Author's Note: Ooookay, so I know I said that I would try to post Monday, and it's Tuesday. 10:03 PM Tuesday to be exact. So, I might be a tinsy bit late?
Tony: You are a horrible person.
Thank you, Tony. That really helps...this is not the last chapter, but the next one is! :( But, it has been quite the adventure with all of you! :) I hope the ending is everything you wanted and more! You are all amazing! Enjoy!
Chapter 41: Infinity
Power exploded out of you in waves of deep, purple light. The energy floods from you like water exploding out of a broken dam.
You gasp in air at the sheer force of the Infinity Stone. The ground underneath you crack with an ear-splitting snap. Purple light shines from cracks. Had you not been using the Stone, you would have been blinded by the light. But the light is coming from you, just like the waves from the Power Stone are also coming from you.
Your eyes are piercing purple, and amethyst mists in front of your face as you breath. Glowing strands of purple wrap around your fingers before flowing to the ground.
Everything pulses with Power, almost overwhelming you.
You close your eyes and grit your teeth.
Get control, get control!
With another surge of energy, you almost fall to your knees. You feel the intensity churning inside of you. It doesn't hurt, but you can feel the Power Stone feeding off of your own energy.
Anchor
The word breaks through the haze of purple, reminding you that you need to hold onto something. Not something physical, but something to mentally strengthen you. What could be powerful enough to hold you down when power is bursting around you?
You then look up and see several outlines of purple. Inside the outlines are what look like stars. Then, you realize that each of the outlines look like people. The Avengers. Your friends.
Your anchor.
Even though none of the silhouettes have any defining features, you can tell which Avenger is which. Not only can you see them there, but you can feel them. You can feel the energy from their heart pumping blood through their veins. You can feel the energy as they nervously shift. The dome of power seems to have stopped right in front of them, but you can still feel the energy around them. Then, you realize that you can feel the energy of everyone.
Every single person in the world is beating with energy that you can feel. You can feel them walking, breathing, sleeping, or just living.
Then, you feel your consciousness widening out beyond just earth. You can sense every atom surging with heat from the sun.
"Focus!" you tell yourself, looking at the Avengers.
They need you, but they are also here for you. Everything you have done, you did it for them. Watching the movies, waiting for them, all of it. You can do this for them too.
Focusing on the Avengers, you make the Power Stone's rhythm beat to the rhythm you feel from the Avengers. The Power Stone fights back, trying to gain control.
"I'm not giving up," you say, forcing the energy away from you. The purple energy swirling around you backs away a few inches. A flash of ice suddenly spurts away from your fingers.
You are gaining control, and you can't help but smile.
"Come on," you say. Purple slowly fades from your eyes as ice sparks over your fingers. You picture the Avengers in your mind, and ice suddenly swirls around your hands. You can suddenly think as you remember your friends. You feel separated from the Power Stone but still in control.
The ice from your hands flows over the purple energy, pushing it back several more feet. Now, you can feel the energy moving in the direction you want it to go. It is responding directly to you.
Taking a deep breath, all of the energy and ice swirl together before dispersing like glittering dust.
"One down, five to go," you say right before a wave of goldish light almost knocks you backwards.
You blink, controlling your breathing, but there isn't as much power coming from this Stone. But your mind feels heavy as knowledge seems to weigh it down. You suddenly know everything about anyone. There is still a ball of gold light surrounding you, and golden dust flickers through your veins, making them glow. But now, you seem to understand living things on a different level. The Soul Stone is less of a powerful, energy source and more like a catalog. You can see whoever you want, know their lives and everything else about them. Without you even noticing what is happening, you are feeling every living thing ever. All throughout time and space, you know every living creature. With the Power Stone, you could slowly feel the energy emanating off of them, but now, you automatically knew everyone. Your mind is buzzing with all of the information, and you groan as you press your fingers to your temples.
