground, panting, magic flickering at her fingertips.

Thanos looks down at her, voice uncomfortably soft. "I understand, my child. Better than anyone."

Wanda slowly looks up at him, with more disgust than Natasha's ever seen on her face before. "You could never."

Thanos reaches down with his uncovered hand. His fingers curl around the back of Wanda's head. Panicked, Natasha tries to break free of the roots, but is still stuck. Thanos strokes Wanda's hair, in some twisted display of comfort.

"Today, I lost more than you can know," he says. He lets go of her hand and stands up straight. "But now is no time to mourn."

He walks around Wanda, moving to the spot where Vision sat moments before.

"Now…is no time at all."

He forms a fist in the gauntlet. The green stone on his thumb glows.

The green stone...the Time Stone. Realization hits Natasha too, too late.

He opens his hand and sends green magic to where Vision once sat, forming a yellow light. Wanda pushes herself up just enough to turn around and look. Natasha can see the same realization finally hit her.

The light turns into Vision, fully intact with the Mind Stone.

"No!" Wanda screams, lunging for Vision, but Thanos swats her away like a bug with his other hand.

Natasha watches in horror as Thanos picks Vision up by the throat and plucks the Mind Stone from his head. Vision barely has time to react before his body goes slack, losing all color. Thanos tosses him aside like a piece of garbage and attaches the Mind Stone to his gauntlet. Power surges through his veins. Natasha pushes back against her prison once more, with all her might, finally feeling it start to give.

Thanos looks down at the gauntlet, proud, when he's suddenly struck by a bolt of lightning. With it comes Thor, flying down from the sky with Stormbreaker.

Thor hurls Stormbreaker straight at Thanos, who tries to resist it with a beam of energy from the gauntlet, but Stormbreaker overpowers the Infinity Stones and lodges itself directly into Thanos' chest.

Successful, Thor lands in front of Thanos.

"I told you…" Thor says, panting. "You'd die for that."

He pushes Stormbreaker deeper into Thanos' chest, staring directly into his eyes. Thanos cries out in pain.

"You…You should…" Thanos whispers, as the life starts to fade from his eyes. "You should have gone for the head."

He raises the gauntlet. Thor looks on in horror. Natasha finally breaks free from the roots and runs for Thanos and Thor.

Thanos snaps his fingers as Thor yells, "NO!"

Maggie and the adults move much slower through the base than they did before, due to everyone's injuries. Her arm's throbbing at this point, so Maggie just closes her eyes and tries to think about anything else.

A tense silence hangs over their group like a storm cloud. Maggie can only guess as to what is going through everyone's minds—between their encounter with Steve, their failed attempt to separate Vision and the Mind Stone, whether everyone fighting outside is even still alive...

May suddenly stops as they pass a window, the first to speak in several minutes. "Hey, look."

They all stop to look outside. The swarming aliens are just...gone, leaving everyone standing around.

"We…won?" Pepper says in disbelief.

Maggie looks closer. Everyone outside just seems confused. "Nobody looks happy about it."

Suddenly, a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent outside disappears into thin air before her eyes.

The gauntlet is completely scorched, the sizzling of Thanos' flesh underneath filling the otherwise silent forest.

Thor looks at the gauntlet, then at Thanos.

"What'd you do?" he asks, with a horrified quiet.

Thanos doesn't answer, simply meeting Thor's eyes.

"WHAT'D YOU DO?"

Rather than answer, Thanos brings the gauntlet up and uses it to disappear back into the same blue-black clouds he initially came from. In his absence, Stormbreaker falls to the ground, stained purple with Thanos' blood.

Natasha finally reaches Thor's side. They look at each other, at a loss for words. Steve approaches them, holding his side.

"Where'd he go?" he asks. "Thor…where'd he go?"

"Steve?"

They all turn at Bucky's call, only to find his arm...turning to dust. Within moments, the rest of his body turns to dust as well, and he…disintegrates.

He's just. Gone.

Steve hurries to the spot where Bucky once stood, feeling the ground his ashes dissolved into.

Bucky is gone.

T'Challa starts to help Okoye up. "Up, General. Up! This is no place to die."

She takes his hand, which suddenly turns to dust. As it disappears, she falls back to the ground, watching him disappear in horror. She stands up and calls for him.

T'Challa is gone.

Groot fades away in front of Rocket.

"No, no, no!" Rocket reaches for Groot. "Groot! No!"

Groot is gone.

Daisy watches as S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, wizards, and Wakandans fade away before her eyes.

She turns back to Clint, Fury, and Hill. "What's happening?"

Suddenly, Hill's hands start turning to dust. "Nick?"

"Hill!" He watches as she fades away, then looks to Daisy and Clint.

"Fury…what is this?" Clint asks.

Rather than answer, Fury fishes an old pager from his pockets. He sends out an emergency alert on it, then shoves it into Daisy's hands.

"What—" She looks at him with wide eyes.

"You're the director now." Fury's hands are already gone. "Oh, no, motherf—"

He fades before he finishes his words. Daisy and Clint stare at each other, bewildered.

Fury and Hill are gone.

Forgoing the bunker, the group hurries outside to see what's happening, and witness several more people turning to dust.

"What the hell happened?" May demands. "What is this?"

"Is that gonna happen to us?" Maggie can't hide the fear in her voice.

Pepper holds her more tightly. Maggie can feel her arms shaking. "I don't…know."

Coulson and May step in front of them to get a closer look.

Then May's arms start turning to ash.

"May!" Maggie screams, nearly falling out of Pepper's arms as she squirms to reach out to May.

Coulson barely has time to react, as he suddenly meets the same fate. He collapses as all his limbs start to disintegrate, and then he's gone.

Coulson and May are both gone.

"No…" Maggie cries, looking at the spot they once stood in disbelief. She looks up at Pepper. "Auntie Pep."

Pepper sets her down on the ground gently, then retracts the suit back into the device on her chest. She sits down and pulls Maggie into her lap, despite Maggie's near-teenage size. Pepper shushes her as she cries, rubbing the back of Maggie's head.

"It's okay, we're okay," Pepper murmurs into her ear, her voice shaking with her own tears. "We're okay."

Are they next?

Steve rolls Vision's discolored body over, then sits back in defeat. Wanda sits on the other side of Vision, sobbing into her hands. He looks up at Natasha. Everyone who remains gathers around them.

"What is this?" Rhodey asks. "What the hell is happening?"

"He did it," Thor says, quiet.

"Oh, God," Steve says.

Natasha blinks.

Then Steve's arms start to turn to dust.

"No, no—" She reaches for him, only to see her own hands disappearing.

They look at each other. Mortified.

"Steve? Nat!" Wanda cries out, reaching for both of them, but it's too late.

Steve and Natasha are gone.

a/n: hey squad how we vibin :)