Then, suddenly, you feel something else. People are dying...But not the lived-and-died sort of way. These are the people who died to get the Stones. Gamora and Natasha. The only people ever to have been sacrificed for the Stone. You feel as their deaths awaken the Soul Stone, and you press your hands to your mouth. You don't want to feel that. Everything you did with the Stones was to prevent that. You feel the other Stones through the Soul Stone. You feel their aggravation when Thanos uses them. You feel Bruce and Tony when they used the Stones, and even Clint when he held it for just the briefest of moments. Everything is swirling by too quickly.
You look up at the Avengers through the yellow mist, and you focus on them. You suddenly feel as though you have taken a step back from the rest of the world and are now able to see just the Avengers. It is almost like having a million internet tabs open and chose simply one to look at. You feel as though something has clicked into place, and you can suddenly choose who you want to see through the stone as easily as flipping a page in a phone book. The Soul Stone is at your disposal.
You smile slightly at your success, but you already feel the next Stone pulsing to life inside of you. A pained look crosses your face. Your breathing is already heavy, and you feel exhausted. You want to stop, to take a break, but you already feel the next Stone's power bubbling up inside of you. "Okay," you say to yourself, "Tesseract."
You spread your arms, and blue light flickers all around you, swirling into a portal of pure light. You float a few inches above the surging mass of teleportation energy. This Stone has much more power than the Soul Stone, but it is also very similar to that Gem as well. Instead of sensing people, you sense everywhere all at once. Every inch of the entire universe is right under your toes. You have the power to go where ever you want. You feel two points in space pulling together to connected into a portal. The immense strength of the Stone to have that ability almost overwhelms you. You feel stretched as though the Stone is trying to pull you to everywhere.
"I want to stay here!" you shout, as energy crackles over your skin. The potential for anywhere. You even feel different dimensions squeezing together as though you are the center of gravity for everything. The portal beneath you throws out waves of energy that pool out around it. You remember every detail of the Avengers Complex, every blade of grass, every brick, every piece of gravel. All of this is amplified by the Stone, allowing you to get every detail of the Complex. You focus with all of your might on not moving; staying right where you are. The portal beneath you slowly sucks back into itself as though collapsing, and the blue light fades from your eyes. You almost feel as though an understanding has passed between you and the Stone.
You don't even have a chance of staying focused in this time before green light erupts around you, swirling clockwise. The energy almost knocks you off of your feet. You barely are able to stand, and the energy around you is too loud, to strong, and you are so tired. But, you keep fighting. Now, you can sense every time and timeline. You feel a single string of time stretching onward, but you can't quite feel where it ends. Along with it, you feel other strands, intertwining with this one but never touching it. Millions of timelines all weaving together to form the fabric of time. Every timeline is one set string that is already created. The string can vibrate or change direction, but it is all within the confinements of the timeline. You grasp desperately to this single timeline. However, time seems to shake around you, and two timelines almost collide.
It is then that you remember that you created the other timeline also using the Time Stone. Time twists, trying to back to the original timeline. Everything rewinds and unfolds, and you see the chard battle ground with ash flowing in the wind. You close your eyes, gritting your teeth. You are not going to let this happen again. You reset timelines, and you can pull time back again. Green light flashes around you as you pull time back forward again, moving in the direction you need it to go. That timeline doesn't exist anymore. You changed it into this new one.
"This is the right timeline," you say right as you reach your own timeline. Everything suddenly snaps into place, and you can feel that the timeline is set. You gently dip into the Time Stone's power, and you feel that it has relented to your created time stream. There is no changing it now.
Almost immediately, more blue light surges around you, but this one is different from the others. You are the Mind Stone, and this time, you have to control yourself. You feel the energy bursting out of you, getting stronger and stronger. Your eyes glow brightly, and blue light lifts your hair above your head. Fire flickers through the light, followed by ice, and plant and the rest of your powers all caused by the Infinity Stone. You seem to feel everything at once as all of your powers cascade around you. You know exactly what everyone is thinking and how their mind works. A million thoughts cloud your head, but your stretch out your hand towards the Avengers. You can see the blue light flickering from them, and the energy swirls around your hand as things seem to slow almost to a stop. You smile at them gently as you feel their thoughts.
Steve is literally praying that you will be all right. Over and over again, he pleads that you won't get hurt.
Loki is ready to jump into the chaos and use his magic to help you.
Thor is thinking about how much lightning to use to overpower the energy without hurting you.
Tony's mind is whirling so fast that you almost don't catch the thoughts of energy stabilizers he is thinking up.
Fenris paws the ground nervously, and you just feel how afraid he is.
Natasha and Clint are simply ready to jump in and grab your hands.
Bruce's thoughts confuse you. You see two streams of thoughts from him, one calculating the amount of energy needed to counteract the wall of power surging around you. The other is a surging, chaotic mass of turbulent thoughts. This half of him is ready to pound against the energy surrounding you until he gets to you and can protect you from danger.
A tear, churning with blue light, slips down your cheek as you hear their selfless thoughts. You can do this for them.
You turn your head away from them to see the power swirling around you in an explosive dome. You turn your hand towards it, focusing on stopping it. Ice shoots from your hand, and fire flickers as the energy slows. The energy spins faster, and every muscle in your body tightens to resist the flow.
You suddenly feel Steve's thoughts burst through the millions of others.
Please let her be okay. Come back to us, Y/N.
Suddenly, everything freezes and your mind goes silent except for Steve's thoughts. Then, the sound picks up again as the mass of power starts swirling backwards and shrinking. You can feel it relenting to you, and you then have complete control. It flows perfectly with you and not against you.
Before you can celebrate your victory, red explodes everywhere, bursting through the Avengers and out of the complex. Red energy encases everything, and the complex begins dissolving into scarlet dust. You look around in horror as the kitchen crumbles into nothing. You look at your hands to see that your skin is the same color as the Stone, as though you are standing under a red light. More energy seeps out of you, fueling the swirling mass of power as it eats away your home. The energy is suddenly attacking the Complex, destroying everything.
The Avengers are bent double as though trying to push past hurricane winds, but the dust doesn't hurt them. It clouds around them, and soon, you can't even see them through the explosive energy. Worst of all, you feel the tempest raging inside of you, threatening to consume you. It's too much.
"No, stop!" you shout, and you feel the Stone trying to take over. Suddenly, liquid that looks like melting rubies drains away from you before swirling in a large circle. Bright, white light spews through the liquid as it spirals open to reveal…your house.
Everything inside of you seems to have lurched to a stop at the familiar home. Standing in front of your house is your family, looking at you lovingly.
"Mom?" you ask, blinking back tears as the woman smiles kindly at you. She nods, her hair flowing around her face as she does.
The only thing not bathed in blood-red lighting is this other world, which you long to see. You want so badly to run over to your family and sink into their embrace, to come back home.
You stand there, half of you washed in white light that comes from the clear, colorful portal, and half dyed red from the scarlet mist swirling around everything else. The portal looks like the eye of a boiling, red hurricane. The greens of the trees and grass, the color of your house, your family's faces, it all looks so clear and bright. The sea of violent red energy courses around you, threatening to drown you within its depths, and the portal is the only calm.
And you are right in the middle of it.
You feel the weight of everything on your shoulders. All of this power that you can't even hope to control. All of the missing memories. How can you handle it all? How can you be expected to ever be this in control? How can you be an Avenger?
Then, a voice, muffled by the crashing energy, seeps through the fog. You can barely hear it, and it doesn't even sound like English. But then, it becomes clearer, and you see a figure fighting to trudge through the energy to get to you.
You then make out Steve, bracing himself against the storm as he stomps forward. His steps seem heavy with effort as he drags himself torwards you.
"Y/N!" he calls. "You can do it! Come back to us! We need you!"
Your breathing is ragged as the energy tears away at you, and the only relief comes from the swirling portal. You feel like collapsing and letting it all go. You just want to roll over. Each Stone that you had to control wore you down more and more until you feel like passing out. You are drained, but when you look at Steve, you suddenly can see all of the years on his face. He has lived through many hardships, lost everyone twice, and lost one life. He looks more tired and worn down than you are, but he stays standing. "Don't loose yourself!" he pleads, looking into your eyes. "Don't loose yourself," he says again, softer this time.
You feel like breaking, but you can't. Steve needs you. The Avengers need you. This world needs you. Right now, that is all that matters. You need an anchor, and you have the perfect one in mind.
Taking a deep breath as though you are about to plunge into a pool, you set your jaw and stand straighter. Scrunching up your face, you stretch your hand out towards the portal, extending your other arm towards the Avengers.
With a grunt, ice bursts from your fingers, shooting straight towards the portal before clashing with the red energy. The scarlet liquid peels away from the portal and explodes against the ice, forcing you back a step.
Groaning with effort and determination, you flex your fingers and fire shoots out of your palm, adding to the ice. Next, vines burst out of the ground next to your feet. The ground beneath you cracks as an avalanche explodes out of the ground and crashes against the portal. All of your elemental powers strike against the Reality Stones, creating a thunder-cloud of elemental and Infinity energy. Red lightning crackles around the storm as elements and energy are flung away from the force.
Turning your head to look at your other hand, you focus on the red energy as it dissolves everything else around you. It suddenly jerks back to you, flowing both towards and against you. The energy battles itself as you call it away. Gritting your teeth, you push yourself harder. You can now see the Avengers as you create safety bubbles around them.
You feel the strain of using all the elements and the Reality Stone against the Reality Stone.
You almost fall to your knees, but you force yourself to stay standing.
"Y/N," a soft voice says. It echoes all around you as though the energy itself is speaking.
You look around for a moment before you see your mother standing at the brink of the portal as the elements clash.
"Mom," you whisper, feeling heaviness weigh down on you.
"Sweety," she says, walking forward a few steps without leaving the portal. "You've been through so much. You've held on to it all. You've seen so much hurt."
She reaches out a hand and brushes it against your cheek. She's right, and a few tears slip down your face at the realization.
"Let go," she says, wiping one away. "It's okay. You don't have to hold onto any of this anymore."
You give her a faint smile, but then, not even realizing it, you look around and see the Avengers standing there, all looking right at you. You remember Thor cooking, looking at Steve's journal, helping Tony in the lab, watching movies with them, waking up in the middle of the night only for Steve to comfort you, serving them all ice cream, icing Peter to the counter while you were webbed across from him, learning about all of them, and growing a friendship. You softly smile at them, feeling more at ease than you ever have been. You look back to your mother, looking up at her lovingly.
"I love you, Mom," you say. "But it's worth it."
Your mom frowns slightly in confusion. "Is it?" she asks.
You nod. "All of it. All of the pain and heart ache that has ever happened, I would live it all again just to have one day with them."
That's it: your anchor. Not the Avengers themselves, but the feeling of living without them. The love you felt every time you plugged a Marvel movie. The excitement you felt talking about them, the anguish you endured while watching their deaths. But every time you watched them, you felt them. You knew that they were there, waiting for you. Always.
Your mother looks you up and down one last time before nodding. She slowly backs away, and you stretch your arm out farther. Blue, orange, and green energy add to the elementals, beating back the scarlet portal.
The wind from the force of it all blows your hair out of your face, and your eyes suddenly glow like a kaleidoscope as all of the Infinity Stones course through you. Light surges down your arm, joining with the elements as it blows the portal back, while you keep the Avenger's safe with your other hand.
Colorful light bursts along the sphere of the portal, and the red liquid slowly starts to shrink the portal.
Groaning in concentration, you send one last burst of elemental and Infinity energy floods towards the portal, colliding with it in an explosion.
For a moment, red flashes through you right before you, and the Avengers are blown back by the force. The ground cracks and all of the windows and glass in the complex shatters.
You lay on the ground, dazed for a moment as you slowly blink your eyes open. You shove yourself to a sitting position to see the red swirling liquid. On the other side, your family stands, and your mother gives you a soft smile before the portal spirals close, leaving nothing behind but a faint trail of smoke.
You let out a shaky breath. You bring your palm up in front of your face, and scarlet water flows around your fingers before disappearing, responding completely to your command.
You've mastered all of the Infinity Stones.
It's over.